Updated 20 October 2026
Quick answer: The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, with teaching dating back to at least 1096, although no exact founding date is known. It is made up of more than 30 independent colleges, has educated dozens of British Prime Ministers and many world leaders, and is associated with numerous Nobel Prize winners. Its Bodleian Library is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and several of its buildings appeared in the Harry Potter films.
Oxford's spires, ancient colleges and centuries of tradition make it one of the most famous universities on earth. Yet beyond its reputation for academic excellence, Oxford has a long list of surprising facts and quirky traditions.
Here are some of the most interesting lesser-known facts about the University of Oxford.
Contents
- 1. Nobody Knows Exactly When It Was Founded
- 2. Oxford Is Older Than the Aztec Empire
- 3. Cambridge Was Founded by Oxford Scholars
- 4. It's a Collegiate University
- 5. The Oldest Colleges Date Back to the 13th Century
- 6. The Bodleian Library Receives a Copy of Every UK Book
- 7. It Has Produced Around 30 British Prime Ministers
- 8. Dozens of Nobel Prize Winners Are Linked to Oxford
- 9. Women Couldn't Receive Degrees Until 1920
- 10. Harry Potter Was Filmed There
- 11. "The City of Dreaming Spires
- 12. Famous Writers Studied and Taught There
- 13. Unusual Traditions Survive
- 14. It Helped Develop a COVID-19 Vaccine
- 15. Getting In Is Highly Competitive
- 16. Oxford Has Its Own Museums Packed With Treasures
- 17. A Famous Evolution Debate Took Place There
- 18. Oxford Played a Role in the English Civil War
- 19. Penicillin Was Developed Into a Medicine at Oxford
- 20. The Rhodes Scholarship Is Based There
- 21. Oxford Has Strong Links With India
- 22. The Oxford English Dictionary Was Created There
- 23. Students Are Called "Freshers" and Terms Have Unusual Names
- 24. The Radcliffe Camera Is Not a Camera
- 25. Some Colleges Have Deer, Gardens and Even Their Own Meadows
- 26. Oxford Is a Global Research Powerhouse
- 27. Admission Interviews Are Famous for Unusual Questions
- 28. The Sheldonian Theatre Hosts Graduations
- 29. Oxford Has Produced Astronauts, Olympians and Royals
- 30. Some College Traditions Are Centuries Old
- How to Apply to Oxford: Step by Step
- Costs and Scholarships
- Visiting Oxford: Top Things to See
- How Oxford Compares With Cambridge
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Final Thoughts
- Sources and further reading
1. Nobody Knows Exactly When It Was Founded
Oxford has no official founding date. There is evidence of teaching in Oxford as early as 1096, and the university grew rapidly after 1167, when King Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. That makes Oxford the oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of the oldest continuously operating universities anywhere.
2. Oxford Is Older Than the Aztec Empire
Teaching was underway at Oxford by the late 11th century, while the city of Tenochtitlán, the heart of the Aztec civilisation, was founded around 1325. Oxford was already more than two centuries old by then.
3. Cambridge Was Founded by Oxford Scholars
In 1209, after a dispute between scholars and townspeople in Oxford, a group of academics left and settled in Cambridge, where they helped establish what became the University of Cambridge. The friendly rivalry between the two universities, sometimes called "Oxbridge", continues today, including the famous annual Boat Race on the River Thames.
4. It's a Collegiate University
Oxford is made up of more than 30 colleges and several permanent private halls. Each college is self-governing, with its own buildings, dining hall, library and community. Students belong to both the university and a college, and much undergraduate teaching takes place in small tutorials with one to three students.
5. The Oldest Colleges Date Back to the 13th Century
University College, Balliol and Merton all claim to be the oldest college, each founded in the 1200s. Each bases its claim on a different milestone, such as the date of the first endowment or the date its statutes were written.
6. The Bodleian Library Receives a Copy of Every UK Book
The Bodleian Library opened to scholars in 1602 and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. As a legal deposit library, it is entitled to a copy of every book published in the UK and Ireland. Together, the Bodleian Libraries hold more than 13 million printed items. Historically, readers had to swear an oath not to bring fire into the library or damage its books, and new readers still take a version of this declaration.
7. It Has Produced Around 30 British Prime Ministers
Oxford has educated more British Prime Ministers than any other university, including William Gladstone, Clement Attlee, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, who completed a postgraduate law degree there. Many other world leaders also studied there, including Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Bill Clinton (as a Rhodes Scholar) and several Australian prime ministers.
8. Dozens of Nobel Prize Winners Are Linked to Oxford
Oxford's students, alumni and staff include around 70 Nobel Prize winners across chemistry, medicine, physics, economics, literature and peace. Dorothy Hodgkin, who won the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for determining the structures of penicillin and vitamin B12, worked at Oxford.
9. Women Couldn't Receive Degrees Until 1920
Women's halls opened at Oxford in the late 1870s, and women could attend lectures and sit exams, but they weren't allowed to become full members of the university and receive degrees until 1920. The last all-male colleges admitted women in the 1970s and 1980s, and St Hilda's, the last women-only college, admitted men in 2008.
10. Harry Potter Was Filmed There
Several Oxford locations appeared in the Harry Potter films. Christ Church's grand staircase was used in scenes at Hogwarts, and its dining hall inspired the design of Hogwarts' Great Hall. The Bodleian's Divinity School served as the Hogwarts infirmary, and Duke Humfrey's Library appeared as the Hogwarts library.
11. "The City of Dreaming Spires
Poet Matthew Arnold described Oxford as the "sweet city with her dreaming spires" in his 1865 poem Thyrsis. The phrase "City of Dreaming Spires" has been used to describe Oxford ever since.
12. Famous Writers Studied and Taught There
J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis both taught at Oxford and were members of a literary group called the Inklings, which met at pubs including the Eagle and Child. Other famous Oxford writers include Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, whose Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was inspired by the daughter of a Christ Church dean, and Dorothy L. Sayers.
13. Unusual Traditions Survive
- Subfusc: students wear formal academic dress, including gowns, for exams and ceremonies.
- Carnations: students traditionally wear a white carnation to their first exam, pink for the middle ones and red for the last.
- May Morning: on 1 May, the Magdalen College choir sings from the top of Magdalen Tower at 6 am to crowds below.
- Hunting the Mallard: All Souls College holds a mallard ceremony once every century, most recently in 2001.
14. It Helped Develop a COVID-19 Vaccine
Oxford researchers at the Jenner Institute developed the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which was distributed widely around the world, including in large volumes manufactured in India as Covishield.
15. Getting In Is Highly Competitive
Oxford receives many applications for each undergraduate place. Admissions often include subject-specific tests and interviews designed to assess how candidates think rather than just what they know.
16. Oxford Has Its Own Museums Packed With Treasures
The university runs several world-class museums, most of them free to visit:
- The Ashmolean Museum: opened in 1683, it is often described as Britain's first public museum. Its collections range from ancient Egyptian artefacts to paintings by Raphael, Rembrandt and Turner.
- The Pitt Rivers Museum: famous for its crowded Victorian displays of anthropological objects from around the world, it has in recent years reviewed and removed some items, including human remains, in response to concerns about colonial history.
- The Oxford University Museum of Natural History: a stunning Victorian Gothic building housing dinosaur skeletons and the remains of a dodo, which inspired Lewis Carroll's character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- The History of Science Museum: home to scientific instruments including a blackboard used by Albert Einstein during a lecture in Oxford in 1931.
17. A Famous Evolution Debate Took Place There
In 1860, just months after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, a famous debate took place at the newly built Museum of Natural History. Bishop Samuel Wilberforce reportedly asked biologist Thomas Henry Huxley whether he was descended from an ape on his grandmother's or grandfather's side. Huxley is said to have replied that he would rather be descended from an ape than from a man who used his gifts to obscure the truth. Accounts of the exact words differ, but the debate became a landmark in public discussions about science and religion.
18. Oxford Played a Role in the English Civil War
During the English Civil War in the 1640s, King Charles I made Oxford his royalist capital after being driven out of London. The king lived at Christ Church, and Parliament sometimes met in the city. Colleges melted down silver to fund the royalist cause, which is one reason some colleges have relatively little surviving early silverware.
19. Penicillin Was Developed Into a Medicine at Oxford
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in London in 1928, but it was a team at Oxford's Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, led by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, with Norman Heatley, that turned it into a usable drug around 1940 to 1941. Their work saved millions of lives during and after World War II. Florey and Chain shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Fleming.
20. The Rhodes Scholarship Is Based There
Established in 1902 under the will of Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Scholarship is one of the oldest and most famous international scholarships in the world, bringing outstanding students from many countries to study at Oxford. Notable Rhodes Scholars include Bill Clinton, former Australian Prime Ministers Bob Hawke, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, and many scientists, writers and leaders. Rhodes's own legacy as a British imperialist has been the subject of protest and debate, including the "Rhodes Must Fall" campaign.
21. Oxford Has Strong Links With India
Many Indian leaders, scholars and public figures studied at Oxford. Indira Gandhi attended Somerville College, and Manmohan Singh earned his doctorate in economics at Nuffield College. Others include economist Amartya Sen, who later taught there, and several leading lawyers, diplomats and writers. Oxford's Bodleian Libraries also hold important collections of Sanskrit and South Asian manuscripts, and the university's Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Oxford India Centre support research on the region.
22. The Oxford English Dictionary Was Created There
Oxford University Press, the largest university press in the world, publishes the Oxford English Dictionary. The project began in 1857 and took decades to complete, with the first full edition published in 1928. One of its most prolific volunteer contributors, Dr William Chester Minor, sent in thousands of quotations from a hospital for the criminally insane, a story told in the book The Surgeon of Crowthorne (also published as The Professor and the Madman).
23. Students Are Called "Freshers" and Terms Have Unusual Names
Oxford's academic year is divided into three eight-week terms with distinctive names: Michaelmas (autumn), Hilary (winter) and Trinity (spring and early summer). Students "go up" to Oxford when they arrive and "go down" when they leave. Final exams are known as "Finals", and those sent away for misconduct are said to be "sent down".
24. The Radcliffe Camera Is Not a Camera
One of Oxford's most photographed buildings, the circular, domed Radcliffe Camera, was completed in 1749 to house a science library funded by physician John Radcliffe. "Camera" simply means "room" in Latin. Today it serves as a reading room of the Bodleian Libraries and is connected to the main library by an underground tunnel and book conveyor system, part of a network of storage beneath the city's streets.
25. Some Colleges Have Deer, Gardens and Even Their Own Meadows
Magdalen College has its own deer park and riverside walks, including Addison's Walk, where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien had a famous conversation about faith that contributed to Lewis's conversion to Christianity. Christ Church borders the expansive Christ Church Meadow, and several colleges have gardens that rank among the most beautiful in England.
26. Oxford Is a Global Research Powerhouse
Beyond its history, Oxford is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world in league tables such as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, where it has held the top position for many consecutive years. Its research spans artificial intelligence, climate science, vaccines, quantum computing, economics and the humanities. Spin-out companies from Oxford research have created thousands of jobs, and the Oxford region is a growing hub for life sciences and technology.
27. Admission Interviews Are Famous for Unusual Questions
Oxford interviews are designed to test how applicants think, not just what they know. Interviewers sometimes publish sample questions to demystify the process, such as asking a medicine applicant why we have two eyes, or a law applicant whether a person should be punished for an attempted crime that turned out to be impossible. The goal is to see how candidates reason through unfamiliar problems with guidance, much as they would in a tutorial.
28. The Sheldonian Theatre Hosts Graduations
Designed by Christopher Wren, who later designed St Paul's Cathedral in London, the Sheldonian Theatre was completed in 1669. It's used for degree ceremonies, which are still conducted largely in Latin, as well as concerts and lectures. Its painted ceiling depicts Truth descending on the arts and sciences.
29. Oxford Has Produced Astronauts, Olympians and Royals
Oxford's alumni stretch far beyond politics and academia. They include astronauts, Olympic rowers, several kings and queens from around the world, Nobel-winning scientists, famous actors such as Hugh Grant and Rosamund Pike, journalists, and entrepreneurs. The university's annual Boat Race crews have included many future Olympic champions.
30. Some College Traditions Are Centuries Old
At The Queen's College, a Boar's Head Gaudy feast is held each December, accompanied by a carol whose tradition stretches back centuries, linked to a legend about a student who defended himself from a wild boar with a book of Aristotle. At Merton College, students walk backwards around the Fellows' Quad when the clocks change to keep the space-time continuum intact, a light-hearted tradition known as the Time Ceremony.
How to Apply to Oxford: Step by Step
- Choose your course carefully. Oxford admits students to a specific subject from the start, so your interest and preparation in that field matter greatly.
- Check entry requirements. Typical offers for A-level students are A*AA to AAA, with equivalent requirements for the International Baccalaureate, Indian CBSE/ISC boards and other qualifications.
- Apply through UCAS by mid-October. The deadline for Oxford and Cambridge is much earlier than for most UK universities, usually 15 October for entry the following year.
- Take any required admissions test. Many courses require a subject-specific test, so register in time.
- Submit written work if required. Some humanities courses ask for school essays.
- Prepare for interviews. Shortlisted candidates are interviewed in December, now often online. Practise thinking aloud and discussing ideas in your subject.
- Receive decisions in January. Successful applicants receive a conditional or unconditional offer from a college.
Costs and Scholarships
Tuition fees for UK undergraduates are capped by the government, while international students pay significantly higher fees, which vary by course and can be especially high for clinical medicine. Living costs in Oxford are also substantial. Support includes:
- Oxford Bursaries for UK students from lower-income households.
- Reach Oxford Scholarships for undergraduates from low-income countries.
- Rhodes, Clarendon and Weidenfeld-Hoffmann scholarships for graduate students.
- College-specific awards and hardship funds.
- Country-specific scholarships, including some for Indian students funded by foundations and companies.
Visiting Oxford: Top Things to See
- Christ Church: its cathedral, Great Hall and Tom Tower are highlights.
- The Bodleian Library and Radcliffe Camera: guided tours show the Divinity School and Duke Humfrey's Library.
- The Bridge of Sighs: Hertford College's skyway, often compared with Venice's famous bridge.
- Ashmolean Museum: free, with extraordinary art and archaeology collections.
- Punting: hire a flat-bottomed boat on the River Cherwell or Isis in summer.
- Covered Market: a historic market dating back to the 1770s, full of independent shops and cafés.
- Climb a tower: Carfax Tower and the University Church of St Mary the Virgin offer panoramic views of the dreaming spires.
Many colleges are open to visitors at certain times, sometimes for a small fee; check opening hours, especially during exams.
How Oxford Compares With Cambridge
| Feature | Oxford | Cambridge |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | Teaching by 1096 | 1209 |
| Structure | Collegiate, 30+ colleges | Collegiate, 31 colleges |
| Teaching style | Tutorials | Supervisions |
| Known strengths | Humanities, PPE, law, medicine, sciences | Sciences, mathematics, engineering, humanities |
| Famous library | Bodleian | Cambridge University Library |
| Prime Ministers educated | Around 30 | Around 14 |
Students can't apply to both universities in the same year for undergraduate study, so applicants must choose one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is the University of Oxford?
Teaching has existed at Oxford since at least 1096, making it more than 900 years old.
Is Oxford older than Cambridge?
Yes. Cambridge was founded in 1209 by scholars who had left Oxford.
How many colleges does Oxford have?
Oxford has more than 30 colleges plus several permanent private halls.
Can international students study at Oxford?
Yes. Oxford has a large international student community, and scholarships such as the Rhodes, Clarendon and Reach Oxford programmes support students from around the world.
What is a tutorial at Oxford?
A tutorial is a small teaching session, usually with one to three students and a tutor who is an expert in the subject. Students typically prepare an essay or problem set beforehand and then discuss and defend their work in depth. Tutorials are at the heart of Oxford's undergraduate teaching.
What does PPE stand for, and why is it famous?
PPE stands for Philosophy, Politics and Economics, a degree Oxford created in the 1920s. It has produced an unusually large number of politicians, journalists and civil servants, including several Prime Ministers, which is why it's often called the degree that "runs Britain".
Do Oxford students live in their colleges?
Most undergraduates live in college accommodation for at least part of their degree, often for all years. Colleges provide rooms, dining halls, libraries, common rooms and sports facilities, creating a close-knit community.
What is Oxford best known for?
Oxford is known for its tutorial teaching system, historic colleges, the Bodleian Library and strength across subjects, especially Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), law, medicine, history and the sciences.
How hard is it to get into Oxford?
Very competitive. Overall, roughly one in six or seven undergraduate applicants receives an offer, and the most popular courses are even more selective. Strong grades are necessary but not enough; tests and interviews play a major role.
Is Oxford University free to visit?
Many university buildings, museums and some colleges can be visited free, while others charge a small entry fee. Guided tours of the Bodleian Library require tickets.
How far is Oxford from London?
About 90 kilometres (56 miles) northwest of London, roughly an hour by train from London Paddington or Marylebone, or around 90 minutes by coach.
Final Thoughts
The University of Oxford is much more than a famous name. It's a living institution that has shaped science, literature, politics and medicine for over nine centuries, while preserving traditions that make it unlike anywhere else. Whether you dream of studying there or simply enjoy history, Oxford's story is full of surprises.
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