y Night by Dorothy Sayers, herself one of the first women to gain an academic degree from Oxford, takes place in a (fictional) women's college at Oxford, and the issue of women's education is central to its plot. Buildings, collections, and facilities[edit] Main sites[edit]

tury to encompass scientific and medical studies.[citation needed] Knowledge of Ancient Greek was required for admission until 1920, and Latin until 1960.[citation needed]
The mid-20th century saw many distinguished continental scholars, displaced by Nazism and Communism, relocating to Oxford.
The list of distinguished scholars at the University of Oxford is long and includes many who have made major contributions to British politics, the sciences, medicine, and literature. More than 40 Nobel laureates and more than 50 world leaders have been affiliated with the University of Oxford.[20]
Women's education[edit]


Somerville College was founded as one of Oxford's first women's colleges in 1879, it is now fully co-educational.
The University passed a Statute in 1875 allowing its delegates to create examinations for women at roughly undergraduate level.[21] The first four women's colleges were established thanks to the activism of the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women (AEW). Lady Margaret Hall (1878)[22] was followed by Somerville College in 1879;[23] the first 21 students from Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall attended lectures in rooms above an Oxford baker's shop.[21] The first two colleges for women were followed by St Hugh's (1886),[24] St Hilda's (1893)[25] and St Anne's College (1952).[26] Oxford was long considered a bastion of male privilege,[27] and it was not until 7 October 1920 that women became eligible for admission as full members of the university and were given the right to take degrees.[28] In 1927 the University's dons created a quota[29] that limited the number of female students to a quarter that of men, a ruling which was not abolished until 1957.[21] However, before the 1970s all Oxford colleges were for men or women only, so that the number of women was effectively limited by the capacity of the women's colleges to admit students. It was not until 1959 that the women's colleges were given full collegiate status.
In 1974, Brasenose, Jesus, Wadham, Hertford and St Catherine's became the first previously all-male colleges to admit women.[30][31]
In 2008, the last single-sex college, St Hilda's, admitted its first men, meaning all colleges are now co-residential. By 1988, 40% of undergraduates at Oxford were female;[32] the ratio is now about 48:52 in men's favour.
The detective novel Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers, herself one of the first women to gain an academic degree from Oxford, takes place in a (fictional) women's college at Oxford, and the issue of women's education is central to its plot.
Buildings, collections, and facilities[edit]

Main sites[edit]


The atrium of the Chemistry Research Laboratory. The university has invested heavily in new facilities in recent years.
The University is a "city university" in that it does not have a main campus; instead, colleges, departments, accommodation, and other facilities are scattered throughout the city centre. The Science Area, in which most science departments are located, is the area that bears closest resemblance to a campus. The ten-acre Radcliffe Observatory Quarter in the northwest of the city is currently under development. However, the larger colleges' sites are of similar size to these areas.
Iconic university buildings include the Sheldonian Theatre used for music concerts, lectures, and university ceremonies, and Examination Schools, where examinations and some lectures take place. The University Church of St Mary the Virgin was used for university ceremonies before the construction of the Sheldonian. Christ Church Cathedral uniquely serves as both a college chapel and as a cathedral.
In 2012, the University embarked on the controversial one-hectare (400m × 25m) Castle Mill development of 4–5 storey blocks of student flats overlooking Cr