The University of Oxford The University of Oxford , located in the English city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back as the 11th century. The University grew and the University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is the second oldest university in England and the fourth oldest in Europe. In post-nominals the university's name is abbreviated as Cantab, a shortened form of Cantabrigiensis (an adjective derived from Cantabrigia, the Latinised form of Cambridge), collectively known as Oxbridge Oxbridge is a composite, or blend, of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in England, and the term is now used to refer to them collectively, often with implications of perceived superior intellectual or social status. Oxbridge can be used as a noun referring to either or both universities or as an adjective describing them or, are the two oldest This is a list of the oldest extant universities in the world. To be included in this table, an educational institution must satisfy the definition of a university at the time of its founding. It must have been founded before 1500 or be the oldest university in a region and it must have been operational without a significant interruption ever universities in Britain The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land. Both were founded more than 800 years ago, and between them they have produced a large number of Britain's most prominent scientists A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word. Scientists perform research toward a more, writers The word is almost synonymous with author, though somebody who writes, for example, a laundry list, could technically be called the writer of the list, but not an author. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images, whether fiction or non-fiction. There are estimated to be 3.2 Million skilled writers living today and politicians A politician or political leader is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest, right of inheritance (see also: divine, as well as noted figures in many other fields.[1] Competition between Oxford and Cambridge also has a long history, dating back to around 1209 when Cambridge was founded by scholars taking refuge from hostile townsmen in Oxford.[2]
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Similarities between Oxford and Cambridge
The chapel A chapel is a building used by Christians, members of other religions, and sometimes interfaith communities, as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be attached to an institution such as a large church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing of King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England: the most famous symbol of both the city and the universityInstitutions and facilities
Oxford and Cambridge have well-regarded printing Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing houses (Oxford University Press Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative and Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted Letters Patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest continually operating book publisher), botanical gardens Botanical gardens or botanic gardens[nb 1] are generally well-tended parks displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names. They may contain specialist plant collections such as cacti and succulent plants, herb gardens, plants from particular parts of the world, and so on; there may be greenhouses, again with special (University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Cambridge University Botanic Garden), museums A museum is a building or institution that houses and cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities throughout the world and more local ones exist (the Ashmolean The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum. Its first building was built in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities Elias Ashmole gave Oxford University in 1677 and the Fitzwilliam The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge, located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge, England. It receives around 300,000 visitors annually. Admission is free), legal deposit libraries A national library is a library specifically established by the government of a country to serve as the preeminent repository of information for that country. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant works (the Bodleian The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library. Known to Oxford scholars as “Bodley” or simply “the Bod”, under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works and the Cambridge University Library The Cambridge University Library is the centrally-administered library of the University of Cambridge in England. It comprises five separate libraries:), and debating Debate or debating is a formal method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion. Though logical consistency, factual accuracy societies (the Oxford Union The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, UK, whose membership is drawn primarily but not exclusively from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is Britain's second oldest University Union , and has gained a worldwide reputation for the cut and thrust of its and the Cambridge Union).
Collegiate structure
Oxford and Cambridge also share a common collegiate structure A collegiate university differs from a centralized university in that its colleges are not just halls of residence; rather, they have a substantial amount of responsibility and autonomy in the running of the university. The actual level of self-governance exercised by the colleges varies greatly among institutions, ranging from nearly autonomous: each university is composed of more than 30 autonomous colleges (see Colleges of the University of Cambridge This is a list of the colleges within the University of Cambridge. These colleges are the primary source of accommodation for undergraduates and graduates at the University and at the undergraduate level have responsibility for admitting students and organising their tuition. They also provide funding and/or accommodation for some of the senior, Colleges of the University of Oxford), which provide the environments in which groups of students live, work and sleep. Applicants must choose a specific college when applying to Oxford or Cambridge, or allow the university to select one for them, as all undergraduate and graduate students must be a member of one of the university colleges[citation needed]. All Oxbridge colleges are part of the university, and students studying the same subject are given lectures A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history, background, theories and equations. A politician's speech, a minister's sermon, or even a businessman's sales presentation may be together, irrespective of which college they attend.
Colleges within each university regularly compete with each other in a variety of sports and other fields (e.g. rugby Rugby union, or simply Rugby, is a full contact team sport, a form of football which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. It is played with an oval-shaped ball, outdoors on a level field, usually with a grass surface, up to 100 metres long and 70 metres (2, rowing Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water. The sport can be both recreational, focusing on learning the techniques required, and competitive, athletics Track and field athletics is a collection of sports events that involve running, throwing, jumping and walking. Organized athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC, and most modern events are conducted by the member federations of the International Association of Athletics Federations. The athletics meeting forms the and chess Chess is a board game involving two players. It is played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. At the beginning of the game each player controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's), but will happily pool their talent to form university teams to compete against the greater "enemy" (Oxford or Cambridge as the case may be). Both Oxford and Cambridge refer to each other as "the other place"[citation needed]. In both places some students enjoy punting A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting refers to boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole. A punt should not be confused with a gondola, which is propelled by an oar rather than a pole, although the punter traditionally stands at different ends of the boat in the two cities.
Several colleges at Oxford and Cambridge have the same, or similar, name:
In addition, at each of the universities there is a college which has a 'Bridge of Sighs', although neither resembles the original Bridge of Sighs in Venice Venice (Italian: Venezia [veˈnɛttsia] , Venetian: Venesia) is a city in northern Italy known both for tourism and for industry, and is the capital of the region Veneto, with a population of 271,367 (census estimate 1 January 2004). Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area (population 1,600,000). The name is. Cambridge's bridge, which was built in 1831 and is part of St John's College St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, spans the River Cam. Oxford's bridge, which is part of Hertford College Hertford College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is located in Catte Street, directly opposite the main entrance of the original Bodleian Library. As of 2006, the college had a financial endowment of £52m, was built in 1913/1914 and spans New College Lane.
Teaching method
The principal method of teaching at Oxbridge colleges is the "supervision" or "tutorial" A tutorial is one method of transferring knowledge and may be used as a part of learning. More interactive and specific than a book or a lecture; a tutorial seeks to teach by example and supply the information to complete a certain task (terms used at Cambridge and Oxford respectively, though the meaning is the same). These are typically weekly or more frequent hour-long sessions in which small groups of students - usually between one and three - meet with a member of the university's teaching staff or a doctoral student. Students are normally required to complete an essay or assignment in advance of the supervision/tutorial, which they will discuss with the supervisor/tutor during the session, along with any concerns or difficulties they have had with the material presented in that week's lectures. Students typically receive one to three tutorials/supervisions per week.[3]
However, at Oxford, there have been recent attempts to reduce the number of tutorials offered to students: cuts to the number of tutorials given to students of English Literature began in the 2005-06 academic year[4]. No such cuts have been planned at Cambridge.[citation needed]
Surrounding cities
The cities of Oxford and Cambridge contain campuses of other large universities: Oxford Brookes University and Anglia Ruskin University respectively. There are also a number of English language schools for non-native speakers based in the two cities. These institutions are generally popular with students, some of whom may like to claim that they have studied at either Oxford or Cambridge.
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Mainstream
Leave without permission is known in English as French leave thanks to the traditional Anglo-French rivalry . When we use this expression, when we describe ...
