Balliol College, Oxford Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Balliol College, founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Traditionally, the undergraduates are amongst the most politically active in the university, and the college's alumni include several former prime ministers. Balliol attracts more international students than the other undergraduate colleges.
During Benjamin Jowett's Mastership in the 19th century, the College rose from its relative obscurity to occupy the first rank of colleges, and indeed continues to play a prominent role. Herbert Asquith once described Balliol men as possessing "the tranquil consciousness of an effortless superiority".
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2 Student Life 3 Notable Former Students 4 Academics/Teachers/Visitors 5 Fictional Balliol 6 Institutes and Centres 7 External links 8 References |
The College was founded around 1263 by The 5th Baron de Balliol
under the guidance of the Bishop of Durham. After his death in 1269, his widow, Dervorguilla
of Galloway, made arrangements to ensure the permanence of the College. She provided
capital, and in 1282, formulated the College Statutes.
The college provides its students with a broad range of facilities
including accomodation, the great hall (refectory), a library, three bars, and separate common rooms for the fellows, the graduates and undergraduates. There are also garden quadrangles and a nearby sportsground and boat-house. The sportsground is mainly used for cricket, tennis, hockey and soccer. The undergraduates are housed within the main college or in the modern annexes around the sportsground. Croquet may be played in the Master's Field in the summer. The graduates are housed mainly within Holywell Manor which has its own bar, gardens, canteen, common room, laundry and computing facilities. Balliol is proud to have a long standing Music Society which organises four free Sunday evening concerts in the College Hall each term.
Balliol also takes pride in its college tortoise, Rosa, named after the notable German Marxist Rosa Luxemburg. Each June, pet tortoises from various Oxford campuses are brought to Corpus Christi College, Oxford where they participate in a very slow race; Balliol's own Rosa has competed and won many times. Taking care of the resident tortoise is one of the many tasks assigned to Balliol students each year. Sadly, Rosa has gone missing.
Balliol has produced an impressive range of graduates in the fields of economics, history, law, humanities, mathematics, science, technology, media, philosophy, poetry, politics and religion. Amongst the job titles that they have held are: King, Prime Minister, Viceroy, Professor, Archbishop, Cardinal, Chief Rabbi, Editor, Chancellor etc. A recent Nobel Prize winner in Physics had studied Ancient History with Latin and Greek. A list of alumni is to be found here.
Balliol has a more or less permanent set of teachers (known as dons). These are supplemented by academics on short term contracts. In addition, there are visiting international academics who come to Oxford for a year or so in order to test their ideas in the intellectual milieu of Balliol. Graduate students also contribute to the life of the community. Some of the Balliol faculty past and present are to be found here.
The official list of current senior members of the College can be found here.
Balliol has featured in fiction since the 19th Century. This may be because it has historically been regarded as the college of the intellectural elite. This may no longer be the case but novelists seek authentic symbols rather than statistical accuracy. The college has been regarded as typifying a whole range of attributes for good or ill. On the one hand it is positioned as the ultimate target for any educationally ambitious school boy (or girl - but only relatively recently). It is also selected as the typical college of a superior sort of person. Having placed the fictional character at the college the author is then able to endorse its academic excellence or take a swipe at its intellectual pretensions. For examples of Balliol in fiction, see here.
This is an Article on Balliol College, Oxford. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Balliol College, Oxford History
Student Life
Notable Former Students
Academics/Teachers/Visitors
Fictional Balliol
Institutes and Centres
External links
References