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                               OXFORD UNIVERSITY

The University of Oxford (informally Oxford University or simply Oxford) is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England, United Kingdom. While having no known date of foundation, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096,[1] making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world’s second-oldest surviving university.[1][8] It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris.[1] After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled northeast to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge.[9] The two «ancient universities» are frequently jointly referred to as «Oxbridge«.

The university is made up of a variety of institutions, including 38 constituent colleges and a full range of academic departments which are organised into four divisions.[10] All the colleges are self-governing institutions as part of the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities.[11] Being a city university, it does not have a main campus; instead, all the buildings and facilities are scattered throughout the city centre. Most undergraduate teaching at Oxford is organised around weekly tutorials at the self-governing colleges and halls, supported by classes, lectures and laboratory work provided by university faculties and departments.

Oxford is the home of several notable scholarships, including the Clarendon Scholarship which was launched in 2001[12] and the Rhodes Scholarship which has brought graduate students to study at the university for more than a century.[13] The university operates the largest university press in the world[14] and the largest academic library system in Britain.[15] Oxford has educated many notable alumni, including 27 Nobel laureates, 26Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, and many heads of state from around the world.

he University of Oxford has no known foundation date.[17] Teaching at Oxford existed in some form as early as 1096, but it is unclear when a university came into being.[1] It grew quickly in 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris.[1] The historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188 and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university was named a chancellor from at least 1201 and the masters were recognised as a universitas or corporation in 1231. The university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III.[18]

After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence to Cambridge, later forming the University of Cambridge.

The students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two «nations«, representing the North (Northern or Boreales, which included the English people north of theRiver Trent and the Scots) and the South (Southern or Australes, which included English people south of the Trent, the Irish and the Welsh).[20][21] In later centuries, geographical origins continued to influence many students’ affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. In addition to this, members of many religious orders, includingDominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians, settled in Oxford in the mid-13th century, gained influence and maintained houses or halls for students.[22] At about the same time, private benefactors established colleges to serve as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowedUniversity College,[22] and John Balliol, father of a future King of Scots; Balliol College bears his name.[20] Another founder, Walter de Merton, a Lord Chancellor of England and afterwardsBishop of Rochester, devised a series of regulations for college life;[23][24] Merton College thereby became the model for such establishments at Oxford,[25] as well as at the University of Cambridge. Thereafter, an increasing number of students forsook living in halls and religious houses in favour of living in colleges.[22]

In 1333–34, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III. Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London; thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, which was unusual in western European countries.

The students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two «nations«, representing the North (Northern or Boreales, which included the English people north of theRiver Trent and the Scots) and the South (Southern or Australes, which included English people south of the Trent, the Irish and the Welsh).[20][21] In later centuries, geographical origins continued to influence many students’ affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. In addition to this, members of many religious orders, includingDominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians, settled in Oxford in the mid-13th century, gained influence and maintained houses or halls for students.[22] At about the same time, private benefactors established colleges to serve as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowedUniversity College,[22] and John Balliol, father of a future King of Scots; Balliol College bears his name.[20] Another founder, Walter de Merton, a Lord Chancellor of England and afterwardsBishop of Rochester, devised a series of regulations for college life;[23][24] Merton College thereby became the model for such establishments at Oxford,[25] as well as at the University of Cambridge. Thereafter, an increasing number of students forsook living in halls and religious houses in favour of living in colleges.[22]

In 1333–34, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III.[26] Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London; thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, which was unusual in western European countries.

The students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two «nations«, representing the North (Northern or Boreales, which included the English people north of theRiver Trent and the Scots) and the South (Southern or Australes, which included English people south of the Trent, the Irish and the Welsh).[20][21] In later centuries, geographical origins continued to influence many students’ affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. In addition to this, members of many religious orders, includingDominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians, settled in Oxford in the mid-13th century, gained influence and maintained houses or halls for students.[22] At about the same time, private benefactors established colleges to serve as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowedUniversity College,[22] and John Balliol, father of a future King of Scots; Balliol College bears his name. Another founder, Walter de Merton, a Lord Chancellor of England and afterwardsBishop of Rochester, devised a series of regulations for college life; Merton College thereby became the model for such establishments at Oxford,[25] as well as at the University of Cambridge. Thereafter, an increasing number of students forsook living in halls and religious houses in favour of living in colleges.

In 1333–34, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III. Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London; thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, which was unusual in western European countries.

Administrative reforms during the 19th century included the replacement of oral examinations with written entrance tests, greater tolerance for religious dissent, and the establishment of four women’s colleges. 20th-century Privy Council decisions (e.g. the abolition of compulsory daily worship, dissociation of the Regius Professorship of Hebrew from clerical status, diversion of colleges’ theological bequests to other purposes) loosened the link with traditional belief and practice. Furthermore, although the university’s emphasis traditionally had been on classical knowledge, its curriculum expanded in the course of the 19th century to encompass scientific and medical studies. Knowledge of Ancient Greek was required for admission until 1920, and Latin until 1960.

The University of Oxford began to award doctorates in the first third of the 20th century. The first Oxford DPhil in mathematics was awarded in 1921.

At the start of 1914 the university housed approximately three thousand undergraduates and about 100 postgraduate students. The First World War saw many undergraduates and fellows join the armed forces. By 1918 virtually all fellows were in uniform and the student population in residence was reduced to 12 per cent.The University Roll of Service records that, in total, 14,792 members of the university served in the war, with 2,716 (18.36 per cent) killed.During the war years the deserted university buildings became hospitals, cadet schools and military training camps.

The mid-20th century saw many distinguished continental scholars, displaced by Nazism and communism, relocating to Oxford.

The list of distinguished scholars at the University of Oxford is long and includes many who have made major contributions to British politics, the sciences, medicine, and literature. More than 50 Nobel laureates and more than 50 world leaders have been affiliated with the University of Oxford.

                       OXFORD UNIVERSITY PHOTOS

            OXFORD PROFESSORS

Professor Steven Balbus is Savilian Professor of Astronomy and Head of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford. Steven Balbus is distinguished for studies of astrophysical fluids. He demonstrated that a seed magnetic field in a rotating, conducting fluid makes the flow turbulent, thus solving the old puzzle of how accretion discs work. He showed that when the magnetic Prandtl number is near unity, an accretion disc can enter a limit cycle in which periods of high and low viscosity alternate, as in compact X-ray sources. He showed that restriction of heat conduction to magnetic field lines creates buoyant instabilities. Using ‘residual entropy’ he gained insight into the Sun’s convective zone and analytic fits to the results of helioseismology.

Professor Martin Bridson is Whitehead Professor of Pure Mathematics and Head of the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford. Martin Bridson has played a leading role in establishing Geometric Group Theory as a major field. He was an ICM Speaker (2006) and Abel Lecturer (2009). His monograph with Haefliger is the authoritative text on spaces of non-positive curvature. By developing numerous geometric techniques, Bridson provided deep insights into the nature of the word problem for finitely presented groups. Following his profound study of non-positive curvature in group theory, he solved (with Grunewald) Grothendieck’s problems concerning profinite completions and representations of groups. He has proved remarkable structure theorems for residually-free groups.

Professor Bill David is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford. Bill David is distinguished as a leader in the experimental, computational and theoretical development of neutron and X-ray powder diffraction techniques, and has made substantial contributions across a broad range of materials research from lithium batteries and high-temperature superconductors to fullerenes and pharmaceutical compounds. He has pioneered the field of time-of-flight neutron powder diffraction and is a key figure in establishing powder diffraction as a routine technique for the structure determination of molecular compounds. His materials research focuses on low-carbon chemical energy storage with the discovery of new hydrogen storage systems and the development of ammonia as an energy vector.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy is Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. Marcus du Sautoy is distinguished both as one of science’s most successful ambassadors, communicating the importance, excitement and relevance of both mathematics and science to the general public, both in the UK and worldwide, and for his outstanding research straddling many different areas of mathematics: group theory, number theory, model theory, algebraic geometry. His public engagement work has involved best-selling books, extensive TV, radio and personal appearances worldwide, writing and acting in a mathematical play, children’s literature, gaming and charitable work. Among other achievements, his research has completely transformed the study of zeta functions of groups, revealing hidden depths and unexpected applications.

Professor Artur Ekert  is Professor of Quantum Physics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford. Artur Ekert is one of the pioneers of quantum information science. His invention of entanglement-based quantum cryptography a quarter of a century ago triggered an explosion of research efforts worldwide and continues to inspire new research directions. As well as making the celebrated discovery that Bell’s inequalities can be used to test for eavesdropping, he has contributed to many of the most important advances in the foundations and experimental realisations of quantum communication and computation. He has played a leading role in transforming the field of quantum information science from a niche academic activity into a vibrant interdisciplinary field.

Professor Antony Galione is Chair of Pharmacology and Head of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford. Antony Galione is distinguished for his pioneering work that has transformed our understanding of calcium signalling pathways. His innovative research has established the concept of multiple calcium mobilizing messengers, and identified their target channels and organelles. He established that cyclic ADP-ribose regulates calcium-induced calcium release and globalization of calcium signals, and that NAADP is a ubiquitous trigger for initiating and coordinating calcium signals. By developing novel pharmacological, molecular and physiological approaches, he has demonstrated that these novel messengers selectively control many fundamental cellular processes. His discovery of lysosomes as calcium stores mobilized by NAADP, has identified an entirely new signalling role for these organelles in health and disease.

Professor Gil McVean is Professor of Statistical Genetics and Director of the Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery at the University of Oxford. Gil McVean is distinguished for research into the nature and causes of molecular genetic variation. He developed a sophisticated, and now widely-used, statistical method for estimating fine-scale recombination rates from data documenting genetic variation. McVean produced the first fine-scale genetic maps of the human genome, and with collaborators identified a DNA sequence motif associated with hotspots (the first in any species) and the gene binding the motif. He has made substantial contributions to coalescent theory, and to our understanding of mutation and natural selection, and played a central role in the HapMap and 1,000 Genomes projects.

Professor Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said: ‘Election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society is an honour awarded to the very best scientists in the country. To have seven Fellows elected from Oxford this year is a towering achievement and testament to the depth and range of the university’s scientific and medical research. I know I speak for our entire community when I congratulate each of the new Fellows and take pride in this well deserved recognition.