Congregation.
Hebdomadal Council.
‘Statuta.’
The constitution of the University of Oxford rests on a much wider basis than that of most American or Colonial Universities. All graduates who have kept up their connexion with the University through their respective Colleges, whether resident in Oxford or not, and who have taken the degree of Master of Arts, have a voice in the government of the University, constituting the body known as Convocation. It is the members of Convocation who elect the two University representatives in the House of Commons. The majority of these graduates are not in residence at Oxford, so that in actual working practice and under normal conditions Convocation is almost identical with Congregation. This body is composed of all resident members of Convocation, together with certain ex-officio members. The ordinary routine of University government is transacted by means of standing Committees of Congregation, known as Delegacies. All University legislation must originate with and in the Hebdomadal Council, no proposition can even be discussed by the large governing bodies of the University unless sanctioned by a majority of the members of this Council. This consists of the three executive officers of the University and eighteen other members elected by Congregation, six each from the Heads of Colleges, University Professors, and University graduates—Masters of Arts—of at least five years’ standing, respectively. A new statute framed by the Council is then ‘promulgated’ in Congregation, where it may be rejected or passed with or without amendment. If passed by Congregation, the statute is submitted to Convocation, which must confirm or reject the measure in toto; it cannot amend.[50] It may be said, in passing, for the benefit of those who are labouring under the impression that reform from within is impossible at Oxford, that, strange as it may seem, the non-resident graduates are often, if not generally, the most conservative.
The College.
Admission.
Non-Collegiate Delegacy.
Entirely separate from the University in its corporate life and existence, yet federally incorporated in the larger University body, are the twenty-one Colleges or ‘Societies’ of Oxford. Each of these twenty-one States of this larger Academic United States is an independent unit, a self-governing, self-sufficient corporation, with its own traditions, and its own history. The ‘Fellows’ of the College elect their own Head; Christ Church as a Cathedral Chapter is an exception, the Dean of Christ Church being appointed by the Crown. Each College has its own endowments and its own property; each fixes the conditions for admission to membership in the ‘Society’, each is responsible for the discipline and conduct of its members, and provides for their instruction and general welfare. No one can become a member of the University unless he has been previously admitted to some College (or to the body of Non-Collegiate Students). Most Colleges require candidates for admission to pass an entrance examination, practically the equivalent of the first University Examination, known as ‘Responsions’. Rhodes Scholars, in virtue of having passed the qualifying examination for the Scholarship, are excused from all other entrance examinations. Four Colleges—Balliol, University, New College, and Corpus Christi College—will admit only those candidates who intend to read for Honours. It is as a member of some College (or of the Non-Collegiate body) that a College-man becomes a member of the University, and it is the higher degree of Master of Arts, conferred by the University upon the graduate who has kept up his connexion with his College, which confers upon him also the privilege of sharing in the government of his Alma Mater as a member of Convocation. Recently, there has been established what is known as the ‘Non-Collegiate Delegacy’. This approaches in organization and administration an ordinary Oxford College. But there is this great difference—Non-Collegiate students do not live within College walls, but in lodgings in the city, much on the American or German plan.
Residence.
For the attainment of the ordinary University degrees there are certain requirements of residence and scholarship. These requirements emphasize the two most conspicuous features of the Oxford system, features which most clearly reflect the dualism between the University and the Colleges, viz. residence within College walls, with all that this means—the Collegiate system,—and the distinctively University function of holding examinations which lead to University degrees; the responsibility for providing the necessary facilities and instruction for passing the examinations resting in the main with the individual Colleges. It is the College which must see to it that all its members who are candidates for University degrees have satisfied, first of all, the statutable residence requirements, and then that they are prepared to meet the examination requirements of the University. No candidate, even though he may be able to pass all the necessary examinations with success, can take his degree without the necessary residence as a member of a College (or of the Non-Collegiate body). This suggests again the great stress laid on the larger aspect of an Oxford education, the great value of the larger Oxford life as described in the preceding chapter.