Konkurs realioznawczy - The Legendary Universities
The University of Oxford is one of the oldest and most respected universities in the world. It is located in the city of Oxford, about 90 km north-west of London, and its name comes from the old word ‘Oxanforda’ which means ‘a place in a river where cattle (or oxen) can cross safely’. Residents and natives of Oxford are known as Oxonians.
The university has no exact date of foundation, but its history goes back to the 11th century. Teaching existed at Oxford as early as 1096 and developed rapidly from 1167, when King Henry II, for political reasons, banned English students from attending the University of Paris.
As the number of students and teachers at Oxford grew, there were some disagreements among the scholars. Eventually, some of them left the university in 1209, and founded a new one in Cambridge. These two universities are now great rivals, each one trying to outdo the other in research, scholarship, and sports. Cambridge and Oxford together are sometimes referred to as Oxbridge. The students who would like to study at one of these great institutions need to make up their mind and choose one or the other, as it is not possible to apply to both in the same year.
The University of Oxford consists of 39 colleges and six private halls with libraries, chapels, museums, and picturesque gardens that attract thousands of tourists from all over the world. Indeed, there is much to be admired. For example, Oxford’s Botanical Garden is the oldest in the world. The Bodleian Library, founded in 1602, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It is also the second largest library in the United Kingdom after the British Library.
Oxford University is full of tradition, and Christ Church, one of its most famous colleges, is particularly loyal to it - it even has its own time zone and clocks on its campus are five minutes behind the rest of the United Kingdom! To this day, the clock tower at Christ Church runs five minutes later than official British time. Why is that? Well, before the advent of trains different towns had their own times, based on the actual solar time. When trains became popular, it was important for the whole country to be on the same time. Since Oxford is located 60 miles west of Greenwich, there was a 5-minute difference. While the whole country adopted Greenwich Mean Time, the clocks in Christ Church college remained 5 minutes and 2 seconds behind London.
Thanks to its excellent reputation, Oxford is very popular among students from all over the world. The colleges look for candidates with the best school results in the subjects for which they apply, typically straight A’s at their A-level exams. Apart from achieving high grades, applicants need to take a written test, and may be asked to submit some written work. If a student’s application is shortlisted, they'll be invited to for an interview.
Until 1878, women could not study at the University of Oxford, and they were first allowed to take degrees at Oxford in 1920. Nowadays, all the colleges accept both men and women as students, and the number of male and female students is more or less equal.
Oxford University has a long list of famous alumni including Lewis Carroll, who wrote ‘Alice in Wonderland’; J. R. R. Tolkien, author of 'The Lord of the Rings'; 47 Nobel Prize winners, seven Catholic saints, 12 kings, 25 British Prime Ministers, and even a pope!
Interestingly, Oxford was not bombed during World War II, and historians believe the city was not destroyed because Hitler wanted Oxford to be the new capital of England after defeating it. Fortunately, Germany lost the war and Oxford remained one of the global centres of science and learning.
The University of Cambridge
The second-oldest university in all English-speaking countries, Cambridge University is nowadays one of the world's leading places of learning, usually ranked in the world’s top five. The city of Cambridge is located 80 km north of London and its name comes from the River Cam, which runs through it.
Famous as it is, the university had rather humble beginnings: it was started by a group of scholars who left Oxford around 1209 after a fight with local people. It officially became a university in 1290 when Pope Nicholas IV called it a studium generale, which was a medieval name for a university. From that point scholars from other European universities started to come to Cambridge to teach and do research there. However, Cambridge remained fairly insignificant until the beginning of the 16th century, when it also became one of the cradles of Protestant Reformation in England, and the Puritan movement was born there.
Over the centuries, many important scientists, writers, politicians and artists as well as members of the Royal Family studied there. Up till now 89 students from Cambridge won a Nobel Prize in all six disciplines including physics, chemistry, peace, literature, physiology, and medicine.
The university’s students include Sir Isaac Newton, who invented his own form of mathematics known as calculus; J.J. Thomson, who discovered the electron; Ernest Rutheford, who split the atom; Charles Darwin, who created the theory of evolution; and Francis Crick and James D. Watson who discovered the structure of DNA. Of course, the list is much longer!
The university is famous for its architecture and gardens, and it is also the most popular place for punting. Punting is an activity that has existed in Cambridge for centuries and involves riding a flat boat down the River Cam while someone in the back uses a poll to push against the riverbed and move the punt down the Cam.
Old as it is, the University also has its traditions and legends. One of them is the wooden spoon tradition, where a spoon made of wood was given to the worst mathematics student in the year. There is also a popular story according to which, Lord Byron, the famous English poet, was not allowed to keep a dog in his rooms at Trinity College Cambridge, so instead, he kept a bear. The college had no rules about bears, so there was no legal basis to tell the creative student to get rid of the animal.
The teaching in Cambridge is done through lectures and practical classes. The students are expected to do some homework and then talk about it with a teacher. The model of teaching, known as tutoring, is very personalized and students can ask lots of questions and really understand the subject. In fact, this is probably one of the best things about studying in Cambridge!
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of the most prestigious schools in the United States, as well as its oldest university. It is also ranked as one of the best institutions of higher learning in the world. Harvard’s motto is 'Veritas' which is Latin for 'Truth'. The school’s official colour is crimson – a dark shade of red.
The University was established in 1636, and later named after John Harvard, who was a Puritan clergyman, and upon his death donated his library and half of his estate to the institution. Today, the Harvard library is the largest academic library in the world, and it includes 20.4 million volumes.
The main campus is located along the Charles River, a few miles west of Boston. Some of Harvard's graduate schools are in Boston, but most of them are in Cambridge. So far, the University has produced 49 Nobel laureates, many outstanding scientists, and many billionaires, for example Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Eight Harvard alumni went on to become United States Presidents including Barack Obama, Rutherford Hayes, George W. Bush, John F. Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, John Quincy Adams, and John Adams.
For most of its history, Harvard admitted only men. Nowadays, both men and women can study there, and the University has about 22,000 students.
The cost of attending Harvard University is very high but talented students can apply for scholarships and financial aid. The total 2020-2021 cost of attending Harvard College without financial aid is $49,653 for tuition and $72,391 for tuition and accommodation.