#cantabrigia

[ayliffe]

new old books

[ayliffe]

The obvious move [for Cambridge], so it might seem to us, would have been to expose the story of Alfred's foundation of Oxford as fraudulent, but the Oxbridge controversy in the medieval period characteristically proceeded not by refutation but by emulation, the aim being to outdo all previous myths by tracing the history of one's own university back further still than had the rival claimant. However, the art lay in doing this convincingly - that is, with reference to existing authorities […]

absolutely delighted by this passage from a paper about king arthur’s supposed foundation of the university of cambridge

[ayliffe]

imagine hating greek so much you leave your university and name yourself after a famous trojan

[ayliffe]

to you, the diff in feel between oxford, cambridge, and [say, for fun] a small exclusive college in vermont which may or may not exist? as a connoisseur of such things.

alright well i could talk about this for hours (as anyone who went to high school with me can attest) but i’ll try not to ramble too much

i think we first need to emphasise that, compared to hampden, oxford and cambridge are old. it’s impossible to forget, especially in oxford, which is all grand conformity in sandstone, could’ve all been built at once — oxford, which held king charles i’s court during the civil war; oxford, where england’s first parliament was held. the place has always been tied up with power. in 1096, so the legend goes, alfred the great founded it, and even if we just look at confirmed dates, it rose to power as early as 1167, when henry ii called back all his scholars from paris. nobody was escaping anything here.

and then you have cambridge — cambridge, a refuge from the bitter, violent town-gown fights that in 1209 led to the deaths of two oxford scholars. a market town. and you can tell, if you look. the fens didn’t have a lot of stone so they imported it from anywhere they could; the colleges are more spread apart than in the other place. there’s still a market square.

and it’s grown away from that, now — 600 years of holding a duopoly over english university education made it easy to forget — and so it became oxford’s counterpart, the Other Place, the rival and the twin. the stereotype is that you go to oxford for the arts and cambridge for the sciences, and again, you can see it in the buildings, especially in their libraries: oxford’s form versus cambridge’s function. oxford’s charles — his court was held there during the civil war — versus cambridge’s cromwell.

and that epitomises the differences between the two, i think. oxford nowadays seems far more concerned with tradition and old glory and wearing sub fusc to exams. cambridge — despite turning out extremely similar graduates — feels less unapologetically grand.

hampden is a different beast altogether. there’s no old-money-sons-of-lords here: sure, there’s old money, but even the old money isn’t that old, not really. it feels fresher, less set in stone — sure, there are stone buildings, but the dorms have painted wooden fronts. it‘s a separate institution from its town, which is itself extremely small — which, incidentally, makes it perfect for the bacchanal in a way that simply wouldn’t work in oxford or cambridge. it’s smaller and it’s more removed and anything secret is going to take place in the woods, not in smoky rooms. the fate of the country isn’t decided here. it’s more open; more cosmopolitan; more quintessentially american. julian treats his class as if he were a tutor/supervisor, and the fact that this is treated is unusual, i think, epitomises the difference between the attitudes of all three.

[ayliffe]

what ho, i've been wondering if you could help me with a thing, once you seem to know a lot of uk universities. do you have any idea of what's the difference between oxford colleges, like st. john x magdalen x st. peter etc? and does cambridge have the same system? are they small colleges that 'belong' to the university institution? sorry if i'm playing the google with you, it's totally ok if you don't want to answer. xx

what ho, anon! don’t worry, it’s definitely a confusing system if you’re not used to it.

yeah, basically oxford (and cambridge, which has the same system) colleges are all part of the university as a whole. they’re a little bit like halls of residence — you sleep there, you eat there, you do most of your activities there. where they differ from your avg accommodation, however, is that you’ll also attend tutorials (if you’re at oxford)/supervisions (if you’re at cambridge) there. these are generally one to four students in a room with an expert in the subject you’re studying, and they’re one of the large draws of oxbridge. because of the system, when you apply to oxford or cambridge (not both, or not at undergraduate level anyway) you have to choose a college rather than applying straight to the university itself. some colleges are better-known for certain subjects or have other stereotypes; for example, clare college, cambridge has a stereotype of being full of musicians (i think) and christ church, oxford is stereotypically full of posh twats. but yeah, they’re all part of the university! hope this helped but feel free to ask me to clarify anything that doesn’t make sense, this a bit of a ramble x

[ayliffe]

hello! may you help me? can you tell if oxford/cambridge students have to pay for going to university? are they not public (in the american meaning of "public")? do you know how does that work?

hey, sure thing! the vast majority of universities in the uk — oxbridge included — are public, so they receive funds from the government. up until about 2004 they were free for british students to attend, but after that, the govt passed a law allowing state-funded universities to charge fees up to about £3000 per year. these fees were increased in 2010 to around £9000 per year. british students can choose to take out loans to pay for university (though in practice these function more like a graduation tax), but i’m afraid i’m not sure about international students — you’d have to check their websites for that, sorry!

[ayliffe]

ohh so all those colleges are mostly like dormitories? and not really colleges colleges? which would you like to join in or recommend to someone who wants to do something related to literature, philosophy? and can you choose the one you want to apply in? which has the worst reputation? TOO MANY QUESTION IM SORRY

right, the word “college” has different implications than it does in the us (or even a fair bit of the uk, haha)! they’re like your avg college, in that you’ll do a lot of your learning there, but again, they make up the entire university. there’s no studying at oxbridge without belonging to a college.

honestly, for lit or philosophy, you’re good for pretty much any you choose — you’ll be doing the same course whichever college you go to, so you also want to look at what the place is like, the size of it (trinity hall, cambridge is tiny; st john’s is enormous), the reputation to some extent (which i can’t help you with, unfortunately — i know @artauds is at oxford and @oephelia went to cambridge, though, so maybe they’ll be able to help). and yes, you do choose which college to apply to, though that doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily go to that one. in december, both universities conduct interviews, all of which are held within the colleges, but it’s far from unheard of to receive an offer from a college different from the one you applied for!

quick note: none of them really have “best” or “worst” reputations. they’re all part of the same university, so there isn’t one college that’s like, The Idiot College or The Smart College. the stereotypes are more about the kind of people you find there. i think.

[ayliffe]

could you explain to us what does anthromorphic personifications have to do with universities? btw i love when you talk about cambridge and oxford

the topics don’t really have anything to do with each other, but when i was a lot younger, i was obsessed with personifying everything, and since one of my main interests was oxbridge, the two sort of combined — i ended up thinking about how i’d personify various universities. don’t worry, there’s no link you’re missing there, they’re just two things i’m interested in.

and thank you! i love talking about oxbridge, so i’m glad people enjoy reading it too!