History of the University of Oxford
In conjunction with the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford is one of most prestigious universities not only in England but also throughout the world with a history dating back to the Middle Ages and a long list of highly influential graduates having passed through its gates. Indeed, the University of Oxford is able to lay claim to being the oldest university in the English-speaking world with teaching on the Oxford campus site going back to 1096 and developing very rapidly as a higher education institution after Henry II’s decision to ban English students from attending the University of Paris in 1167 culminating in the thirty nine independent colleges and halls that comprise the University of Oxford today. It was during the Middle Ages that the University of Oxford became much more than a site of learning; it became an important breeding ground for political office and a focal point of the religious reconstruction that characterised the English Reformation. Henry VIII, for instance, insisted that the University of Oxford officially accepted his divorce from Catherine of Aragon in 1530, thereby going some way towards legitimising the birth of the Church of England and the ideological split from the Papacy in Rome. Moreover, John Wycliffe, the founder of the Lollard movement (a precursor to the Reformation in so far as religious reform was underpinned by opposing papal encroachment on secular power in England) studied at the university during the 1360s and 1370s maintaining the historical link between the University of Oxford and reform of the religious landscape in medieval England. In the seventeenth century, Oliver Cromwell (who was Chancellor of the University of Oxford between 1650 and 1657) decreed that both the University of Oxford as well as the University of Cambridge should both remain open in spite of fierce Puritan opposition to academia as a rival to religious doctrine, thus ensuring that the religious turmoil of the Civil War did not stagnate the social, political and cultural evolution of the country. In this way, it can be seen that the University of Oxford has remained at the epicentre of some of the most tumultuous religious and political events of the nine centuries in which it has been in existence although the university itself can be seen to have taken a less central role in the battles of political and religious extremism after the advent of the nineteenth century whereupon the university and its faculties have cultivated a worldwide reputation for academic excellence in the fields of the humanities and the social and applied sciences.
As a result, during the twentieth century and at the dawn of the twenty first century, the University of Oxford has stood tall as a bastion of international scientific research (especially with regards to medicine) and a vortex of cultured international debate (especially with regards to politics and the arts). It is this contemporary academic heritage and its complex historical tradition that makes the University of Oxford such a unique blend of innovation and tradition today.
Famous GraduatesOne of the most fascinating features about the University of Oxford is the way in which it has produced some of the most important personalities in British political life over the past nine hundred years. As we have already noted, celebrated monarchs such as Henry VIII and powerful political heads of state such as Oliver Cromwell had intrinsic ties with both the university and the town of Oxford with the university also producing twelve saints. In addition, there have been no less than twenty five British Prime Ministers who have studied at the University of Oxford including William Gladstone, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. Furthermore, Oxford has provided the key educational background for leaders of other countries with three Australian Prime Ministers, two Indian Prime Ministers, two leaders of Pakistan (including the late Benazir Bhutto) and former American President Bill Clinton all having attended the university. Viewed from this perspective, it is clear that the University of Oxford is one of the most important breeding grounds of political power not only in the western hemisphere but throughout the contemporary world order. We should also note that it has not just been important politicians who have historically been educated at the University of Oxford; a long list of celebrated cultural characters have likewise been educated first at Oxford. Actors such as Dudley Moore and Michael Palin attended the university as did celebrated cricketer and politician Imran Khan. Arguably the world’s most famous scientist, Doctor Stephen Hawking, also attended the university. Yet it is surely the literary sphere has the benefited the most from the critical output of the graduates of the University of Oxford. Percy Shelley, Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, C.S Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Cecil Day-Lewis are just some of the writers and poets that have studied at the university.
ConclusionTherefore it is clear that, in the final analysis, the University of Oxford is one of the most important higher educational institutions operating in the world today and not only because of its rich academic tradition. Its nine hundred year history, heritage and pre-eminent seat as the breeding ground of political, artistic, scientific and cultural talent of Britain marks the university out as a uniquely robust establishment that has been able to withstand some of the most destabilising political and religious events in world history. Yet perhaps the University of Oxford’s greatest cause for celebration today is that it has remained a relevant, viable and significant academic institution for the twenty first century, its increasingly international body of undergraduates and graduates reflecting the changing nature of higher education in a constantly shifting contemporary world order. Indeed with one hundred and sixty separate alumni branches in more than sixty countries, the University of Oxford boasts one of the most extensively global alumni networks in the world. In an era of globalisation, this history of durability and ability to harness deep-seated international ties will go a long way towards ensuring that the University of Oxford remains at the very top of the list of world renowned universities in the years and decades to come.
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