craven.fr (.ox.ac.uk)

I am embarking today on a series of articles about Oxford's colleges and permanent private halls, since they were a topic of fascination for me for years before I even matriculated, and finding information or even opinions about their nuanced differences online was hard to do. These 'profiles' will be general overviews of what the college is like, based entirely on my own personal opinions; prospective students are advised to look rather to the prospectus and alternative prospectus of any college they are considering applying to, rather than place too much stock in my unashamedly idiosyncratic descriptions.

Nuffield College is in many ways quite atypical. It is extremely wealthy, yet paradoxically quite young, founded in 1937. So its large endowment is not the result of centuries of building up wealth like St. John's or Christ Church. It is for postgraduate students only, and (uncommonly for an Oxford college, but not entirely so for a postgraduate one) has a particular subject focus. (Remember that at Oxford, university departments are a completely separate hierarchy from the college system.) Nuffield's focus is on the social sciences—but, as a final paradox, it does not accept MBA students in spite of this specialty!

Nuffield, then, is a small community of about seventy faculty and seventy-five postgraduate students, all engaged in research in the social sciences. This small size, narrow focus, and great wealth make Nuffield something of a dream location for those who want to do advanced research in economics, sociology, or political science. The college is located away on one edge of the university, near the railway station, and all in all gives off an aura of peaceful tranquility and a focus on research.

Nuffield has a lot of resources relative to the size of its student body; fortunately, it is one of the rare colleges that allows graduates from outside the college to use its library, although without the borrowing privileges of college members (who, besides access to an above-average amount of funding, also get their own offices!). The library is a great resource, with a lot of material that is of interest to business students, and it is located near the business school.

What I particularly like about studying at Nuffield is the unique architecture—quite unlike the Gothic and Tudor architecture one typically sees around Oxford. The exterior is very cozy (apart from the imposing tower!), while the interior has a 1950's modernist feel to it that somehow fits, in my mind, with the study of economics. Finally, the tower (many floors of which are part of the library), is a fun place to study when one wants to make no bones about feeling like an "ivory tower scholar", as was bound to happen from time to time when our courses veered to the theoretical! (And the view over Oxford castle is pretty nice, too.)

All in all then, Nuffield is a unique college, which to its clientele must seem to be an ideal offering. In addition, their food at formal hall is, in my opinion, the best in the university, and the dining hall is certainly unique—even if its austere grey architecture is somewhat reminiscent of a Stalinist mausoleum. It is a shame that so many students at Oxford are unaware of Nuffield, but that is to be expected given that it hosts so few researchers, has no boat club, and sits removed from most of the other colleges. Despite, or perhaps because of this, I am glad I took the time to explore their library, and felt very fortunate to have been able to dine there.