Colleges of the University of Oxford
The University of Oxford has 36 colleges, three societies, and four permanent private halls (PPHs) of religious foundation.
Generally tutorials (one of the main methods of teaching in Oxford) and classes are the responsibility of colleges, while lectures, examinations, laboratories, and the central library are run by the university.
[2] For graduate students, many colleges express a preference for candidates who plan to undertake research in an area of interest of one of its fellows.
College buildings range from medieval to modern, but most are made up of interlinked quadrangles or courtyards, with a porter's lodge controlling entry from the outside.
[9] The collegiate system arose because Oxford University came into existence through the gradual agglomeration of numerous independent institutions.
The modern Dominican permanent private hall of Blackfriars (1921) is a descendant of the original (1221), and is sometimes described as heir to the oldest tradition of teaching in Oxford.
As the university took shape, friction between the hundreds of students living where and how they pleased led to a decree that all undergraduates would have to reside in approved halls.
Often generously endowed and with permanent teaching staff, the colleges were originally the preserve of graduate students.
In 1974 the first men's colleges to admit women were Brasenose, Hertford, Jesus, St Catherine's and Wadham.
[16] The Universities Tests Act 1871 opened all university degrees and positions to men who were not members of the Church of England (subject to safeguards for religious instruction and worship), which made it possible for Catholics and Non-conformists to open private halls.
[58] Individual college endowments ranged from £1.2m (Green Templeton) to £577.6 million (Christ Church).
[65] The table below exhibits the offer rates for postgraduate applications across each college over multiple academic years.
[66] For some years, an unofficial ranking of undergraduate colleges by performance in Final Honour Schools examinations, known as the Norrington Table, was published annually.
As the table only took into account the examination results for the year of publication, college rankings could fluctuate considerably.
Dame Fiona Caldicott, the Chairman of the Conference of Colleges, said that in previous years some students had used the Data Protection Act 1998 to ensure their results were not published, rendering the unofficial tables inaccurate.
