Oxford and Cambridge Universities

[Seagull]

Which is the oldest British university: Oxford or Cambridge?
I'm afraid I've read contraditory things...!
I need that information for a British culture quiz.

Thanks in advance!

Seagull

[Tdol]

Oxford is older- Cambridge was probably a breakaway group from Oxford.

[BobK]

Seagull - you've probably heard contradictory things because they're both still growing (so that several Oxford colleges are newer than some Cambridge ones). My Cambridge college, for example, was founded in 1352 Corpus Christi College, Cambridge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and is a few years older than - for example - New College Oxford (which, confusingly, is pretty old! New College, Oxford - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )



b

[queenbu]

My Cambridge college

Excuse me, Bob, what do you mean by that?

[BobK]

Excuse me, Bob, what do you mean by that?

Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and a few other universities have a system based on 'colleges' (originally groups of scholars, who lived together and organized study and - sometimes - teaching). Different colleges were founded at different times. In the very early days, the colleges weren't even part of the university (colleges came together and said 'lets organize ourselves as one institution, while keeping individual responsibility for some things). See Collegiate universities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Any student at Cambridge University belongs to a college; when I said 'my college' I meant 'the college I lived in when I was a student at Cambridge, and to which I still belong'.

b