University of Oxford

The University of Oxford (informally Oxford University or simply Oxford) is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England, United Kingdom.

While Oxford has no known date of foundation, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world, the world's second-oldest surviving university. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending theUniversity of Paris. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled northeast to Cambridge, where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two "ancient universities" are frequently jointly referred to as "Oxbridge".

The University is made up from a variety of institutions, including 38 constituent colleges and a full range of academic departments which are organised into four Divisions. Most undergraduate teaching at Oxford is organised around weeklytutorials at the self-governing colleges and halls, supported by classes, lectures and laboratory work provided by university faculties and departments. Oxford has nurtured many prominent alumni and 58 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the university. It regularly contends with Cambridge for the first place in the UK league tables.

Oxford is the home of two of the most prestigious international graduate scholarships: the Rhodes Scholarship, which has brought international students to read at the university for more than a century and the Clarendon Scholarship.