Balliol College, Oxford
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- For other meanings of Balliol, see Balliol (disambiguation)
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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. H. H. Asquith (a Balliol undergraduate and British Prime Minister) once described Balliol men as possessing "the tranquil consciousness of an effortless superiority". Balliol also traditionally 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. Jowett is credited with having developed the tutorial system of education.
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History
The College was founded in about 1263 by John de Balliol under the guidance of the Bishop of Durham. After his death in 1269, his widow, Dervorguilla of Galloway (Galloway, Scotland), made arrangements to ensure the permanence of the college. She provided capital, and in 1282, formulated the college statutes, documents that survive to this day.
Student life
The college provides its students with a broad range of facilities, including accommodation, the great hall (refectory), a library, two 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 and the recent new addition water polo. The majority of undergraduates are housed within the main college or in the modern annexes around the sportsground. Croquet may be played in the Master's Field, or garden quadrangles 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 is the only Oxford college to have its own bridge club; bridge is an integral part of Balliol and the club recently provided all four team in the cuppers semi-finals, a notable achievement.
Balliol also takes pride in its college tortoise, Rosa, named after the notable German Marxist Rosa Luxemburg. Each June, pet tortoises from various Oxford colleges 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 been missing for over two years now raising the unanswered question of whether she exists any longer.
Balliol students are noted for their left-wing tendencies - the college ethos has been described as "conservatively left-wing". The JCR has had requests for the Sun and News of the World newspapers several times, but each time a majority of students voted against the idea.
Traditions and customs
Image:Balliol College Feb 2005.jpg Along with many of the ancient colleges, Balliol has evolved its own traditions and customs over the centuries, many of which occupy a regular calendar slot.
- The patron saint of the College is Saint Catherine of Alexandria. On her feast day (25 November), a formal dinner is held for all final year students within Balliol. This festival was well established by 1550 (in which year college archives say that a peacock was served).
- Another important feast in the College calendar is the Snell Dinner (normally held on the Friday of the 3rd week in March). This dinner is held in memory of John Snell, whose benefaction established exhibitions for students from Glasgow University to study at Balliol (the first exhibitioners were matriculated in 1699). The feast is attended by fellows of Balliol College, the current Snell Exhibitioners, and representatives from Glasgow University and St John's College, Cambridge.
- By far the most eccentric is The Nepotists carol-singing event organised by the College's Arnold and Brackenbury society. This event happens on the last Friday of Michaelmas term each year. On this occasion Balliol students congregate in the college hall to enjoy mulled wine and the singing of hymns. The evening ends with a rendition of "The Gordouli" on Broad Street, outside the gates of Trinity College. The Gordouli is an eccentric song written by Balliol students and inspired by the friendly rivalry between the students of Trinity and Balliol.
- As with most other Colleges, another tradition is the Betting Book. After formal college meals, the fellows of the college retire to the senior common room. From time to time, the fellows discuss and place small amicable bets on a whole range of issues. Once made, bets are placed in the Book. The Book has existed since at least the 1930s and provides an insight into how famous historical events were perceived by learned people at the time.
The College buildings
Alfred Waterhouse built the main Broad Street frontage of Balliol College, with gateway and tower, known as the Brackenbury Buildings, in 1867-68, as well as the adjoining Master's Lodgings. These replaced earlier structures. The Twentieth Century saw several further additions to the college's buildings.
Many undergraduates and some graduates live in buildings on Jowett Walk, five minutes' walking distance from the main buildings. The majority of graduates, and some fourth-year undergraduates, are housed in the Holywell Manor complex, on Manor Road. 'Holywell' or 'The Manor' is a self-contained graduate outpost, with its own dining facilities, bar, grounds, and an active social scene.
Notable former students
- Main article: List of Balliol College people
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. A recent Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Anthony Leggatt, studied Ancient History with Latin and Greek. The notable biologist Richard Dawkins studied zoology.
Balliol has produced four Nobel Prize winners: Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood (Chemistry), Sir John Hicks (Economics), Baruch S. Blumberg (Medicine), and Anthony J. Leggett (Physics). It has also produced three British Prime Ministers (Edward Heath, H. H. Asquith, and Harold Macmillan), several Archbishops of Canterbury (Tait, Stanley, Morton, Lang, Temple, and Abbott), some cardinals (Heard and Manning), and the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith (Shoghi Effendi).
Academics and visiting academics
As with all Colleges, Balliol has a more or less permanent set of teaching staff, known as dons. Joseph Raz and Timothy Endicott are currently on its staff. Several Nobel Laureates have been dons. There is a sadly incomplete list of Balliol College academics past and present. 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. Postgraduate students also contribute to the life of the community. The official list of current senior members of the College can be found here.
Fictional Balliol
- Main article: Balliol College in fiction
Balliol has featured in fiction since the 19th century. This may be because it has historically been regarded as the college of the intellectual elite. Such a designation may no longer be assumed 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 may then endorse its academic excellence or alternatively take a swipe at its intellectual pretensions.
Institutes and centres
- Balliol, especially the Master, Andrew Graham, played a major role in 2000 and 2001 in setting up the Oxford Internet Institute. This was the world's first multidisciplinary research and policy centre in a university devoted to examining the impact on society of the Internet. It is department of Oxford University, but is located in Balliol, and its Director is a Professorial Fellow of Balliol.
External links
- Junior Common Room website (undergraduate students)
- Middle Common Room website (graduate students)
- A virtual tour of Balliol College (360° photographs)
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- The Oxonian Review of Books (Oxford's postgraduate review, based at Balliol)
References
- J. Jones, Balliol College: A History, Oxford University Press, 2nd edition. 1997.
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