University of Oxford: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Jun 15, 2025

News •

Jewish staff oppose University of Oxford Gaza protest proceedings • June 11, 2025, 6:39 AM ET (BBC)

Oxford University ‘demands candidates back diversity policies’ • May 24, 2025, 12:27 PM ET (The Telegraph)

Map Shows Where Millions Face Threat of Damaging Tornadoes • May 20, 2025, 9:43 AM ET (Newsweek)

Facts

Also Known As	Oxford University
Date	c. 1101 - present
Notable Alumni	Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey • Sir Michael Ernest Sadler • C.S. Lewis • J.R.R. Tolkien • Charles Taylor • Richard Dawkins • E.E. Evans-Pritchard • Sir Michael A.E. Dummett • Andrew Wiles • John D. Barrow • Sir Edwin Ray Lankester • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch • Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood • Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey • Frederick Soddy • Sir Erskine Holland • Sir Charles Firth • William Grocyn • Theresa May • Adam Smith • William Pitt, the Elder • Christopher Wren • Viktor Orbán • Thomas More • John Searle • William Ewart Gladstone • Bill Clinton • Rishi Sunak • Imran Khan • Blessed John Duns Scotus • Lewis Carroll • Oscar Wilde • Aung San Suu Kyi • Sir Richard Burton • Sir Philip Sidney • St. John Henry Newman • Margaret Thatcher • Robert Peel • John Wycliffe • Indira Gandhi • Clement Attlee • William of Ockham • George Canning • Edmond Halley • Edwin Hubble • Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd marquess of Salisbury • Malcolm Turnbull • Andrew Lloyd Webber • Kris Kristofferson • H.H. Asquith, 1st earl of Oxford and Asquith • Mahamudu Bawumia • Gemma Chan • Malala Yousafzai • Sir Walter Raleigh • Halford Mackinder • Pete Buttigieg • Keir Starmer • Mark Carney • Benazir Bhutto • Pedro Pablo Kuczynski • Dorothy Hodgkin • Tony Abbott • Andy Kim • Chelsea Clinton • Susan Rice • John Wesley • Oliver Sacks • Simon Johnson • Rowan Atkinson • Rachel Maddow • George Cardinal Pell • Eric Garcetti • Harold Macmillan • Emily Davison • William Jefferson Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond • Girish Karnad • Ben Sasse • Richard Flanagan • Hugh Grant • Harold Wilson • Daniel C. Dennett • John Galsworthy • Tina Brown • Philip Pullman • John Edgar Wideman • Derek Parfit • Atishi • John le Carré • John le Carré • Charles A. Beard • Sir Charles Frank • Edward VII • David Vitter • Richard Adams • Sir Edward Heath • Sister Wendy Beckett • Robert Moses • John Marston • Ed Balls • George Saintsbury • Jonathan Sacks • John Redwood • Tony Hall • Stephen Wolfram • Tim Berners-Lee • John Kufuor • Tony Richardson • Thomas L. Friedman • V.S. Naipaul • Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig • Anthony Eden • John Bowen • Cory Booker • Peter J. Ratcliffe • Sir Peter B. Medawar • Sir Stephen Spender • Baruch S. Blumberg • Sir Thomas Overbury • Emma Watson • Pawel Pawlikowski • Nicholas Udall • A.S. Byatt • Iris Murdoch • Stephen Hawking • Humphrey Gilbert • Amos Oz • Gertrude Bell • Charles Wesley • John Lyly • Kate Millett • Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark • Sir John Carew Eccles • St. Edmund of Abingdon • Caryl Churchill • Bertil Ohlin • Sir Angus Wilson • Max Beerbohm • George Steiner • Carl Albert • Sir Tyrone Guthrie • Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey of Riddlesden • Les Aspin • Nicanor Parra • Sir Cyril Burt • Alain Locke • Edgar Frank Codd • Sir Martin Ryle • Eric Bentley • Kingsley Amis • Baldwin Spencer • Sir William Berkeley • John Kennedy • Sir Victor Gollancz • Sir Harold Nicolson • Eddie Eagan • John Napier Turner • John Betjeman • Frederick William Winterbotham • Donald Hall • Dean Rusk • Michael Foot • Brian Greene • George Chapman • James Smithson • William Golding • Timothy Mo • Nannerl Overholser Keohane • Lester B. Pearson • Sydney Brenner • Robert Hawke • Sir John Cornforth • Oliver Smithies • Tony Hoare • D.M. Thomas • Michael Fried • J. Michael Kosterlitz • Wilfrid Sheed • Byron R. White • Sir Baldwin Spencer • Sir Lennox Berkeley • Sir Donald Francis Tovey • A. Alvarez • Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd • Sir William Jones • Sir Adrian Cedric Boult • Graham Wallas • Sir John Robert Vane • Sir William Robert Grove • C. Day-Lewis • Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier • L.P. Hartley • Sir William Monson • Robert Runcie • Sir Edward George Warris Hulton • Anthony J. Leggett • Jean-Pierre Sauvage • Sir Max Mallowan • Bernard Miles • Sir Terence Rattigan • Edward Boyle
Related People	Cecil Rhodes • William Laud • Sir William Osler, Baronet • Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey • William Richard Morris, Viscount Nuffield • Sir Michael Ernest Sadler • John Fell • William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge • Sir Richard Winn Livingstone