Terminology in education is confusing at best.
For example, in the U.S., we refer to "public" and "private" schools.
In the U.K., a "public" school is a private school and "public"
education is provided by state schools.
In our country, we refer to larger, postsecondary institutions as
"universities." Generally, a University will consist of a collection
of "Colleges" which each teach an academic discipline (for example,
business or engineering) and are either very centralized or relatively
independent depending on the culture of the parent university.
Departments, again focusing on specific disciplines, are found in each
college. In our College of Business at Lipscomb, we have departments
of management, marketing, accounting, and finance and economics.
Undergraduate students in the U.S. are usually accepted for admission
by the university. They then elect to take courses and to "major" in
an academic discipline of a college and department. Degrees are
conferred by the university, albeit often in specific academic
disciplines.
Now, for the University of Oxford, throw all of that away and redraw
the blueprint.
The "university" has no "campus." Its 38 Colleges each own property,
have endowments, and have "campuses" usually consisting of residence
halls, a dining hall, a chapel, social areas (often designated as
senior, middle and junior commons), and a residence (usually quite
nice) for the head of the college.
For undergraduates at Oxford, admission is through each college. For
postgraduate students, admission is through the university with
assignment to a specific college following. However, this is not
guaranteed so it could be that a postgraduate student is admitted by
the university and then is not accepted to live and study in a
college.
Colleges are not only residential but also form the core of the
instructional system. Within colleges, faculty (or tutors, once called
"dons") also reside. Literally. They live within the college alongside
the students, as a rule.
Since there are few "classes" at Oxford, a student's weekly meeting
with his tutor is the principal method of instruction. Prior to this
meeting, the student will have read his assignments and usually will
have written an essay which he will then defend in the weekly
meetings.
Colleges are cross-disciplinary and include by design a diverse
mixture of undergraduates and postgraduates, academic disciplines, and
national origin. Last year, students from 140 countries enrolled at
Oxford. It's this diverse and multi-disciplinary, multi-generational
approach that Oxford believes leads to the most effective learning.
The university administers examinations. For undergraduate students,
this comes at the end of the third year of study. Until this point,
students have received no grades. The exams are designed to
demonstrate mastery of the discipline and are taken in traditional
gown and white tie. Undergraduates receive the equivalent of a grade;
graduate students are graded as pass-fail.
The university confers the degree. The university sponsors lectures
which students can attend as they choose. The university sponsors
laboratories and provides a central library (although numerous other
discipline based libraries exist as well.)
The Colleges at Oxford live in lore and. often, in fiction and cinema.
Many of the colleges you may think to name if quizzed may not actually
exist. The best known actual colleges--Christ Church, Balliol,
University, All Souls, and Magdalen--can trace their roots back to the
founding of the university centuries ago.
We're staying and studying this week at Harris Manchester College, one
of the university's smaller with only 150 residents. The college was
founded in 1786 but did not receive landed college status until 1996.
It has one of the smaller endowments at 7.8 million GBP. The largest
college endowment belongs to St. John's College, with over 300 million
GBP. Harris Manchester is unique in that it only accepts full-time
students over age 21.
Ironically, there is a movement afoot in our country to replicate the
experience of living and learning with faculty members. The founder of
the Oxford Roundtable, Kern Alexander, introduced a hybrid concept
during his presidency of Murray State University in Kentucky. Gordon
Gee, former Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, convinced the Board
of Trust to spend more than $100 million on a new residential college
there before he departed to return to Ohio State.
As we in the U.S. increasingly abandon the concept of a "Sage on the
Stage" and move more toward the view of professors being "Guides on
the Side," we find that Oxford had this relationship thing between
students and faculty figured out hundreds of years ago.
Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.
"Everything changes, nothing perishes."
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