Rivalry between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge is
a phenomenon going back many centuries. During most of that time, the two were
the only universities in England and Wales, making the rivalry more intense
than it is now.
The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge,
sometimes collectively known as Oxbridge, are the two oldest universities in
the United Kingdom. Both were founded more than 800 years ago, and between them
they have produced a large number of Britain's most prominent scientists,
writers and politicians, as well as noted figures in many other fields.
Competition between Oxford and Cambridge also has a long history, dating back
to around 1208 when Cambridge was founded by scholars taking refuge from hostile
townsmen in Oxford
In 2012 the Times Higher Education World Reputation
Rankings, based on a survey of 13,388 academics over 131 countries which was
then the largest evaluation of academic reputation to date[3] found that both
Cambridge and Oxford belonged to the elite group of six universities touted as
the 'globally recognised super brands'; The other four were Harvard University,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley,
and Stanford University.
Oxford and Cambridge
both have:
well-regarded
publishing houses (Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press)
botanical gardens
(University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Cambridge University Botanic Garden)
museums (the
Ashmolean and the Fitzwilliam)
legal deposit
libraries (the Bodleian and the Cambridge University Library)
debating societies
(the Oxford Union and the Cambridge Union)
business schools
(the Saïd Business School and the Judge Business School)
science parks
(Oxford Science Park and Cambridge Science Park)
theatrical
societies and groups (the Oxford University Dramatic Society and The Oxford
Revue, the Cambridge Footlights, The Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club
and the Marlowe Society)
Collegiate structure
Oxford and Cambridge also share a common collegiate
structure: each university has more than 30 semi-autonomous residential
colleges (see Colleges of the University of Cambridge, Colleges of the
University of Oxford), which provide the environments in which students live,
work and sleep.
Applicants must choose a specific college when applying to
Oxford or Cambridge, or allow the university to select one for them, as every
undergraduate and graduate student must be a member of one of the
colleges. However, all colleges are part of the university and students
studying the same subject attend the same lectures and exams, irrespective of
which college they belong to. Degrees are also awarded by the central
university and not by the individual colleges.
Colleges within each university regularly compete with each
other in a variety of sporting and other events (e.g. rugby, rowing, athletics
and chess), but will pool their talent to form university teams for
inter-university contests.
Teaching method
The principal method of undergraduate teaching (other than
lectures) is the "supervision" or "tutorial": terms used at
Cambridge and Oxford respectively, though the meaning is the same. These are
typically weekly or more frequent hour-long sessions in which small groups of
students - usually between one and three - meet with a member of the
university's teaching staff or a doctoral student. Students are normally
required to complete an essay or assignment in advance of the supervision/tutorial,
which they will discuss with the supervisor/tutor during the session, along
with any concerns or difficulties they have had with the material presented in
that week's lectures. Students typically receive one to four
tutorials/supervisions per week.
Neighbouring
universities and other institutions
Within the cities of Oxford and Cambridge are campuses of
other universities, respectively Oxford Brookes University and Anglia Ruskin
University. In addition, various English language schools, secretarial and
other non-university colleges are based in the two cities.
Production of
educational materials
Both Oxford and Cambridge have lent their names to
educational materials and institutions associated with the two universities. In
addition to their printing houses, the Oxford English Dictionary is a prominent
English-language dictionary worldwide, while Cambridge Assessment provides a
number of widely recognised qualifications for students (including GCSEs,
A-levels and English-language proficiency certificates such as the Certificate
in Advanced English).
Differences between Oxford and Cambridge
The cities
The city of Oxford is larger (having a population about 30
per cent greater than Cambridge's in 2007) and has historically been more urban
and industrial, whilst Cambridge more closely resembles an agricultural market
town. Oxford is associated with the motor industry (BMW currently produce the
Mini in Oxford, and several Formula One teams are based in Oxfordshire and
neighbouring counties), whereas the area surrounding Cambridge is known as
Silicon Fen, one of the most important technology centres in Europe, and has a
lot of medical technology firms.
Both cities were built near rivers. However, the river is a
more prominent feature in Cambridge, flowing through the city centre rather
than around it as it does at Oxford. punting is especially popular in Cambridge
along the famous stretch called 'The Backs', which features a number of bridges
and 'the backs' of several colleges that abut the River Cam (punting is also
popular at Oxford).
Despite many ancient buildings in both Oxford and Cambridge,
there are also distinct differences in architecture. Oxford has a uniformity of
building material, as a large proportion of the buildings are in the local
sandstone. Cambridge, on the other hand, has little local stone, so the
building material has been brought in from many different sources, resulting in
a greater variety of character. The contrasts in architecture in Cambridge are
more pronounced, as can be seen when comparing King's College with the
neighbouring Senate House.
Oxford is featured more often in literature and the cinema;
films with scenes shot in Oxford include Shadowlands and the Harry Potter
movies, while Radcliffe Square was used in the filming of His Dark Materials:
Northern Lights. The television series Inspector Morse and Lewis are also set
in Oxford. Cambridge may be best known in film as the real-life location of the
court race scene portrayed in the film Chariots of Fire (although the scene was
filmed at Eton College instead), or for the television series Porterhouse Blue
Oxford for humanities,
Cambridge for sciences
There is a somewhat common impression that Oxford is
stronger in politics and the humanities, while Cambridge is stronger in the
sciences and engineering. Despite both universities stressing that there is no
significant difference between them in either the sciences or humanities today,
this disparity in the popular imagination has existed since at least the late
1820s, when The Times newspaper reported on the appointment of Oxford and
Cambridge academics to the newly established professorships of University
College London: "it is known to be the intention to choose classical
professors at Oxford, and mathematical at Cambridge", although in the
event both the classical and mathematical professors were eventually chosen
from Cambridge.
In his book, The Decline of Privilege: The Modernization of
Oxford University, Joseph A. Soares, an American sociologist, suggests that
Oxford developed a superior political and literary reputation because of its
unparalleled connections to England's governing class, its status as the oldest
and most traditional university in England, and the greater romantic appeal of
Oxford to writers:
“ ...in
British cabinets in the twentieth century, Oxford men and women outnumbered
Cambridge graduates nearly two to one ... Of eleven prime ministers counting
back from Tony Blair, eight were undergraduates at Oxford, and none were at
Cambridge ... Oxford has been second to none as a gatekeeper to the political
elite...
Academics and novelists have viewed Oxford as the
quintessential English university ... authors who portray universities in their
novels, as Ian Carter's definitive study of British university fiction since
1945 demonstrated, have been attracted to Oxford by a huge majority. Of the 204
novels written between 1945 and 1988 that featured British academic life, 119
depicted Oxford; Cambridge, with 26 appearances, came in a distant second place
... Carter showed that fictional Oxford signified those values thought to
epitomize English society: tolerance, civility, pluralism, and democracy ... To
judge from novels on academic life, one would surmise that England's soul
dwelled in Oxford.
Because of its relation to the power elite and its hold on
the middle-class imagination, Oxford often provided the mental landscape for
national self-examination ...
[A] major charge against Oxford was that ... it was
anti-science and unconcerned with contributing to economic growth. As we shall
see ... there was substance to this criticism before World War II, but there
has not been since then.
In contrast, Cambridge has been associated with a large
number of Nobel Prize-winning breakthroughs and the majority of Britain's most
culturally significant scientists, including Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton.
The authors of Oxford Figures also suggest that Cambridge's unrivalled
intellectual reputation in England, especially although not exclusively in
technical fields, could be partly attributed to the emphasis it placed on
mathematics for many years:
“Cambridge
developed, from the mid-eighteenth century onwards, a highly competitive
examination culture geared towards ranking students on a mathematical
examination, after prolonged coaching. Furthermore ... no student could go on
to [study classics unless they had already done well in mathematics]. This
system produced ... many of the best mathematicians and scientists of the
nineteenth century, as well as some of the best lawyers, clergymen, and other
professionals...
Although the Cambridge system in its most competitive form
was dropped in the early twentieth century ... [the effect it had on the
quality of Oxford applicants] can be seen in the rueful reflections in 1912 of
Arthur Joliffe, Fellow and tutor at Corpus Christi College from 1891 to 1920, upon
the evidence presented by candidates for Oxford entrance scholarships:
it is undeniable that the average candidate [at Oxford] is
not as good as the average candidate at Cambridge. The genius from the small
grammar school, the promising student from a provincial university, the ablest
boy at the large public school, all are sent to Cambridge in preference to
Oxford as a rule. Some of the candidates sent to Oxford from large public
schools are occasionally so bad that one can only suppose that their masters
think that a willingness to come to Oxford is a sufficient qualification for a
Mathematical Scholarship there.
”
Notwithstanding the above, significant changes have occurred
at both Oxford and Cambridge over the last century, including Cambridge's diversification
away from intense mathematical study and Oxford's renewed emphasis on
ground-breaking scientific research, such as its influential work in the
development of penicillin. However, the withdrawal of equal academic dress from
Oxford's scientist alumni may perhaps reflect a current institutional
preference towards the arts. Also, Oxford offers the course of Philosophy,
Politics, and Economics, while Cambridge does not. Software tycoon Bill Gates
gives scholarships to Cambridge, while Oxford is home to what is the oldest and
arguably the most prestigious academic award for graduates - Rhodes Scholarship
- instituted by Cecil Rhodes. US News and World Report rankings support this
stereotype; Cambridge tends to rank higher in the sciences, and Oxford in the
humanities.
Entrance to Oxford and Cambridge is academically
competitive. According to the 2011 Universities Guide from The Guardian
newspaper, the five top universities in the UK based on undergraduate students'
performance in public examinations while at high school (as measured on the
UCAS tariff scale) were Cambridge (546), Oxford (530), Imperial College London
(500), the London School of Economics (493) and Durham University (466).
Depending on which subject an applicant wishes to specialise in, there are
often compulsory subject-specific entrance tests as well.
After an initial screening of submitted applications,
short-listed candidates at Oxford and Cambridge are invited to a series of
tests and interviews with the academics who may eventually be teaching them.
Oxbridge interviews have acquired something of a mythical status in the British
media, becoming a source of various humorous anecdotes and urban legends due to
the perception that the interviews themselves are bizarre, intimidating and/or
frequently involve unusual questions and requests. Interview prompts reportedly
used in the past include "Do you think you're clever?" (from a Law
interview at Cambridge) and "Talk about a light bulb" (from an
Engineering interview at Oxford). Admissions staff have said that there are no
correct answers to such questions, but that applicants are assessed on their
ability to approach unfamiliar, open-ended problems and discuss them
articulately, incorporating new ideas and evidence as the discussion progresses.
Candidates are also expected to show a willingness to challenge their own
preconceptions about the topics under discussion, as well as the preconceptions
adopted by their interviewers. This is essentially a test of whether the
student would do well under the tutorial/supervision system at Oxford and
Cambridge, and a poor performance at interview may negate an otherwise strong
application.
In recent years, Cambridge has placed slightly more emphasis
than Oxford on public exam results during the selection process. Cambridge
routinely asks applicants who take A-level exams to report their exact scores,
not just letter-grades;[27] this is partly to distinguish between high A-grades
and borderline A/B grades. In contrast, disclosure of exact scores for Oxford
applications is voluntary. In 2010, the new A* grade for A-level exams (an A*
indicating a high A) was introduced. Cambridge started requesting that its
applicants achieve at least one A* grade if they were taking A-levels, letting
students earn a place through their performance in public examinations; Oxford
initially stated that it relies more on its own internal aptitude tests and
waited to see how effective the A* grade is at highlighting the best
candidates, before deciding to implement it as a requirement for most courses
starting in 2012.
Due to the similarities between the two universities, and to
ease the burden of interviewing so many applicants each year, high school
students are not normally allowed to apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the
same application cycle. This restriction does not apply to potential organ
scholars or students who already have a degree and are applying for a second
undergraduate degree or a graduate degree at Oxbridge.
Over the last few years, British universities have been
subjected to the increasing popularity of national university league tables,
which rank universities based on criteria such as their student-staff ratio,
drop-out rates and spending on services and facilities. Oxford and Cambridge
have been a constant presence at the top end of the tables, never appearing
outside the overall top three and rarely not holding the first and second
places, but their dominance in individual subjects has been challenged by other
institutions.
As of 2012, Cambridge has been ranked above Oxford in three
out of the four major UK university league tables. Cambridge has been ranked
1st and Oxford 2nd in the tables compiled by the Guardian, and The Sunday
Times, and 3rd behind the London School of Economics in The Complete University
Guide, whereas Oxford is ranked 1st and Cambridge 2nd in The Times Good
University Guide.
International league tables of universities across the
world, which use a variety of different criteria (often research output in the
sciences and reputation among peer institutions), have also generally favoured
Cambridge over Oxford; for example the 2010 U.S. News & World Report's
World's Best Universities ranking placed Cambridge as 1st in the world and
Oxford the 6th. The Academic Ranking of World Universities produced in China
ranked Cambridge 5th in the world in 2010 and ranked Oxford 10th.
However, in the International 2013 Times Higher
Education rankings, Oxford is ranked 2nd globally and Cam
