Education at Oxford University

Education at Oxford

Oxford, a town that produced twenty-four prime ministers, gave Birth to Alice, and makes the best marmalad in England, was probably started by Sir Edward the Elder in A.D. 912. Oxford became one of the trading centres of the upper Thames district.(Britannica, 1968, 10) It had to resists lots of attacks during the 10th and 11th century. Oxford, the medieval city was very similar to other provincial market towns with great abbeys in its neighbourhood, but in the second half of the 12th century the university began, and in the following century the first colleges were built.

Oxford is located North West of London, the capital of England and the probably most powerful city on the British Islands. The county town of Oxfordshire, is know for a cathedral city and as a seat of a university. The actual population as found in the “Enciclopedia Britannica” is estimated at about over 150 thousend inhabitants including arround 12 thousend university students. (Britannica, 1968, 10) Especially during the 19th century Oxford’s population doubled within few years from 12 thousend to over 28 thousend people. (Briggs, 1994, 215) Oxford is known as the “City of Spires”, (Britannica 1968, 10), because of the beautiful skyline of its Gothic towers and spires as seen from the nearby hills.

Oxford is also know for its educational improvements during all the years and so it’s very important to take a look at its first schools, which were probably monastery schools. Each monastery had its own little “Church-School”, first known as the Sunday-School, which taught young kids who wanted to study theologie and become a priest, the Latin alphabet and the science of writing and reading as well as first mathematics. It was fact, that children who received an education began their studies at distremingly early age. They even learned the alphabet while the were still in nursery. (Blackwood, 200, 224)

Especially during the eighteen century the Charity and Sunday School found their beginning, and suddenly everybody went to this new thing. At the same time lots of old Grammer and endowed schools lost ground in Secondary education and began to decay. Alas, through “the unhappy example of France (Grosvenor, 1966, 70) which made reform, near the century everything was put in question. As the most known book for early teaching, teacher (most of the time nons) used the Latin psalter as a common texbook. (Blackwood, 2000, 222)

As we can read in Shekespeare’s plays, the schools during his time were somewhat different from the earler church schools. “They were no longer connected with the monasteries, but Latin was still the principal study, and Greek came next.” (Blackwood, 2000, 222) After some years the Church school started to grow into public schools, which were now open to more people. But unfortunately the poor children couldn’t yet attend school and had to wait till the middle of the 10th century to be able to go to public schools like we are used to now. The problem, that girls couldn’t attend public schools and sometimes even boys had troubles at school with the different teachers, brought up a new idea: Home School. “Many parents prefered to bring up their children at home with a resident tutor, who could instruct the girls as well as the boys.” (Blackwood, 2000, 227) This type of new education had also advantages for the children themselves and made their lifes a bit easier. “Spare the rod and spoil the child. “(Blackwood, 2000, 220) This was the new idea of teachers as well as of parents in das gone by. Another new educational way was the privat schools. By the loss thus incurred by Secondary Education was made good by private schools, financed by fees only, which made much progress in the 18th century. An example to mention would probably be Eton, a great private boarding school, each preparing its students for Oxford of Cambridge. (Curtis, 1952, 240)

The stories connecting Oxford University with Brut the Trojan, with King Mempeic and with the Druids cannot be traced back beyond the 14th century. As the Enciclopedia Britannica shows, the authentic history apppears to begin in 1133 with the arrival from Paris of the theologian Robert Pullen, who lectured there. (Britannica, 1968, 17) Again we find a connection between church and education, which shows that during the middle age, the most educational persons were people from the church. What later became this great university began in the twelfth century as a simple gathering of masters, and of scholars who came to hear wise men talk. (Curtis, 1952, 242) The university of that day was a spontaneous growth, consisting of men rather than buildings. Scholars were lecturing in the town by the late 12th century and a small community of students was also beginning to built up; in 1209 an number of them moved east to Cambridge. (Briggs, 1994, 69) Scholars were also attracted by the the personality of a famous teacher and sit on benches or even on the floor to hear him lecture. (Curtis, 1952, 243) Until the en of the 12th century, when Oxford University was slowly emerging from a loose collection of scholars and students in the city; this training had mostly taken place in cathedral schools. (Norwich, 1983, 117)

The modern way to found a university is to raise money, obtain a charter, buy land, and put up some buildings. But Oxford began in a very different way. It grew rather than was founded and it was not until it had been in existence for some time that it was anything like a colege in the modern meaning of the word. The earliest colleges to be founded were University College and Balliol abround 1263. (Britannica, 1968, 17) The mythical foundation by Alfred in 872 is no longer accepted. The first teachers were monks from religious orders and lived during the new 13th century. Dominicans first, Franciscan friars second and by the end of the century the older orders of monks, had also established institutions in the town. (Briggs, 1994, 69) The progress must however have been rapide as about houndret years later the deputies of Oxford, in an appeal to the king, described Oxford as aschola secunda,(Britannica, 1968, 17) or second Paris.

The status from Merton, which was established in 1264 to provide a collegiate discipline for the secular clergy, served as a modal not only at Oxford but also at Cambridge. At the Renaissance the new learning found its leading exponents in Easmus, who lectured there and in such famous scholars as William Grocyn, John Colet, and Sir Thomas More. Oxford as well as Cambridge, which is the second most famous college city in England, located on the Eastcoast, suffred from lots of land confiscations and revenues during the Reformation period. Thanks to Elizabeth’s Act in 1571, the two universities were incorporated and reorganized. As we can fin in the enciclopedia Britannica, Oxford university aquired popularity “…by its sucessful resistance to Jame’s effort … to open the university to Catholics, even on the extet of imposing his own Catholic nominee on the fellows of Magdalen….” (Britannica, 1968, 17)

There was a general rise in the level of studies toward the end of the 18th century as written examinations gradually supplemented the old oral examinations. Laterone the professoriate was increased, reorganized, and reendowed. From the 1900, the university history entered a new phase, marked by the rise of scientific disciplines and greater specialization in allstudies.

A university education had the quite specific aim of preparing young men for a career in the church, (including teaching), the law and medicine. (Norwich, 1983, 173) As we can see, we find out, that universities are still a way towards education for rich people, and however we will keep this way till in the middle of the 20th century where scholarships and governmental help is offered. But to come again to the education at universities we can find in Curti’s England of Song and Story that, “…in the higher schools and universities the sons of gentlemen were taught the Trivium (grammar, logic, and rethoric),… and in more advanced courses the Quadrivium, which consisted of arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. (Curtis, 1952, 224) But of course the study at colleges still consisted to teach a student all kind of academics. And good example for that was Priestly, who was a product of the dissenting academies.(Trevelyan, 1951, 201) So I think that John Wesley, whose “enthusiastic” religion was very different from Priestley’s “enlightened” Unitarism, was a product of Oxford.

The progress of Oxford University has mostly been dominated by sciences. More science students, more laboratories, a whole new class and kind of Oxford academic. Physical chemistry and biochemistry have become Oxford specialities: the chemistry school is the largest and most distinguished in Britain. Important early work on the nuclear bomb was done at the Clarendon Laboratory. Also some first experiments in controlled nuclear raction and a world record in 1959 for the lowest temperature was achieved. (Grosvenor, 1966, 158) The first Oxford graduate in engineering science died in 1945 an was honored with a memorial to him in Brasenose chapel. Also Medicine has flourished in modern Oxford. The medical traditions of the place are very old. In the Middle Ages there was a hospital, Ste. John’s, on the site of Magdalen, which still has some of its walls.

A favourite method of Oxford examination has always been theviva voce,last echo of the disputations, which has survived all academic reforms, and is stil used to dermine the class of astudent on the brink between a First and a Second.

Right now I would like to mention just some senteces about the prejudicsme against women in colleges. And it is a fact, that women only after the First World War, thanks to the social changes and the granting of women’s suffrage in 1918 finally equal treatments had and from now on full membership of the University enjoed. (Eddey, VF, 18)

Now after all that information about what Oxford University offers its students we want to take a loot at all the different Colleges and Halls. Oxford is a fedaration of colleges. Each college, like astate in a federation, is a separate organization under the guidance of the University as a federal government, with a Chancellor as its nominal head and a Vice Chancellor for its acting chief. This highest people, Chancellor and Vice Chancellor are elected by the members of convocation, hold office for life, and are generally distinguished members of the university. (Britannica, 1968, 19)

The University of Oxford is made up of separate colleges founded at different times by various people. Each college has its own individual buildings grouped around one or more quadrangles of open lanwns or campus grounds, and entered through a more or less elaborate gateway. (Curtis, 1952, 244) Many of the colleges have been endowed by kings and private persons. Each college has its own Head, Tutors, and Fellows, and each college administers its own discipline. In Eddney’s Vertical File for example we can read, that the head of the college and the Fellows sit at the top table and the students sit at long tables with plain benches which are placed at right angles to the top table. (Eddney, VF, 6)

All those colleges are under the prtection of the University, which regulates the general studies and holds all examinations except those at entrance. The University also confers all degrees and honors, and its professors form the superior staff of lectures. (Curtis, 1952, 245)

Oxford has twenty-four colleges or halls and because of that there are lots of rivalities between the students. A man who graduated from Oxford is very careful to state whether he was a member of Christ Church College, Merton College or some other…”. (Curtis, 1952, 245)

After talking about the working of the Oxford University and its colleges we are going to take a look at the Academic Buildings and at some colleges. Because the University of Oxford needed constantly to renovate its colleges, and sometimes even renewed, the bulidings even of the oldest colleges are ofthen of no remote antiquity, but of course there are some exeptions. (Eddey, VF, 3) The main group of historic university buildings consists of the Bodleian Library, the divinity schools, the Convocation House, the Sheldonian Theater, the Clarendon Building, and the old Ashmolean Museum, with the Radcliffe Camera and the university church of st. Mary’s to the south. (Britannica, 1968, 18)

After mention some important buildings at the University of Oxford, let’s now talk in brief words about the different colleges. The earliest college to be founded wereUniversity CollegeandBaliol Collegearound 1263. (Britannica, 1968, 17)

Magdalen Collegeis a lovely college with its bell tower suaring above the River Cherwell, a tributary of the Thames. Every May day Magdalen’s choir sings davon hym from the tower while undergraduates in punts drift below. (Grosvenor, 1966, 98)

Christ Churchis probably one of the most famous colleges in Oxford. White ties for the students at exams and bowler hats for the porters are the correct dress forChrist Church. (Shukmann, VF, 140) A famous Christ Church lecturer was Charles Dogson, who wrote under the pen name of Lewis Carol, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, to please Alice Liddell, little daughter of the dean of the college. The bell-Chamber holds the six-ton Great Tom, which sounds one houndred and one times every evening at five minutes past nice, which is to remain the common curfew imposed by the colleges in earlier days. (Eddey, VF, 3)

Brasenose Collegegot its name from a lion faced bronye knocker, this college was visited by Washington’s great-great-grandfather. (Grosvenor, 1966, 98)

Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is repudet to have occupied a room above the entrance ofPembroke Collegewhen he was a student there. (Eddey, VF, 3)

Oriel College, where Sir Walter Raleigh and Cecil Rhodes went.All Souls College, which has no students, only fellows and a warden who parade once a century round the quadrangles bearing a dead mallard on a pole. AndQueen’s College, whose members troop to dinner at the sound of trompet. (Grosvenor, 1966, 98)

After all these information about the different colleges let’s have a little final look at the College Spirits, which are really interesting for Oxford’s colleges…

As Morris Jan, in his Book Oxford, mentions about college rooms, we can find that some college rooms have double doors and if an undergraduate really wants to be undisturbed he can close both of them – a poruipial gesture which uses to be known as “sporting the oak”. (Morris, 1987, 62) The colleges often feel themselves to be outside the public domai, and if their attitude to the people at large is sometimes snooty, their regard for their own member is coresponding by possessive. “Only the man from the bakers would know that he could deliver the bread for Balliol Junior Common Room by pushing it through a window opposite the church of Ste. Mary Magdalen.” (Morris, 1987, 61)

The scholars of Merton are called Postmasters, the scholars of Magdalen are called Demies, the Fellows of Christ Church are called Students, many of the Fellows of All Souls only come to Oxford at weekends. (Morris, 1987, 61) Oxford colleges are traditionally built around staircases, rather than along corridors, a system which makes for quiet and privacy, and enables half a dozan men to live together in conditions of hugger-mugger fraternity. “xford is so intercate, so labyrinthine and escherlike, that only the college porters know precisely where the boudaries of their individual domains lie” (Shukmann, VF, 208) One thing which is probably the most known thing about Oxford colleges is: the boat races ! On the beautiful river at Oxford, the devotion between the students of Oxford and Cambridge College is well shown, by the attitude of the students in that classic boat race struggle on the Thames. Various Oxford college crews are racing against each other, and men from the best of these various college crews are being selected to form the University crew. This ist the best example to see the strength of College feeling.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blackwood, Garry L. Life in a Medieval Castle. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2000.

Briggs, ASA. A social History of England. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1994.

Curtis, L. Mary. England of Song and Story. New York: Allyn and Bacon, 1952.

Eddey, K.J. “Oxford, the city and the colleges.” MHS VF Oxford.

Grosvenor, Merville Bell., and Shor, Franc. Ed. This England. London: National Geographic Book Service, 1966

Hibbert, Christopher. The English, A Social History 1066-1945. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1987.

Morris, Jan. Oxford. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Norwich, John J. Britain’s Heritage. New York: Continam, 1983.

“Oxford”. Encyclopedia Britannica. 1968 ed.

Shukmann, Henry. “Oxford: the Class of 1250.” MHS VF Oxford.

Trevelyan, G. M. Illustrated English Social History. New York: Longmans Green and Co., 1951.