This page serves as a central navigational point for lists of more than 2,350 members of the University of Oxford , divided into relevant groupings for ease of use. The vast majority were students at the university, although they did not necessarily take a degree; others have held fellowships at one of the university's colleges; many fall into both categories. This page does not include people whose only connection with the university consists in the award of an honorary degree or an honorary fellowship.
The list has been divided into categories indicating the field of activity in which people have become well known. Many of the university's alumni/ae, or old members, as they are more traditionally known, have attained a level of distinction in more than one field. These appear only in the category with which it is felt they are most often associated, or in which they have been more recently involved. Hence Jeffrey Archer (Brasenose), a novelist, is listed as a life peer; Imran Khan (Keble), a former captain of the Pakistani cricket team, is listed as a Pakistani politician. Some academic disciplines are more difficult to define than others. In particular, many theologians, lawyers, and sociologists work in areas that might be thought to be encompassed by philosophy.
Oxonians (a term for members, students or alumni of the university derived from its Latin name, Academia Oxoniensis) have included two British kings and at least twelve monarchs of ten other sovereign states, twenty-eight British prime ministers, and thirty-five presidents and prime ministers of nineteen other countries. As of July 2019 [update] there are seven Oxonians in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and two in the Shadow Cabinet. The university lays claim to twelve saints, ten blesseds, an antipope, eighteen cardinals, and eighty-nine archbishops (including thirty-two of Canterbury and twenty-two of York). The university claims forty-seven Nobel Laureates and three Fields Medallists. The university's oldest student was Gertrud Seidmann, who was awarded a Certificate of Graduate Attainment aged 91. [1]
This list also includes twenty-five princes and princesses (among them the heirs apparent of Belgium, Brunei, and Japan), thirty-four dukes, nineteen marquesses, eighty-two earls and countesses, forty-six viscounts and viscountesses, and 188 barons and baronesses; 246 bishops (Anglican and Catholic); 291 Members of Parliament (excluding MPs who were subsequently peers), eleven Members of the European Parliament (excluding MEPs also serving at Westminster), twelve Lord Chancellors, nine Lord Chief Justices and twenty-two law lords; ten US Senators, ten US Representatives (including a Speaker of the House), three state governors, and four associate justices of the US Supreme Court; as well as six puisne justices of the Supreme Court of Canada and a chief justice of the now defunct Federal Court of Canada.
Saints
Blessed
Pope
Cardinals
Archbishops of Canterbury
Archbishops of York
Other Archbishops, Presiding Bishops, and Metropolitans
Other Bishops
Clergy and other ministers
Theologians
Poets Laureate
Many journalists work in both print and broadcast media. The following are listed under the medium for which they are best known. Those who are known solely as sports commentators will be found at List of University of Oxford people in sport, exploration, and adventuring.
Composers
Conductors
Organists
Pianists
Singers
Musicologists
Administration
Didgeridoo
Jazz
Country
Folk
Rock and pop
This includes:
The University of Oxford has thirty-nine colleges, and four permanent private halls (PPHs) of religious foundation. Colleges and PPHs are autonomous self-governing corporations within the university. These colleges are not only houses of residence, but have substantial responsibility for teaching undergraduate students. Generally tutorials and classes are the responsibility of colleges, while lectures, examinations, laboratories, and the central library are run by the university. Students normally have most of their tutorials in their own college, but often have a couple of modules taught at other colleges or even at faculties and departments. Most colleges take both graduates and undergraduates, but several are for graduates only.
The Regius Professorships of Divinity are amongst the oldest professorships at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. A third chair existed for a period at Trinity College Dublin.
The Vinerian Scholarship is a scholarship given to the University of Oxford student who "gives the best performance in the examination for the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law". Currently, £2,500 is given to the winner of the scholarship, with an additional £950 awarded at the examiners' discretion to a proxime accessit (runner-up).
A Commemoration ball is a formal ball held by one of the colleges of the University of Oxford in the 9th week of Trinity Term, the week after the end of the last Full Term of the academic year, which is known as "Commemoration Week". Commemoration balls are held by different colleges each year, following a cycle by which each college holds a ball every three years.
Holywell Cemetery is next to St Cross Church in Oxford, England. The cemetery is behind the church in St Cross Road, south of Holywell Manor on Manor Road and north of Longwall Street, in the parish of Holywell.
The White's Chair of Moral Philosophy was endowed in 1621 by Thomas White, Canon of Christ Church as the oldest professorial post in philosophy at the University of Oxford.
The Gaisford Prize is a prize in the University of Oxford, founded in 1855 in memory of Dr Thomas Gaisford (1779–1855). For most of its history, the prize was awarded for Classical Greek Verse and Prose. The prizes now include the Gaisford Essay Prize and the Gaisford Dissertation Prize.
The Stubbs Society for Foreign Affairs and Defence, commonly referred to simply as Stubbs Society, is the University of Oxford's oldest officially affiliated paper-reading and debating society. It is the university's forum for scholarship in international history, grand strategy and foreign affairs.
The University of Oxford introduced Titles of Distinction for senior academics in the 1990s. These are not established chairs, which are posts funded by endowment for academics with a distinguished career in British and European universities. However, since there was a limited number of established chairs in these universities and an abundance of distinguished academics it was decided to introduce these Titles of Distinction. 'Reader' and the senior 'Professor' were conferred annually.