Students usually have one or two tutorials a week, and can be taught by academics at any other college—not just their own—as expertise and personnel require. These tutorials are complemented by lectures, classes and seminars, which are organised on a departmental basis. Graduate students undertaking taught degrees are usually instructed through classes and seminars, though there is more focus upon individual research. The university itself is responsible fo

 areas: academic posts and programmes, student support, and buildings and infrastructure[62] and having passed its original target of £1.25 billion in March 2012, the target has now been raised to £3 billion.[57]
Academic profile[edit]

Teaching and degrees[edit]
Main articles: Degrees of the University of Oxford and List of professorships at the University of Oxford


Members of the University Congregation pass through Radcliffe square after Encaenia.
Undergraduate teaching is centred on the tutorial, where 1–4 students spend an hour with an academic discussing their week’s work, usually an essay (humanities, most social sciences, some mathematical, physical, and life sciences) or problem sheet (most mathematical, physical, and life sciences, and some social sciences). Students usually have one or two tutorials a week, and can be taught by academics at any other college—not just their own—as expertise and personnel require. These tutorials are complemented by lectures, classes and seminars, which are organised on a departmental basis. Graduate students undertaking taught degrees are usually instructed through classes and seminars, though there is more focus upon individual research.
The university itself is responsible for conducting examinations and conferring degrees. The passing of two sets of examinations is a prerequisite for a first degree. The first set of examinations, called either Honour Moderations ("Mods" and "Honour Mods") or Preliminary Examinations ("Prelims"), are usually held at the end of the first year (after two terms for those studying Law; Theology; Philosophy and Theology; Experimental Psychology; or Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology or after five terms in the case of Classics). The second set of examinations, the Final Honour School ("Finals"), is held at the end of the undergraduate course (for humanities and most social sciences) or at the end of each successive year of the course after the first (most mathematical, physical and life sciences, and some social sciences). Successful candidates receive first-, upper or lower second-, or third-class honours, or simply a "pass" without honours, based on their performance in Finals. An upper second is the most usual result, and a first is often prerequisite for graduate study. A "double first" reflects first-class results in both Honour Moderations and Finals.
As a matter of tradition, bachelor's degree graduates are eligible, after seven years from matriculation (formal induction of students into the university) and without additional study, to purchase for a nominal fee an upgrade of their bachelor's degree to an "MA" or Master of Arts. All MAs were members of Convocation; and, until 1913, all resident members of Convocation were members of Congregation.[63] MAs, as members of Convocation, elected the Chancellor and Professor of Poetry, but recently Convocation has been widened to consist of all graduates.[64][65]
Research degrees at the master's and doctoral level are conferred in all subjects studied at graduate level at the university.
Academic year[edit]

Of Arms.svg Wycliffe Hall The PPHs and colleges join together as the Conference of Colleges, which represents the common concerns of the several colleges of the University, and to discuss policy and to deal with the central University administration.[5

Trinity College, Oxford.svg Trinity
University College Oxford Coat Of Arms.svg University
Wadham College Oxford Coat Of Arms.svg Wadham
Wolfson College Oxford Coat Of Arms.svg Wolfson
Worcester College Oxford Coat Of Arms.svg Worcester
The Permanent Private Halls were founded by different Christian denominations. One difference between a college and a PPH is that whereas the former are governed by the fellows of the college, the governance of a PPH resides, at least in part, with the corresponding Christian denomination. The six current PPHs are:
Blackfriars Hall Oxford Coat Of Arms.svg Blackfriars Hall
Campion Hall Oxford Coat Of Arms.svg Campion Hall
Regent's Park College Oxford Coat Of Arms.svg Regent's Park
St Benet's Hall Oxford Coat Of Arms.svg St Benet's Hall
St-Stephen's Hall Oxford Coat Of Arms.svg St Stephen's House
Wycliffe Hall Oxford Coat Of Arms.svg Wycliffe Hall
The PPHs and colleges join together as the Conference of Colleges, which represents the common concerns of the several colleges of the University, and to discuss policy and to deal with the central University administration.[54][55] The Conference of Colleges was established as a recommendation of the Franks Commission in 1965.[56]
Teaching members of the colleges (i.e., fellows and tutors) are collectively and familiarly known as "dons", although the term is rarely used by the University itself. In addition to residential and dining facilities, the colleges provide social, cultural, and recreational activities for their members. Colleges have responsibility for admitting undergraduates and organising their tuition; for graduates, this responsibility falls upon the departments. There is no common title for the heads of colleges; the names used include warden, provost, principal, president, rector, master and dean.
Finances[edit]


The dining hall at Christ Church. The hall is an important feature of the typical Oxford college, providing a place to both dine and socialise.
In 2011/12, the University had an income of £1,016m; key sources were research grants (£409m), teaching funding (£204m), and academic fees (£173m).[57] The colleges had a total income of £361m,[58] of which £47m was flow-through from the University.[57]
While the University has the larger annual income and operating budget, the colleges have a larger aggregate endowment: over £2.9bn compared to the University's £850m.[59] The Central University's endowment, along with some of the colleges', is managed by the University's wholly owned endowment management office, Oxford University Endowment Management, formed in 2007.[60]
The University launched a fundraising campaign in May 2008, called Oxford Thinking – The Campaign for the University of Oxford.[61] This is looking to support three

unofficial fixtures. In addition to this, the University Parks contain sites of special interest including the Genetic Garden, an experimental garden to elucidate and investigate evolutionary processes.

The Museum of the History of Science is housed on Broad St in the world’s oldest-surviving purpose-built museum building.[49] It contains 15,000 artefacts, from antiquity to the 20th century, representing almost all aspects of the history of science. In the Faculty of Music on St Aldate's is the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, a collection mostly of instruments from Western classical music, from the medieval period onwards. Christ Church Picture Gallery holds a collection of over 200 old master paintings.
Parks[edit]


Autumn in the Botanic Garden.
The University Parks are a 70-acre parkland area in the northeast of city. It is open free of charge to the public during daylight hours. As well as providing beautiful gardens and rare and exotic plants, the parks contains numerous sports fields, used for official and unofficial fixtures. In addition to this, the University Parks contain 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 and the third-oldest scientific garden in the world. It contains over 8,000 different plant species on 1.8 hectares (4½ acres). It is one of the most diverse yet compact collections of plants in the world and includes representatives from over 90% of the higher plant families. The Harcourt Arboretum is a 130-acre site six miles south of the city that includes native woodland and 67 acres of meadow. The 1,000-acre Wytham Woods are owned by the University and used or 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.[50]
Organisation[edit]

See also: Category:Departments of the University of Oxford
As a collegiate university, Oxford's structure can be confusing to those unfamiliar with it. The university is a federation, comprising over forty self-governing colleges and halls, along with a central administration headed by the Vice-Chancellor.
Academic departments are located centrally within the structure of the federation; they are not affiliated with any particular college. Departments provide facilities for teaching and research, determine the syllabi and guidelines for the teaching of students, perform research, and deliver lectures and seminars.
Colleges arrange the tutorial teaching for their undergraduates, and the members of an academic department are spread around many colleges. Though certain colleges do have subject alignments (e.g., Nuffield College as a centre for the social sciences), these are exceptions, and most colleges will have a broad mix of academics and students from a diverse range of subjects. Facilities such as libraries are provided on all these levels: by the central university (the Bodleian), by the departments (individual departmental libraries, such as the English Faculty Library), and by colleges (each of which maintains a multi-discipline library for the use of its members).