craven.fr (.ox.ac.uk)

This is an article in my series on Oxford's colleges and PPHs. These 'profiles' are based entirely on my own personal perspective and 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 descriptions. Previous articles discuss Nuffield College, the PPHs, and All Souls' College.

Some people who misunderstand the college system at Oxford (which I explain here) become confused when faced with the profusion of colleges that one discovers when considering the university up close. (Americans are particularly likely to be lost, since "college" and "university" are generally taken as synonyms Stateside.) They know they have heard of Oxford, and that it is tremendously prestigious, but they have never heard of these other odd names like Oriel, Balliol, and Brasenose.

In the face of all these unexpected names, they may come to the erroneous understanding that "Oxford" must really mean University College and that these other colleges are hangers-on and not the "real Oxford". (Yes, "Oxford University College" sounds perfectly redundant to American ears, but perhaps they had to insist, given the presence of all these 'counterfeit' Oxfords!)

In practice Oxford, like Boston, does have "hanger-on" academic institutions for those who wish to study in these beautiful cities, but who do not have the chops to attend the more prestigious university in town. (Oxford Brookes University is the largest of these—and at least it is a real university, unlike the rather less reputable "Oxford Tutorial College" or "Oxford Business College".)

Unfortunately, because the university is named for the town, unlike Harvard and MIT, the more dishonest of these students come in order to say afterwards that they "studied at Oxford", which I find quite annoying. Most don't do this, of course—as getting found out can be pretty humiliating. But anyway, the point here is not to disparage the non-university education that takes place in Oxford, but only to make clear that the colleges that make up the University of Oxford are all part of one university, the oldest in the English-speaking world—and University College is neither the most authentic nor the preëminent one of these in any particular way.

That said, among Oxford colleges, University has an excellent reputation. Bill Clinton, Stephen Hawking, and C. S. Lewis are just a few of its famous old members, and being founded in 1249 it is a contender for the title of oldest college in the university. (NB, the university itself is over a century older than any of its colleges; the colleges were founded as communities of scholars who were at the university.) Univ, clearly, has a lot to recommend it—but then so does every Oxford college.

Nowadays (perhaps because of the aforementioned misunderstanding of the whole collegiate system, but I hope not!) it hosts the largest number of international undergraduate students. On the graduate level, it is the only college with both graduates and undergraduates that does not accept MBA students, for reasons known only to them. (Not every college can accept students in every course, in fairness—and Univ has few graduate students to begin with, being overwhelmingly an undergraduate college.) So, while I can confirm that Univ has a great location, history, and beautiful architecture—I would say that, though, as architecturally it is the college that most resembles Oriel—I did not spend much time there while at Oxford. One society that I belonged to had some meetings there, and I did enjoy showing guests the Shelley Memorial, but I never did have the honour of dining there—which I regret only because Univ has the longest Latin grace of any college, which would have been nice to hear in person at least once.