University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England, and the oldest university in the English-speaking world. There is evidence of teaching there by 1096, and it grew quickly after 1167, when Henry II barred English students from attending the University of Paris. Oxford is a federation of 39 self-governing colleges plus several permanent private halls. Every student belongs both to a college and to a university department or faculty.

Academic work is organized into four divisions: Humanities; Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences; Medical Sciences; and Social Sciences. A Department for Continuing Education sits alongside them. Oxford is known for medicine and vaccine research, mathematics, philosophy, classics, law, economics, politics and computer science. Key centers include the Bodleian Libraries, the Jenner Institute, the Big Data Institute and the Oxford Internet Institute. The Blavatnik School of Government and the Saïd Business School serve graduate professional education.

Oxford has about 26,000 students, and slightly more than half are postgraduates. International students make up roughly 45 percent of enrollment and come from more than 160 countries. About 70 Nobel laureates have studied or worked there, and Oxford has educated about 30 British prime ministers. Its alumni include Indira Gandhi, Stephen Hawking and Tim Berners-Lee.

Oxford's research doctorate is called the DPhil, and it usually takes three to four years. Graduate students can also take the MPhil, the one-year MSc and MSt, the BPhil in Philosophy, the MBA and the BCL. Research students work under a departmental supervisor, and their college provides a separate academic and social community. The year has three eight-week terms: Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity. Scholarships are a large part of graduate funding, including the Rhodes Scholarship, founded in 1902, the Clarendon Fund and many college awards.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, University of Oxford lists 338 graduate programs across 40 subjects: 220 master's programs and 104 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in biology, area studies and health & medical sciences. University of Oxford holds rank 5 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.