Welcome to the University of Oxford. People from all walks of life and all parts of the world have been visiting us for nine centuries and we are delighted that via this website you are joining that long tradition. Oxford was the first University in the English-speaking world. Our aim is to remain at the forefront of centres of learning, teaching and research.
Oxford’s remarkable global appeal continues to grow. Students from more than a hundred
and forty countries and territories make up a student population of over twenty thousand. Over a third comes from outside the United Kingdom.
But it is not just longevity and global reach that mark Oxford out and give the University its special character. There is also our distinctive college and tutorial system which underpins a culture of close academic supervision and careful personal support for our outstanding students. Our colleges and halls of which there are more than forty also help to foster the intense interdisciplinary approach that inspires much of the outstanding research achievement of the University and makes Oxford a leader in so many fields. It is an approach especially suited to confronting many of the hugely complex challenges that face us all. That is why we believe that the greater we can make Oxford, the greater its contribution to the well-being of the world you and I share.
Oxford People
With almost 20,000 students, 8,500 University staff, 3,000 College employees, and 180,000 alumni, people are what make Oxford an internationally-renowned university.
Learn more about the Vice-Chancellor, the Chancellor and other key University figures.
Find out the names of some of the distinguished men and women who have studied or taught at Oxford.
Oxonian Nobel Laureates, winners of the Balzan Prize, Fields Medal and Rolf Schock Prize are listed here.
Discover the Oxford University scientists who played a key role in the founding of the Royal Society in 1660.
Geoffrey Hill was elected Oxford University Professor of Poetry on June 18 2010.
Among these are 26 British Prime Ministers, including the current one, the Rt Hon David Cameron MP; at least 30 international leaders; 47 Nobel Prize winners; 7 current holders of the Order of Merit; at least 12 saints and 20 Archbishops of Canterbury; and some 50 Olympic medal winners.
At least 117 Oxonians were elected to Parliament in the UK's General Election in 2010, and more than 140 sit in the House of Lords. The offices of Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer are all currently held by Oxford graduates, as are those of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Secretary of State for Education, Secretary of State for Transport, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In addition, at least two members of the US House of Representatives, three members of the US Senate and one US State Governor were educated at Oxford.
20th & 21st Centuries
- HM King Abdullah II of Jordan
- Sir Grantley Adams, Premier of Barbados, 1954-1958; Prime Minister of the West Indies, 1958-1962
- J M G (Tom) Adams, Prime Minister of Barbados 1976-85
- Diran Adebayo, author
- Samira Ahmed, journalist and presenter
- Monica Ali, author
- Tariq Ali, writer
- Rowan Atkinson, comedian
- Sir Kingsley Amis, author
- Lindsay Anderson, film-maker
- W H Auden, poet
- Clement Attlee, UK Prime Minister, 1945-1951
- Zeinab Badawi, journalist and broadcaster
- Solomon Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, 1956-1959
- Sir Roger Bannister, neurologist and athlete
- Dame Josephine Barnes, first female President of the British Medical Association
- Marian Bell, economist
- Tony Benn, politician
- Alan Bennett, playwright
- Sir Lennox Berkeley, composer
- Sir Isaiah Berlin, philosopher
- Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web
- Sir John Betjeman, poet
- Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988-90 & 1993-96)
- Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, former President (1970-73) and Prime Minister (1972-77) of Pakistan
- Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister (1997-2007)
- Baruch S Blumberg, Nobel Prize-winning scientist
- Edmund Blunden, poet
- Henry Bonsu, journalist and broadcaster
- Dr Ian Bostridge, opera singer
- Sir Adrian Boult, conductor
- James Bowman, counter-tenor
- William Boyd, author
- Lord (Melvyn) Bragg, broadcaster
- Justice Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States, 1994-
- Vera Brittain, writer
- Peter Brook, theatre director
- Fiona Bruce, broadcaster
- Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia, Prime Minister of Ghana 1969-72
- Robert Byron, travel writer
- Rt Hon David Cameron MP, UK Prime Minister 2010-
- Baroness (Barbara) Castle, politician
- General Wesley Clark, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, 1997-2000
- Bill Clinton, President of the United States, 1992-2000
- Wendy Cope, poet
- Richard Curtis, screenwriter
- Cecil Day Lewis, poet
- Edward de Bono, philosopher
- David Dimbleby, journalist and broadcaster
- Sir John Eccles, scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology 1963
- John Edmonds, trade unionist
- T S Eliot, poet
- Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, chef and broadcaster
- Helen Fielding, author
- Dr Amelia Fletcher, Chief Economist, Office of Fair Trading
- Lord Florey, Nobel Prize-winning pathologist
- Michèle Flournoy, US Under Secretary of Defense
- Emilia Fox, actress
- Lady Antonia Fraser, novelist and historian
- Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister of Australia, 1975-83
- William Fulbright, politician, founder of the Fulbright Scholarships
- Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, 1966-77 & 1980-84
- Dr Frene Ginwala, former Speaker of the South African National Assembly
- William Golding, Nobel Prize-winning novelist
- Hugh Grant, actor
- Robert Graves, poet
- Graham Greene, author
- Sir John Grey Gorton, Prime Minister of Australia, 1968-1971
- Mark Haddon, author
- J B S Haldane, geneticist
- Professor Stuart Hall, sociologist
- Harald V, King of Norway since 1991
- Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia, 1983-91
- Professor Stephen Hawking, physicist
- Sir Edward Heath, UK Prime Minister, 1970-74
- Joseph Heller, author
- Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Oscar-winning film-maker
- Sir Cyril Hinshelwood, Nobel Prize-winning chemist
- Sir Tony Hoare, computer scientist
- Dorothy Hodgkin, Nobel Prize-winning chemist
- Edwin Hubble, astronomer
- Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, 1976-99
- Aldous Huxley, author
- Armando Iannucci, writer and comedian
- Lord (Roy) Jenkins, former Home Secretary and Chancellor of the University
- Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, former US Congressman
- Luke Johnson, businessman, Chairman of Channel 4
- Lakshman Kadirgamar, former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister
- Natasha Kaplinsky, television presenter
- Imran Khan, Pakistani politician and former international cricketer
- Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan
- Soweto Kinch, jazz musician, saxophonist
- Dame Emma Kirkby, soprano
- John Kufuor, President of Ghana 2001-2009
- Haruhiko Kuroda, President of the Asian Development Bank
- Martha Lane Fox, businesswoman, co-founder of lastminute.com
- Philip Larkin, poet
- T E Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia
- Nigella Lawson, chef and broadcaster
- John Le Carre, author
- C S Lewis, writer and scholar
- Ken Loach, film-maker
- Alain Locke, philosopher and architect of the Harlem Renaissance
- Richard G Lugar, United States Senator
- Val McDermid, crime writer
- Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum
- Harold Macmillan, UK Prime Minister, 1957-63
- Norman Manley, Leader of Jamaica, 1955-62
- Chief Justice Mrs Sujata Vasant Manohar, Judge of the Supreme Court of India 1994-99
- Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, first Prime Minister (and later President) of Fiji
- Sir Peter Medawar, scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology 1960
- Ved Mehta, author
- Roland Michener, Governor-General of Canada 1967-74
- Dame Barbara Mills, first female Director of Public Prosecutions
- Dom Mintoff, Prime Minister of Malta, 1955-1958 & 1971-1984
- Dudley Moore, actor, comedian, musician
- Dom Moraes, poet
- Kate Mosse, novelist
- Dame Iris Murdoch, philosopher and author
- Rupert Murdoch, Director, News International plc
- Arthur Mutambara, Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, 2009-
- Mylo, DJ
- V S Naipaul, Nobel Prize-winning author
- Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan
- Rageh Omaar, journalist
- Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary (2010- and 1998-2002) and leader of the Fidesz political party
- Michael Palin, actor and writer
- Lester B Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada, 1963-1968, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
- Robert Penn Warren, American poet laureate
- Rosamund Pike, actress
- Sir Matthew Pinsent, four times Olympic Gold Medal-winning rower
- Dennis Potter, playwright
- Philip Pullman, author
- Hugh Quarshie, actor
- Dr Olli Rehn, EU Commissioner for Enlargement
- Dr Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the United Nations
- Rachel Riley, co-host on Channel 4's Countdown
- Nick Robinson, journalist
- Hon Raymond Robinson, President of Trinidad and Tobago, 1997-2003
- General Sir Michael Rose, former UN Commander in Bosnia
- Michael Rosen, children's novelist and poet
- Lord (Robert) Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1980-1991
- Sir Martin Ryle, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
- Dr Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi
- Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement
- Dorothy L Sayers, author
- Ernst Schumacher, economist
- Pixley Seme, founder of the African National Congress
- Vikram Seth, author
- Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, 2004-
- Jacqui Smith, first female Home Secretary (2007-2009)
- Professor Oliver Smithies, winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Medicine
- Laura Solon, comedian
- Cornelia Sorabji, India’s first female lawyer
- John Spratt, United States Congressman
- Rick Stein, chef and broadcaster
- Lord (Nicholas) Stern, economist, author of the Stern Review into the Economics of Climate Change, 2006
- Aung San Suu Kyi, leader, Burmese National League for Democracy and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
- A J P Taylor, historian
- Baroness (Margaret) Thatcher, UK Prime Minister, 1979-90
- Sir Wilfred Thesiger, explorer and anthropologist
- Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC
- Lester Thurow, economist
- J R R Tolkien, author and academic
- Margaret Turner-Warwick, first woman President of the Royal College of Physicians
- Revd Chad Varah, founder of the Samaritans
- David Vitter, United States Congressman
- Baroness (Mary) Warnock, philosopher
- Evelyn Waugh, author
- Sir Andrew Wiles, mathematician
- Dr Eric Williams, historian and politician, Chief Minister of Trinidad and Tobago 1956-1959, Premier 1959-1962, Prime Minister 1962-1981
- Ivy Williams, first female barrister in the UK
- Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury since 2002
- Baroness Shirley Williams, politician
- Dr Heather Wilson, former United States Congresswoman
- Michael Winterbottom, film-maker
- Jeanette Winterson, author
- Qian Zhongsu, Chinese academic and writer
19th Century
- Matthew Arnold, poet
- H H Asquith, British Prime Minister
- Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor and composer
- Sir Max Beerbohm, author and cartoonist
- Gertrude Bell, explorer and archaeologist
- Hilaire Belloc, author
- William Beveridge, social reformer and economist
- John Buchan, author
- Sir Richard Burton, explorer
- Edward Burne-Jones, artist
- Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), author and academic
- Thomas de Quincey, author
- C B Fry, cricketer
- William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister
- Eglantyne Jebb, founder of the Save the Children Fund
- John Keble, theologian
- Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet
- William Morris, artist
- Cardinal John Henry Newman, theologian
- Sir Robert Peel, British Prime Minister
- Edward Pusey, theologian
- Eleanor Rathbone, politician and social reformer
- Cecil Rhodes, colonial pioneer, founder of the Rhodes Scholarships
- John Ruskin, author, artist and social reformer
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet
- Frederick Soddy, Nobel Prize-winning chemist
- Arnold Toynbee, social philosopher and economist
- Oscar Wilde, playwright, poet and author
17th & 18th Centuries
- William Henry Drayton, American revolutionary
- John Ford, playwright
- Edward Gibbon, historian
- Edmund Halley, astronomer
- William Harvey, scientist who discovered the circulation of the blood
- Thomas Hobbes, philosopher
- Robert Hooke, scientist
- Dr Samuel Johnson, lexicographer
- John Locke, philosopher
- Sir Richard Lovelace, poet
- James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia
- William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania
- Adam Smith, political economist
- James Smithson, scientist, founder of the Smithsonian Institution
- Robert Southey, poet
- Jonathan Swift, author and satirist
- Jethro Tull, agriculturalist and inventor
- John Wesley, founder of Methodism
- John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester, poet and courtier
- Sir Christopher Wren, architect
15th & 16th Centuries
- Cardinal William Allen
- John Donne, poet
- Erasmus, scholar
- Jerome of Prague, Czech religious reformer
- Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor and martyr
- Sir Walter Raleigh, explorer
- Sir Philip Sidney, poet
- William Tyndale, translator of the Bible
- Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Lord Chancellor and churchman, founder of Christ Church
13th & 14th Centuries
- Roger Bacon, scholar
- Thomas Bradwardine, Archbishop of Canterbury
- Simon Bredon, mathematician
- William of Ockham, philosopher and theologian
- Duns Scotus, philosopher and theologian
- John Wyclif (Wycliffe), religious reformer
The academic year at Oxford University runs from October to June. The year is divided into three eight week terms, Michaelmas (autumn), Hilary (spring), and Trinity (summer).
Major events which take place during the academic year include:
- The Boat Race
- Varsity Football Match
- Varsity Rugby Match
- Encaenia, the ceremony at which the University awards honorary degrees to distinguished men and women and commemorates its benefactors.
- The Oxford London Lecture is an annual lecture series hosted by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. Exploring the newest research emerging from Oxford this lecture and panel discussion will consider how research at Oxford impacts on the world in the twenty-first century.
- Degree days, at which students graduate, take place throughout the year, as do undergraduate open days.
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