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University of Oxford
The town of Oxford, England was already an important center of learning by
the end of the 12th century. Teachers from mainland Europe and other
scholars settled there, and lectures are known to have been delivered by
as early as 1117. Sometime in the late 12th century the expulsion of
foreigners from the University of Paris caused many English scholars to
return from France and settle in Oxford. Members of many religious orders,
including Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians, settled
in Oxford in the mid-13th century, gained influence, and maintained houses
for students. At about the same time, private benefactors established
colleges to serve as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the
earliest were the parents of John Balliol, King of Scotland; their
establishment, Balliol College, bears their name. Another founder, Walter
de Merton, a chancellor of England and afterwards bishop of Rochester,
devised a series of regulations for college life; Merton College thereby
became the model for such establishments at Oxford as well as at the
University of Cambridge. There are 39 colleges within the university, each
with its own internal structure and activities. Although Oxford's emphasis
traditionally had been on classical knowledge, its curriculum expanded in
the course of the 19th century and now attaches equal importance to
scientific and medical studies. Students from certain overseas countries,
like the USA, have been able to study at Oxford under Rhodes Scholarships,
established by the British colonial statesman Cecil John Rhodes.
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