Editing University of Oxford (section)

==== Students ====
In 1827 a major review of the university's statutes, some over 500 years old, was conducted. Among the changes made at this time was the removal of the requirement that students swear an oath of enmity towards a certain [[Henry Symeonis]], who had murdered an Oxford student in the mid-13th century.<ref name="Millea">{{cite web |first=Alice|last=Millea| title=The persistence of tradition: the curious case of Henry Symeonis | website=Archives and Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library | date=13 December 2023 | url=https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/archivesandmanuscripts/2023/12/13/the-persistence-of-tradition-the-curious-case-of-henry-symeonis/ | ref={{sfnref|Archives and Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library|2023}} | access-date=13 January 2025}}</ref>

Before reforms in the early 19th century, the curriculum at Oxford was notoriously narrow and impractical. [[Spencer Walpole|Sir Spencer Walpole]], a historian of contemporary Great Britain and a senior government official, had not attended any university. He said, "Few medical men, few solicitors, few persons intended for commerce or trade, ever dreamed of passing through a university career." He quoted the Oxford University Commissioners in 1852 stating: "The education imparted at Oxford was not such as to conduce to the advancement in life of many persons, except those intended for the ministry."<ref>{{cite book|author=Sir Spencer Walpole|title=History of Twenty-Five Years: vol 4: 1870–1875|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dmQ4AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA137|year=1903|pages=136–37|access-date=3 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170304050530/https://books.google.com/books?id=dmQ4AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA137|archive-date=4 March 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Nevertheless, Walpole argued:
{{Blockquote | style=font-size:100%; | Among the many deficiencies attending a university education there was, however, one good thing about it, and that was the education which the undergraduates gave themselves. It was impossible to collect some thousand or twelve hundred of the best young men in England, to give them the opportunity of making acquaintance with one another, and full liberty to live their lives in their own way, without evolving in the best among them, some admirable qualities of loyalty, independence, and self-control. If the average undergraduate carried from University little or no learning, which was of any service to him, he carried from it a knowledge of men and respect for his fellows and himself, a reverence for the past, a code of honour for the present, which could not but be serviceable. He had enjoyed opportunities... of intercourse with men, some of whom were certain to rise to the highest places in the Senate, in the Church, or at the Bar. He might have mixed with them in his sports, in his studies, and perhaps in his debating society; and any associations which he had this formed had been useful to him at the time, and might be a source of satisfaction to him in after life.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Walpole|first1=Spencer|url=http://archive.org/details/cu31924088010115|title=The history of twenty-five years|editor-last1=Lyall|editor-first1=Alfred Comyn|date=1904|publisher=Longmans, Green and Co.|volume=3: 1870–1875 |page=140}}</ref>|sign=|source=}}

Of the students who matriculated in 1840, 65% were sons of professionals (34% were Anglican ministers). After graduation, 87% became professionals (59% as Anglican clergy). Out of the students who matriculated in 1870, 59% were sons of professionals (25% were Anglican ministers). After graduation, 87% became professionals (42% as Anglican clergy).<ref>[[William D. Rubinstein]], "The social origins and career patterns of Oxford and Cambridge matriculants, 1840–1900." ''Historical Research'' 82.218 (2009): 715–730, data on pages 719 and 724.</ref><ref>For more details see Mark C. Curthoys, "Origins and Destinations: the social mobility of Oxford men and women" in Michael G. Brock and Mark C. Curthoys, eds. ''The History of the University of Oxford Volume 7: Nineteenth-Century'' (2000) part 2, pp 571–95.</ref>

M.&nbsp;C. Curthoys and H.&nbsp;S. Jones argue that the rise of organised sport was one of the most remarkable and distinctive features of the history of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was carried over from the athleticism prevalent at the public schools such as [[Eton College|Eton]], [[Winchester College|Winchester]], [[Shrewsbury School|Shrewsbury]], and [[Harrow School|Harrow]].<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1080/0046760950240403|title = Oxford athleticism, 1850-1914: A reappraisal|journal = History of Education|volume = 24|issue = 4|pages = 305–317|year = 1995|last1 = Curthoys|first1 = M. C.|last2 = Jones|first2 = H. S.|issn=0046-760X }}</ref>

All students, regardless of their chosen area of study, were required to spend (at least) their first year preparing for a first-year examination that was heavily focused on [[classical language]]s. Science students found this particularly burdensome and supported a separate science degree with [[Greek language]] study removed from their required courses. This concept of a Bachelor of Science had been adopted at other European universities ([[London University]] had implemented it in 1860) but an 1880 proposal at Oxford to replace the classical requirement with a modern language (like German or French) was unsuccessful. After considerable internal haggling over the structure of the arts curriculum, in 1886 the "natural science preliminary" was recognised as a qualifying part of the first year examination.<ref>{{Cite book|editor-last1=Brock|editor-first1=Michael G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3bDAWHbXgi4C&pg=PA355|title=The History of the University of Oxford: Nineteenth-Century Oxford, Volumes 6–7|editor-last2=Curthoys|editor-first2=Mark C.|date=1997|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-951016-0|language=en|page=355|access-date=7 February 2019|archive-date=27 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927195459/https://books.google.com/books?id=3bDAWHbXgi4C&pg=PA355#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

At the start of 1914, the university housed about 3,000 undergraduates and around 100 postgraduate students. During the First World War, many undergraduates and fellows joined the armed forces. By 1918 virtually all fellows were in uniform, and the student population in residence was reduced to 12 per cent of the pre-war total.<ref name="Harrison-1994">{{cite book|title=History of the University of Oxford: Volume VIII: The Twentieth Century – Oxford Scholarship|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229742.001.0001|year=1994|isbn=978-0-19-822974-2|last1=Harrison|first1=Brian|last2=Aston|first2=Trevor Henry}}</ref> The [[iarchive:oxforduniversity00univuoft|University Roll of Service]] records that, in total, 14,792 members of the university served in the war, with 2,716 (18.36%) killed.<ref>{{cite web|title=Oxford university roll of service: University of Oxford: Free Download & Streaming|url=https://archive.org/details/oxforduniversity00univuoft|website=Internet Archive|access-date=10 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311003438/https://archive.org/details/oxforduniversity00univuoft|archive-date=11 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Not all the members of the university who served in the Great War were on the Allied side; there is a memorial to members of New College who served in the German armed forces, bearing the inscription, 'In memory of the men of this college who coming from a foreign land entered into the inheritance of this place and returning fought and died for their country in the war 1914–1918'. During the war years the university buildings became hospitals, cadet schools and military training camps.<ref name="Harrison-1994" />