[10] The college is associated with a number of influential people, including Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson, Bill and Chelsea Clinton, Neil Gorsuch, Stephen Hawking, C. S. Lewis, V. S. Naipaul, Robert Reich, William Beveridge, Bob Hawke, Robert Cecil, Tom Hooper, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

He bequeathed money to support ten or twelve masters of arts studying divinity, and a property which became known as Aula Universitatis (University Hall) was bought in 1253.

[citation needed] The college acquired four properties on its current site south of the High Street in 1332 and 1336 and built a quadrangle in the 15th century.

The award recognises the engagement of the college community, unique newspaper format, forward-thinking use of social media and the collaborative working between staff and students.

SCHOLAR – Benedictus sit Deus in donis suis.RESPONSE – Et sanctus in omnibus operibus suis.SCHOLAR – Adiutorium nostrum in Nomine Domini.RESPONSE – Qui fecit coelum et terram.SCHOLAR – Sit Nomen Domini benedictum.RESPONSE – Ab hoc tempore usque in saecula.SCHOLAR – Domine Deus, Resurrectio et Vita credentium, Qui semper es laudandus tam in viventibus quam in defunctis, gratias Tibi agimus pro omnibus Fundatoribus caeterisque Benefactoribus nostris, quorum beneficiis hic ad pietatem et ad studia literarum alimur: Te rogantes ut nos, hisce Tuis donis ad Tuam gloriam recte utentes, una cum iis ad vitam immortalem perducamur.

Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum.RESPONSE - Amen.SCHOLAR — Deus det vivis gratiam, defunctis requiem: Ecclesiae, Regi, Regnoque nostro, pacem et concordiam: et nobis peccatoribus vitam aeternam.RESPONSE - Amen.

SCHOLAR — Let God be blessed in his gifts.RESPONSE — And holy in all his works.SCHOLAR — Our help is in the Name of the Lord.RESPONSE — Who has made heaven and earth.SCHOLAR — May the Name of the Lord be blessed.RESPONSE — From this time for evermore.SCHOLAR — Lord God, the resurrection and the life of them that believe, who are always to be praised both among the living and among the dead, we give You thanks for all our founders and other benefactors, by whose gifts we are nourished here for piety and the study of letters; asking You that we, using these Your gifts rightly to Your glory, may be led together with them into eternal life.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.RESPONSE — Amen.SCHOLAR — May God grant to the living grace, and to the dead rest; to the Church, the King, and our realm, peace and concord; and to us sinners everlasting life.RESPONSE — Amen.

Other heads of state and government to have attended Univ include Edgar Whitehead (Rhodesia), Kofi Abrefa Busia (Ghana), and Festus Mogae (Botswana).

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Robert Cecil studied law at the college, similarly U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch received a DPhil in law as a Marshall Scholar,[25] while former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Bernard W. Rogers read Philosophy, Politics and Economics as a Rhodes Scholar, and former Court of Justice of the European Communities Judge Sir David Edward read Classics.

It was due to the college's lack of a mathematics fellow (this is no longer the case) that Stephen Hawking read a natural sciences degree and ended up specialising in physics.