Oxford University

Women's education
The university passed a statute in 1875 allowing examinations for women at roughly undergraduate level;^[49] for a brief period in the early 1900s, this allowed the "steamboat ladies" to receive ad eundem degrees from the University of Dublin.^[50] In June 1878, the Association for the Education of Women (AEW) was formed, aiming for the eventual creation of a college for women in Oxford. Some of the more prominent members of the association were George Granville Bradley, T. H. Green and Edward Stuart Talbot. Talbot insisted on a specifically Anglican institution, which was unacceptable to most of the other members. The two parties eventually split, and Talbot's group founded Lady Margaret Hall in 1878, while T. H. Green founded the non-denominational Somerville College in 1879. Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville opened their doors to their first 21 students (12 from Somerville, 9 from Lady Margaret Hall) in 1879, who attended lectures in rooms above an Oxford baker's shop. There were also 25 women students living at home or with friends in 1879, a group which evolved into the Society of Oxford Home-Students and in 1952 into St Anne's College.
These first three societies for women were followed by St Hugh's (1886) and St Hilda's (1893). All of these colleges later became coeducational, starting with Lady Margaret Hall and St Anne's in 1979, and finishing with St Hilda's, which began to accept male students in 2008. In the early 20th century, Oxford and Cambridge were widely perceived to be bastions of male privilege, however the integration of women into Oxford moved forward during the First World War. In 1916 women were admitted as medical students on a par with men, and in 1917 the university accepted financial responsibility for women's examinations.
On 7 October 1920 women became eligible for admission as full members of the university and were given the right to take degrees. In 1927 the university's dons created a quota that limited the number of female students to a quarter that of men, a ruling which was not abolished until 1957.^[49] However, during this period Oxford colleges were single sex, so the number of women was also limited by the capacity of the women's colleges to admit students. It was not until 1959 that the women's colleges were given full collegiate status.
In 1974, Brasenose, Jesus, Wadham, Hertford and St Catherine's became the first previously all-male colleges to admit women. The majority of men's colleges accepted their first female students in 1979, with Christ Church following in 1980, and Oriel becoming the last men's college to admit women in 1985.^[65] Most of Oxford's graduate colleges were founded as coeducational establishments in the 20th century, with the exception of St Antony's, which was founded as a men's college in 1950 and began to accept women only in 1962.^[66] By 1988, 40% of undergraduates at Oxford were female; in 2016, 45% of the student population, and 47% of undergraduate students, were female.^[68][69]
In June 2017, Oxford announced that starting the following academic year, history students may choose to sit a take-home exam in some courses, with the intention that this will equalise rates of firsts awarded to women and men at Oxford.^[70] That same summer, maths and computer science tests were extended by 15 minutes, in a bid to see if female student scores would improve.^[71][72]
The detective novel Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers, herself one of the first women to gain an academic degree from Oxford, is largely set in the all-female Shrewsbury College, Oxford (based on Sayers' own Somerville College^[73]), and the issue of women's education is central to its plot. Social historian and Somerville College alumna Jane Robinson's book Bluestockings: A Remarkable History of the First Women to Fight for an Education gives a very detailed and immersive account of this history.^[74]
Buildings and sites
The university is a "city university" in that it does not have a main campus; instead, colleges, departments, accommodation, and other facilities are scattered throughout the city centre. The Science Area, in which most science departments are located, is the area that bears closest resemblance to a campus. The ten-acre (4-hectare) Radcliffe Observatory Quarter in the northwest of the city is currently under development. However, the larger colleges' sites are of similar size to these areas.
Iconic university buildings include the Radcliffe Camera, the Sheldonian Theatre used for music concerts, lectures, and university ceremonies, and the Examination Schools, where examinations and some lectures take place. The University Church of St Mary the Virgin was used for university ceremonies before the construction of the Sheldonian. Christ Church Cathedral uniquely serves as both a college chapel and as a cathedral.
In 2012–2013, the university built the controversial one-hectare (400 m × 25 m) Castle Mill development of 4–5-storey blocks of student flats overlooking Cripley Meadow and the historic Port Meadow, blocking views of the spires in the city centre The development has been likened to building a "skyscraper beside Stonehenge"
Parks
The University Parks are a 70-acre (28 ha) parkland area in the northeast of the city, near Keble College, Somerville College and Lady Margaret Hall. It is open to the public during daylight hours. As well as providing gardens and exotic plants, the Parks contains numerous sports fields, used for official and unofficial fixtures, and also contains sites of special interest including the Genetic Garden, an experimental garden to elucidate and investigate evolutionary processes.
The Botanic Garden on the High Street is the oldest botanic garden in the UK. It contains over 8,000 different plant species on 1.8 ha (4+¹⁄₂ acres). It is one of the most diverse yet compact major collections of plants in the world and includes representatives of over 90% of the higher plant families. The Harcourt Arboretum is a 130-acre (53 ha) site six miles (10 km) south of the city that includes native woodland and 67 acres (27 hectares) of meadow. The 1,000-acre (4.0 km²) Wytham Woods are owned by the university and used for research in zoology and climate change.
There are also various collegiate-owned open spaces open to the public, including Bagley Wood and most notably Christ Church Meadow.
Organisation
As a collegiate university, Oxford is structured as a federation, comprising over forty self-governing colleges and halls, along with a central administration headed by the Vice-Chancellor.
Oxford University is located in the city of Oxford, and is one of Britain's oldest universities. Studying at this educational institution is very expensive and amounts to around 25,000 euros. This university holds the first and leading positions in the ranking among the prestigious and sought-after universities in the world.
The history of Oxford University dates back to 1096, but the exact date of its foundation is unknown. During the reign of Henry 2 Plantagenet, a large number of English students were expelled from France and settled in Oxford, where they were able to continue their studies. Oxford University has always carried a religious connotation, and accepted students from all over the world of various religions and faiths.
The university currently consists of 38 colleges and 6 dormitories. In each college, classes, lectures, practical hours, and seminars are held individually, but among themselves they have a centralized system. Currently, over 25,000 students are studying at Oxford, and half of them are foreigners. The main condition for foreign students is a good knowledge of English. To this end, annual summer language schools are opened to help such students.
In the 1920s, women began to enter Oxford and mixed groups began to form. But, in 1970, the university leadership decided that education between boys and girls should be carried out separately. At the University of Oxford, 4,000 teachers teach pain and 80 of them belong to the Royal Society, more than 100 people are members of the British Academy. A specific specialist individually works on each student, depending on the chosen specialty.
Oxford University has nearly two hundred libraries, museums, and its own publishing house. The libraries store numerous ancient manuscripts and ancient buildings. Free from studies, students are invited to more than 400 hobby groups.
Oxford University teaches in the following areas: physics, medicine, humanities, sociology, exact sciences, law, linguistics, environmental sciences.
University town is very beautiful. The oldest university there is Oxford. The first of its colleges was founded in 1249. The university now has thirty-five colleges and about thirteen thousand students, many of them from other countries. There were no women at Oxford until 1878. When the first women's college Lady Margaret Hall, opened. Now most colleges are open to men and women. It is not easy to get a place at Oxford University to study for a degree. But outside the university there are many smaller private colleges which offer less difficult courses and where it is easy to enroll. Most students in these private school take business, secretarial or English language courses.