University Oxford

while having no known date of foundation, there is evidence

of teaching as far back as 1096, making it the oldest university in the english-speaking world, and the world's second-oldest surviving university. it grew rapidly from 1167 when henry ii banned english students from attending the university of paris. after disputes between students and oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled northeast to cambridge, where they established what became the university of cambridge. the two "ancient universities" are frequently jointly referred to as "Oxbridge".
the university is made up from a variety of institutions, including 38 constituent colleges and a full range of academic departments which are organized into four divisions. all the colleges are self-governing institutions as part of the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. being a city university, it does not have a main campus; instead, all the buildings and facilities are scattered throughout the metropolitan center.

foundation date. Teaching at Oxford existed in some form

in 1096, but it is unclear at what point a university came into being. It grew quickly in 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris. The historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188, and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the University was named a chancellor from at least 1201, and the masters were recognized as a universities or corporation in 1231. The university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III.
In 1333–34, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire was blocked by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III. Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London; thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, which was unusual in western European countries

most academic staff, must also be a member of a

college or hall. There are 38 colleges of the University of Oxford and six Permanent Private Halls, each controlling its membership and with its own internal structure and activities. Not all colleges offer all courses, but they generally cover a broad range of subjects.
The colleges are:

for free to the public. The Ashmolean Museum, founded in 1683,

is the oldest museum in the UK, and the oldest university museum in the world. It holds significant collections of art and archaeology, including works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, 
The University Museum of Natural History holds the University’s zoological, entomological and geological specimens. Among its collection are the skeletons of a Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops, and the most complete remains of a dodo found anywhere in the world.
Adjoining the Museum of Natural History is the Pitt Rivers Museum, founded in 1884, which displays the University’s archaeological and anthropological collections, currently holding over 500,000 items.
The Museum of the History of Science is housed on Broad St in the world’s oldest-surviving purpose-built museum building. It contains 15,000 artefacts, from antiquity to the 20th century, representing almost all aspects of the history of science. In the Faculty of Music on St Aldate's is theBate Collection of Musical Instruments, a collection mostly of instruments from Western classical music, from the medieval period onwards. Christ Church Picture Gallery holds a collection of over 200 old master paintings.

universities in different league tables, and regularly competes with Cambridge

for the first place in UK. In particular, it had held the number one position in the Times Good University Guide for eleven consecutive years, and has also maintained its 1st place in "Clinical, Pre-Clinical & Health" of the The World University Rankings for three consecutive years.