Overview

University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England, with origins dating to the 12th century. It operates as a self-governing academic community dedicated to advancing excellence in teaching, research and scholarship across a wide range of disciplines.

Mission and focus areas

The University’s core purpose is to educate undergraduate and postgraduate students, conduct research, and support lifelong learning. It aims to maintain international standing in teaching and research while developing new areas of study in response to societal and intellectual change.

Its academic activity spans humanities, social sciences, medical sciences, and mathematical, physical and life sciences. Through interdisciplinary research and policy engagement, it contributes to global challenges including sustainability, governance and economic development, supporting evidence-based decision-making relevant to finance and public policy.

Structure and governance

University of Oxford has a distinctive collegiate structure comprising the central University, academic divisions, departments, and 36 colleges and societies operating within a federal system. Colleges are self-governing entities responsible for student admissions and welfare, while the University oversees curriculum, research and degree awarding.

Governance is led by Congregation, the sovereign legislative body, and Council, which manages administration, finances and strategic direction. Senior leadership includes the Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellors responsible for key portfolios such as research, education and external engagement.

Programs and offerings

University of Oxford delivers undergraduate and postgraduate education, professional development and continuing education programmes, including part-time and online learning. It produces extensive research outputs, academic publications and policy-relevant insights through its departments and institutes.

Its resources include world-leading libraries, museums and collections, as well as Oxford University Press, which disseminates scholarly and educational materials globally. These outputs support practitioners, researchers and policymakers with evidence-based knowledge across disciplines.

Appendix A – The University’s current mission statement

The nature of the University and its principal aims

The University’s long-term aims are:

(a) To ensure that the University, as a self-governing academic community, maintains and enhances its standing as a university of international standing in both teaching and research.

(b) To identify new areas of study and research for development and enhancement, responding to contemporary developments in both the intellectual and national environment.

(c) To maintain the health of the college system, which allows the University to combine the economies of scale and special facilities of a large university with a close-knit and responsive working environment for teaching and the exchange of ideas in a democratic community of scholars.

(d) To provide education and training of excellent quality at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

(e) To strengthen the research base of the University and, if necessary, adjust the balance of time accorded by members of academic staff to teaching, research, and administration.

(f) To raise the profile of graduate studies in the University over the next decade.

(g) To encourage applications from students of the highest calibre from overseas and facilitate appropriate international experience for its own staff and students.

(h) To be more widely accessible, both by broadening recruitment to its degree courses, and, by expansion of opportunities for life-long learning including high-quality post-experience vocational courses and other part-time courses leading to awards, and by preserving the important provision of non-award bearing courses.

(i) To conserve, enhance, and utilise fully its special resources including its libraries, museums and scientific collections.

(j) To maintain close collaboration with industry and the professions in pursuing research and to ensure that the fruits of that research are made available to outside bodies both for commercial exploitation and more generally for the benefit of society.

Given these long-term aims, the University’s general objectives in the period 1997-2001 are:

(k) To continue to attract high-quality students and staff, who are essential for the maintenance of the University’s academic standing.

(l) To provide appropriate facilities for the support of research across all subjects areas when the University is active, and to build on the excellent results obtained in the 1996 RAE.

(m) To continue to exploit to the full the advantages of the collegiate system.

(n) To strengthen further the links within the collegiate University and in particular through the work of the Commission of Inquiry (see Strategic Plan below) to review the operation and structure of the collegiate University and its decision-making machinery and its strategic objectives.

(o) Continuously to review teaching and research and monitor academic standards in each.

(p) To reappraise and rationalise the allocation of space in the light of present and anticipated needs.

(q) To develop further an Information Strategy whose goals are to ensure that information of all kinds is made accessible effectively and efficiently to all sectors of the University, in accordance with needs, to improve effective communication throughout the university community, and to make the necessary structural changes to library and information services in the furtherance of these ends.

(r) To develop further both teaching and research links with the European Community and other countries and to facilitate entry by the highest quality students on a world-wide basis.

(s) To encourage access to the University by a wider range of applicants and significantly to expand its contribution to vocational and non-vocational Continuing Education.

(t) To continue to develop flexible policies and procedures to encourage the funding of research from a wide variety of outside sources and to further income-generation by the exploitation of intellectual property.

(u) To further its ability to provide for the needs of a major international university by securing additional resources through its Development Programme.