Oxford University Press (OUP), publisher of the famous dictionaries and a department of the University, is the world’s largest university press. It has publishing operations in 16 countries, sales offices in 90 countries, and almost 5,000 employees worldwide.
The University has offices in New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Oxford Colleges
The University has 38 independent and self-governing colleges, and 6 permanent private halls.
The collegiate system is at the heart of the University’s success, giving students and academics the benefits of belonging to both a large, internationally renowned institution and to a small, interdisciplinary academic community.
Colleges bring together leading academics and students across subjects and year groups, and from different cultures and countries.
The relatively small number of students at each college allows for close and supportive personal attention to be given to the induction, academic development and welfare of individual students.
Colleges invest heavily in facilities including extensive library and IT provision, accommodation and welfare support, and sports and social facilities.
Thirty colleges and five halls admit students for both graduate and undergraduate degrees. Green Templeton, Linacre, Nuffield, St Antony’s, St Cross and Wolfson Colleges admit only graduate students, as does Kellogg College, which supports the lifelong learning work of the University for adult, part-time, and professional development students. All Souls is unique among Oxford colleges because it has no junior members: all are Fellows (except the Warden).
All colleges accept both men and women.
The University’s oldest colleges are University College, Balliol College, and Merton College, all of which were established by the 13th century.
Green Templeton College, which came into existence in October 2008 following the merger of Green College and Templeton College, is the University’s newest college.
St Catherine’s College, which takes both undergraduate and graduate students, currently has the largest number of students (715), while one of the graduate-only colleges and a number of permanent private halls have fewer than a hundred student members.
Oxford Research
Oxford's research activity involves more than 70 departments, the colleges, over 1,600 academic staff, more than 3,500 contract researchers and around 3,600 postgraduate research students.
Oxford has more world-leading academics (rated 4* in the 2008 national Research Assessment Exercise) than any other UK university. Oxford also has the highest number of world-leading or internationally excellent (4* or 3*) academics in the UK.
At graduate level, 57 per cent of students are studying for a higher degree by research.
External research grants and contracts continue to be the University’s largest source of income. In 2008-9, 40 per cent (£340.5 million) of income came from external research sponsors.
Research income has doubled in the last five years and grew by almost 20 per cent between 2008 and 2009 alone.
Oxford consistently has the highest research income from external sponsors of any UK university.
The number of new research grants and contracts won in 2008-9 reached over 1,900.
Oxford, through Isis Innovation Limited, our wholly owned technology transfer company, pioneered the successful commercial exploitation of academic research and invention. It has created more than 60 companies and files, on average, one patent application each week.
In the year to March 2009, Isis Innovation's trading turnover increased from £4.8 million to £5.8 million, four new spin-out companies were created and the number of new consultancy agreements almost doubled to 151.
Oxford Awards
Oxford’s academic community includes 80 Fellows of the Royal Society and 100 Fellows of the British Academy.
In 2009, three Oxford professors were elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society.
In 2009, four Oxford professors were elected to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
In 2009, seven Oxford academics were elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy.
In 2009, two Oxford academics were elected to the Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The successes of Oxford’s academics are recognised regularly in the award of prestigious international prizes, such as the International Balzan Prize, awarded to Professor Terence Cave in 2009; the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, given to Professor Peter Ratcliffe in 2009; the Royal Society's Copley Medal, awarded in 2008 to Professor Sir Roger Penrose; the Gairdner International Award for achievements in medical research, bestowed in 2007 on Professor Kim Nasmyth; and a Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research, won in 2005 by Professor Sir Ed Southern.
Oxford University has won seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes for HIgher Education, more than any other university. The prizes were awarded to: the University's museums, libraries and archives (2009); the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography at Oxford University Press (2007), the Clinical Trial Service Unit (2005), the Refugee Studies Centre (2002), the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology & Tropical Medicine (2000), the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (1996), and Isis Innovation Ltd (1994).hxw.red