| The Colleges. | Name of Head. | Title of Head. | Correspondence should be addressed to: The | Number of Undergraduates enrolled 1906-7. | Date of Founding. | Order of Founding. | Abbreviation sometimes used for the name. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Souls | Sir William Reynell Anson, Bart., M.P., D.C.L. | Warden | 4 | 1437 | 9 | ||
| Balliol | Edward Caird, M.A., Hon. D.C.L | Master | Senior Tutor | 236 | 1268 | 2 | Bal. |
| Brasenose | Charles Buller Heberden, M.A. | Principal | Principal | 111 | 1509 | 11 | B.N.C. |
| Christ Church | Thomas Banks Strong, D.D. | Dean | Dean | 304 | 1532 | 13 | Ch.Ch. |
| Corpus Christi | Thomas Case, M.A. | President | President | 93 | 1516 | 12 | C.C.C. |
| Exeter | William Walrond Jackson, D.D. | Rector | Rector | 204 | 1314 | 4 | Ex. |
| Hertford | Henry Boyd, D.D. | Principal | Principal or Senior Tutor | 116 | 1874 | 20 | Hert. |
| Jesus | John Rhys, D.Litt. | Principal | Principal | 140 | 1571 | 16 | |
| Keble | Walter Lock, D.D. | Warden | Warden | 215 | 1870 | 21 | |
| Lincoln | William Walter Merry, D.D. | Rector | Rector | 99 | 1427 | 8 | Linc. |
| Magdalen | Thomas Herbert Warren, M.A.[49] | President | President | 169 | 1456 | 10 | Magd. |
| Merton | Thomas Bowman, M.A. | Warden | Warden | 127 | 1264 | 3 | Mert. |
| New | William Archibald Spooner, D.D. | Warden | Warden | 317 | 1379 | 7 | |
| Oriel | Charles Lancelot Shadwell, D.C.L. | Provost | Provost | 138 | 1326 | 5 | |
| Pembroke | The Rt. Rev. John Mitchinson, D.C.L. | Master | Master | 104 | 1624 | 18 | Pemb. |
| Queen’s | John Richard Magrath, D.D. | Provost | Provost | 159 | 1340 | 6 | |
| St. John’s | James Bellamy, D.D. | President | President | 203 | 1555 | 15 | St. J. |
| Trinity | Henry Francis Pelham, M.A. | President | President | 172 | 1554 | 14 | Trin. |
| University | Reginald Walter Macan, M.A., D.Litt. | Master | Master | 200 | 1249 | 1 | Univ. |
| Wadham | Patrick Arkley Wright-Henderson, D.D. | Warden | Warden | 111 | 1613 | 17 | Wadh. |
| Worcester | Charles Henry Oliver Daniel, D.D. | Provost | Provost | 123 | 1714 | 19 | Worc. |
| St. Edmund Hall | Edward Moore, D.D. | Principal | Principal | 48 | 1269 | St. E. | |
| Non-Coll. Delegacy | Richard William Massy Pope, D.D. | Censor | Censor | 216 | 1868 | Non-Coll. |
CHAPTER VI
THE OXFORD SYSTEM
UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE GOVERNMENT, METHODS OF INSTRUCTION, COURSES OF STUDY, DEGREES
The point of view.
Some one has said that a University, primarily considered, is less a school than an atmosphere. This applies with peculiar force to Oxford. Unlike American or German Universities, Oxford aims not primarily to provide instruction, but rather to provide an atmosphere for the many-sided Oxford life. For centuries, Oxford has been the training school of the English gentleman. It stands pre-eminently for culture and good breeding, for a liberal education in the widest and best sense, not merely the knowledge that comes from books, but especially and above all for the knowledge of men and affairs. It is the difference between a training to make a living and a training to make a life, to put the best into life rather than to make the most out of it. The highest Oxford ideal is the scholar and the gentleman, but the gentleman first of all. A faithful reflex of English society, Oxford reflects its most marked characteristic conservatism. Yet underneath this stratum of healthy conservatism runs the current of twentieth-century life. Hence its uniqueness, its complexity, its paradoxes. Conservative by force of tradition and custom, Oxford breathes the liberal and tolerant spirit of the twentieth century; exclusive and aristocratic, the Oxford life is nevertheless very democratic; open to all, Oxford is not for all people; faithful to her heritage of the Past, Oxford is still a leader in the Present.
The ‘system’.
Yet, oddly enough, from the undergraduate’s point of view, the University is practically a thing apart, an abstract intangible something which touches the life of the well-behaved ‘undergrad’ only at examination time, that is to say, twice during his Oxford career, or on that more ceremonious occasion, ‘degree-day.’ The uninitiated stranger, searching for information in the Student’s Handbook, is told that the ‘University is a body corporate invested with all the usual powers of corporations and also with various peculiar privileges, such as the right of exercising jurisdiction, civil and criminal, over its members, the right of returning two representatives to the House of Commons, and the power of conferring degrees’. Not a word about the teaching Faculty of the University or about courses of study. Instead, an institution whose main function, as far as the student is concerned, is to hold examinations and to confer degrees. Further inquiry leads to the College. The collegiate system, both in regard to undergraduate life and undergraduate instruction, is the counterpart to the more formal functions of the University. Here is a dualism between College and University unknown to most foreign students,—each a separate, independent unit, a University existing side by side with twenty-one corporate Societies, each leading an independent existence, and yet most intimately connected with one another. If an attempt is here made to sketch this complex and intricate system in its barest outlines, it is with a full realization of the difficulties as well as at the risk of saying much that is obvious. The background must be filled in by the reader from the remarks made in the preceding chapter on the Oxford life. The point of view of the prospective Rhodes Scholar has been kept in view throughout, all unnecessary details or obscure and ambiguous terms being, as far as possible, avoided.
University government and administration. Vice-Chancellor, Proctors.
The acting head of the University is the Vice-Chancellor, the office of Chancellor being purely honorary. The Heads of the several Colleges are nominated by the Chancellor to the Vice-Chancellorship in order of rotation, each holding office for a period of four years. Assisted by the two Proctors, originally the heads of the two ‘nations’ of mediaeval Oxford, the Vice-Chancellor exercises a general supervision over all University affairs. It is the Vice-Chancellor who presides at all the meetings of the governing bodies of the University. He also enjoys extensive judicial powers. The University occupies a peculiar position not only in relation to its own members, but to the city of Oxford as well. In most criminal as well as in all civil cases, the University has the right to try its members before its own court, popularly called the Vice-Chancellor’s Court. The Vice-Chancellor, ably assisted by the two Proctors—for in the eyes of the undergraduates this is their most conspicuous function—is responsible for the maintenance of order and discipline. No public entertainment, for instance, can be held in Oxford without the consent of the Vice-Chancellor and of the Mayor.
Convocation.