University of Cambridge (original) (raw)
According to legend the University of Cambridge in England was founded in 1209 by scholars escaping Oxford after a fight with Oxford locals. King Henry III of England granted them a teaching monopoly in 1231.
The Mathematician's Bridge over the River Cam. |
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Note the punters on the river. |
Along with the University of Oxford, Cambridge University produces a large proportion of Britain's prominent scientists, writers, and politicians; the pair are known as Oxbridge. Both are members of the Russell Group of Universities.
The thirty-one Colleges of the University are independent institutions, separate from the University itself, and they enjoy considerable autonomy.
The first College was Peterhouse founded in 1284 by Hugh Balsham, Bishop of Ely. The second-oldest College is King's Hall which was founded in 1317, though it no longer exists as a separate entity. Many other colleges were founded during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. A full list of Colleges is given below, though some, such as Michaelhouse (which was combined with King's Hall to make Trinity, by King Henry VII) and Gonville Hall no longer exist.
During those early times the Colleges were founded so that their students would pray for the souls of the founders and were often associated with chapels, if not abbeys. In conjunction with the Dissolution of the Monasteries, in 1536 King Henry VIII ordered the University to disband its Faculty of Canon Law and to stop teaching "scholastic philosophy." So instead of focusing on canon law, the colleges' curricula then became centered on the Greek and Latin classics, the Bible, and mathematics.
The first Colleges for women were Girton College in 1869 and Newnham College in 1872. The first women students were examined in 1882 but attempts to make women full members of the University did not succeed until 1947, 20 years later than at Oxford. Of the 31 Colleges, three are now for women only (Lucy Cavendish, New Hall, and Newnham), and four are for graduate students only (Clare Hall, Darwin, Wolfson and St Edmunds).
There are certain number of leisure pursuits associated with Cambridge. Rowing is a popular sport and there are competitions between colleges (notably the bumps races) and against Oxford (the Boat Race). There are also Varsity Matches against Oxford in many other sports, including rugby and cricket. Theatre clubs include the famous Footlights.
Colleges
- Christ's College, Cambridge 1505 Website
- Churchill College, Cambridge 1960 Website
- Clare College, Cambridge 1326 Website
- Clare Hall, Cambridge 1965 Website
- Corpus Christi College, Cambridge 1352 Website
- Darwin College, Cambridge,1964 Website
- Downing College, Cambridge 1800 Website
- Emmanuel College, Cambridge 1584 Website
- Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge 1966 Website
- Girton College, Cambridge 1869 Website
- Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1348 Website
- Homerton College, Cambridge 1976 Website
- Hughes Hall, Cambridge 1885 Website
- Jesus College, Cambridge 1497 Website
- King's College, Cambridge 1441 Website
- Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge 1965 Website
- Magdalene College, Cambridge 1428 Website
- New Hall, Cambridge 1954 Website
- Newnham College, Cambridge 1871 Website
- Pembroke College, Cambridge 1347 Website
- Peterhouse, Cambridge 1284 Website
- Queens' College, Cambridge 1448 Website
- Robinson College, Cambridge 1979 Website
- St Catharine's College, Cambridge 1473 Website
- St Edmund's College 1896 Website
- St John's College, Cambridge 1511 Website
- Selwyn College, Cambridge 1882 Website
- Sidney Sussex College 1596 Website
- Trinity College, Cambridge 1546 Website
- Trinity Hall, Cambridge 1350 Website
- Wolfson College, Cambridge 1965 Website
See also a list of Oxford sister colleges.
Notable alumni
- Douglas Adams (Emmanuel)
- David Attenborough (Clare)
- Rupert Brooke (King's)
- John Brown (Queens')
- Lord Byron (Trinity)
- Henry Cavendish (Peterhouse)
- Kenneth Clarke (Caius)
- John Cleese (Downing)
- Edward Coke (Trinity)
- Alistair Cooke (Jesus)
- Lord Cornwallis (Clare)
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Jesus)
- Thomas Cranmer (Jesus)
- Oliver Cromwell (Sidney Sussex)
- Charles Darwin (Christ's)
- John Dryden (Trinity)
- Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (Trinity)
- Abba Eban (Queens')
- John Fisher (Queens')
- E. M. Forster (King's)
- David Frost (Caius)
- George VI of the United Kingdom (Trinity)
- Jane Goodall (Darwin)
- Thomas Gray (Peterhouse)
- Germaine Greer (Newnham)
- Eric Idle (Pembroke)
- Hugh Laurie (Selwyn)
- C. S. Lewis (Magdalene)
- Margrethe II of Denmark (Girton)
- Christopher Marlowe (Corpus Christi)
- John Maynard Keynes (King's)
- Robert Malthus (Jesus)
- John Milton (Christ's)
- Lord Mountbatten (Christ's)
- Bill Oddie (Pembroke)
- Isaac Newton (Trinity)
- Samuel Pepys (Magdalene)
- Sylvia Plath (Newnham)
- Nicholas Ridley (King's)
- Salman Rushdie (King's)
- Ernest Rutherford (Trinity)
- Laurence Saunders (King's)
- C. P. Snow (Christ's)
- Lord Tennyson (Trinity)
- Emma Thompson (Newnham)
- Alan Turing (King's)
- Terry Waite (Trinity Hall)
- Horace Walpole (King's)
- Robert Walpole (King's)
- Francis Walsingham (King's)
- James Watson (Clare)
- T. H. White (Queens')
- William Wordsworth (St. John's)
Notable recipients of honorary degrees
- Jacques Derrida
- W. V. Quine - LittD., June 1978
Cambridge Universities in Fiction
- Porterhouse Blue and Grantchester Grind, its sequel features the fictional Porterhouse University.
- Doctor Who episode Shada
- Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
- Darkness at Pemberley by T. H. White is set in 'St Bernard's College', a thinly disguised version of Queens' College.
Related articles
- List of Professorships at the University of Cambridge
- List of Chancellors of the University of Cambridge
- Cambridge University Press
- Punting
- Russell Group of Universities
External link
- http://www.cam.ac.uk/ - the official website