Oxford and Cambridge

Background

The University of Oxford is in the city of Oxford, England, and the University of Cambridge in the city of Cambridge; together they are called Oxbridge. Neither has a single main campus, and college buildings and facilities are spread across each city centre and its surroundings. Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, with evidence of teaching as early as 1096. A collegiate research university, it is now made up of 43 colleges, of which 36 are chartered colleges, 4 are permanent private halls and 3 are societies, and it operates the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University Press and the largest university library system in the country. Oxford grew rapidly after Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris in 1167; it gained corporate status in 1231 and a royal charter in 1248. Undergraduate teaching centres on lectures, small college tutorials, seminars and laboratory work. The Radcliffe Camera is Oxford's visual focus: funded from the legacy of the physician John Radcliffe and designed by James Gibbs, it was built in 1737–1749 and later became a reading room of the Bodleian Library. After a clash between Oxford scholars and townspeople in 1209, some scholars moved north to Cambridge, forming the University of Cambridge, the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. Cambridge received a royal charter in 1231 and was twice confirmed by the Pope, in 1290 and 1318, as a recognised centre of learning (studium generale); it is now made up of 31 semi-autonomous colleges, its undergraduate teaching centres on weekly small-group supervisions in the colleges, and it operates 8 cultural and scientific museums including the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge University Botanic Garden. King's College Chapel has the world's largest fan vault and was built in stages by successive English kings between 1448 and 1515, spanning the Wars of the Roses and the thirty years that followed; the great stained-glass windows were completed in 1531, and the early Renaissance screen was erected in 1532–1536.

Local customs

• Oxford: view the Radcliffe Camera from Radcliffe Square, or look across to it from the side of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, noting that its reading room is not open to the public
• see the exteriors and courts of the colleges, with opening as each college officially announces
• visit the Ashmolean Museum. Cambridge: walk around King's College Chapel and the Backs
• go punting on the river
• see the college courts from outside
• visit the Fitzwilliam Museum
• the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College Chapel on Christmas Eve is broadcast by the BBC and widely known.

Travel tips

• Both universities are places of teaching and research, and college courts and libraries are mostly working areas
• neither city has a single main campus and the sights are scattered, so plan your walks by college area. College opening ranges and times change often, and during term activities are frequent and access may narrow, with tickets as each college officially announces
• you can visit all year, summer brings many visitors, and winter days are short, so visit in daytime.
• Oxford has direct trains from London Paddington, and Cambridge has trains from London King's Cross and Liverpool Street
• the two cities are linked by rail and long-distance bus, with journey times and services as officially announced. Within both cities, walking and cycling are the most convenient.