University of Oxford

is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. Evidence of teaching at the university dates back to as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest university in continuous operation globally. The university grew rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. Following disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk, some Oxford academics fled northeast to Cambridge, where they established the University of Cambridge in 1209. The two universities share many common features and are collectively referred to as Oxbridge.

The University of Oxford comprises 43 constituent colleges, including 36 semi-autonomous colleges, four permanent private halls, and three societies (which are colleges that function as departments of the university without their own royal charter), as well as a range of academic departments organized into four divisions. Each college is a self-governing institution within the university, controlling its own membership, structure, and activities. All students are members of a college. Oxford does not have a central campus; instead, its buildings and facilities are spread throughout the city center. Undergraduate teaching at Oxford includes lectures, small-group tutorials at colleges and halls, seminars, laboratory work, and occasionally additional tutorials provided by the central university faculties and departments. Postgraduate teaching is primarily centralized.

Oxford operates several prominent institutions, including the Ashmolean Museum, the world’s oldest university museum, Oxford University Press, the largest university press in the world, and the largest academic library system in the UK. In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2023, the university reported a total consolidated income of £2.92 billion, of which £789 million came from research grants and contracts.

Oxford has educated many notable alumni, including 31 prime ministers of the United Kingdom and numerous heads of state and government worldwide. As of October 2022, 73 Nobel Prize laureates, 4 Fields Medalists, and 6 Turing Award winners have studied, worked, or held visiting fellowships at Oxford. Its alumni have also won 160 Olympic medals. Oxford is home to several prestigious scholarships, including the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the oldest international graduate scholarship programs.

The University of Oxford has four academic divisions, within which are individual departments, faculties or other centres. Click on the headings below to reveal the different departments, faculties or centres that make up the four academic divisions, or scroll to the bottom for a video explanation of the remit of each division's research.

Devisions and faculties