Oxbridge

For seven hundred years two universities dominated in British education, and today they dominate more then ever, with fame enhanced by their isolation, and their sheer hypnotic beauty. Like Dukes, Oxford and Cambridge preserve an antique way of life in the midst of the twentieth century. Oxford and Cambridge have always provided a large number of permanents secretaries (White-hall civil servants), members of Parliament, and of the vice-chancellors of the universities. The students of Oxbridge make up, from the outside, at least, one of the most elite in the world. Less than one per cent of Britain's population goes to Oxbridge but, once there, industry and government woo them. AB.A. (Oxford) or BA (Cambridge) is quite different from an ordinary BA.

Oxbridge is only in session half the year, and the universities adjourn for four months in the summer - a relic from medieval times, when scholars had to bring in the harvest.

Slowly the population of Oxford and Cambridge has been changing. In the nineteenth century it was a mixture of some boys who were poor and clever, and others who were rich and idle. Only since in 1870s women have been admitted, and the women's colleges constitute only 12 per cent of the Oxbridge population, so that competition to reach them is fierce: at St Anne's, Oxford, only a small per cent of the candidates are chosen - mainly on the results of the written examinations.

The division between Oxbridge and Redbrick is sharp. It's absurd that four-fifth of undergraduates should be made to feel that they're inferior for life. In the civil service, politics and law there has been no visible breach in the supremacy of Oxbridge graduates. The division is essentially a class one. While a large per cent of Oxbridge undergraduates come from public schools, very few of Redbrick do: many public school boys would rather go straight into business, into the services foreign university, than go to a Redbrick university: they prefer no degree to a Redbrick degree.

In England Redbrick has been separated from the beginning. When Oxford and Cambridge were exclusively Anglican, the new Victorian universities were built to provide a liberal education for the poorer boys and dissenters of the provinces - and to give technological training. They grew up outside the old aristocratic pattern. Oxford and Cambridge graduates scorned them, and London University, which was founded in 1836, was referred to as that joint stock company in Gower Street!

Do you know? Do we have an analogy in our country?

1. That the word "University" (L. Universities) like the word "College" (l. Collegium) meant originally a society of people with a common enjoyment, it was only later that it came to be associated with scholarship.

- Can we say that we always receive a common enjoyment in a university?

2. That Tripos is a degree examination at Cambridge? In the past when the student went for his degree examination it took him sometime to show his knowledge of 3 subjects. (Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric) So he was allowed to bring a small stool or "Tripos" to sit on, and to this day the degree examinations at Cambridge are called "Tripos" examinations.

3. At Oxford the instruction is mainly given by the college tutors and lecturers, and by university professors and readers. All students are members of a college and of the university. They may attend all lectures they like.

The tutorial system in Oxford and Cambridge differs from that of all the other English Universities. Every student has a tutor. As soon as a student comes to Oxford he goes to see his tutor. The tutor plans his work, suggests the books he should read and sets work for him to do, for example an essay to write. Each week he goes to his tutor's rooms with 2 or 3 other students. The tutor discusses with them the work they have done; he criticizes in detail their essays and sets them the next week's work. Such lessons are called "tutorials".

4. The story of the University of Cambridge begins in 1209. Several hundred students and scholars arrived in the little town of Cambridge after having walked 60 miles from Oxford. These students were all churchmen and had been studying in Oxford, at that city's well-known schools. It was a hard life at Oxford for there was constant trouble, even fighting between the townsfolk and the students. Life in college was strict. The students were forbidden to play games; to sing (except sacred music); to hunt or fish or even to dance. Books were very scarce and all the lessons were in the Latin language; students were supposed to speak Latin even among themselves. In Cambridge there are 19 colleges; excluding two for woman students. Women students do not play a very active part in university life.