University College

University College (in full, the The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as Univ), is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a contender for being the oldest of the colleges of the university, and is amongst the largest in terms of population.

Univ has the highest proportion of old members offering financial support to the college out of any in either Oxford or Cambridge (28% in 2007, the highest rate in the UK). As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £90.5m, which is slightly above average by comparison to other Oxbridge colleges.

Univ was founded by William of Durham in 1249 (not King Alfred as has been claimed in the past), and until the 16th century was only open to Fellows studying theology. As Univ grew in size and wealth, its medieval buildings were replaced with the current Main Quadrangle in the 17th Century. Although the foundation stone was placed on 17 April 1634 the disruption of the English Civil War meant it was not completed until sometime in 1676. Radcliffe Quad followed more rapidly by 1719, and the Library was built in 1861. Univ only began to accept female undergraduate students in 1979. It is on the south side of the High Street, between the university's examination schools and Magpie Lane. The Queen's College, Oxford is directly opposite on the north side of the High Street.

Former Master, Lord Butler of Brockwell, was appointed head of an inquiry into the 2003 Iraq War in February 2004. Previous Masters include John Albery, Kingman Brewster, Lord Goodman, Lord Redcliffe-Maud, Arthur Lehman Goodhart, and William Beveridge. In August 2008 Lord Butler was succeeded by Sir Ivor Crewe.

A specially constructed building in the College, the Shelley Memorial, houses a statue by Edward Onslow Ford of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley — a former member of the college, who was expelled for writing The Necessity of Atheism — depicted lying dead on the Italian seashore. Rumour has it that the sunken area around the statue was once filled with water and live goldfish as a student prank. Another apparently common student prank involving the statue has been to paint his genitalia bright colours; for this reason, the statue's appendage is somewhat smaller than it used to be.

Notable former students and fellows

Two twentieth-century Prime Ministers have been associated with Univ.: Clement Attlee was an undergraduate here, and Harold Wilson a Fellow. Other political leaders include US President Bill Clinton, and Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia. Outside politics, recent Old Members of Univ include William Beveridge, the social reformer and author of the Beveridge Report, Professor Stephen Hawking, C. S. Lewis, author of the Narnia books, the Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, the novelist and Nobel Prize winner Sir V. S. Naipaul, the actors Michael York and Warren Mitchell, the broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, and – perhaps the most exotic of them all – Prince Felix Yusupov, the assassin of Rasputin.

Other notable connections

Although not member of University College the scientists Robert Boyle (sometime described as the "first modern chemist") and his assistant (Robert Hooke, architect, biologist, discoverer of cells) lived in Deep Hall (then owned by Christ Church and now the site of the Shelley Memorial). The former made a contribution to the completion of University College's current Hall in the mid-17th Century.

Samuel Johnson (author of the A Dictionary of the English Language and a member of Pembroke) was a frequent visitor to the Senior Common Room at University College during the 18th Century).