The Residential College System

The residential college system is one of the unique hallmarks of Oxford (and Cambridge) and permeates almost every element of a student’s life. Oxford has 38 colleges, each with their own autonomous governance structure and unique style. These are where students live, eat, participate in sports and generally establish a sense of community. The college community is broken into three groups- the junior common room (undergraduates), the middle common room (graduates) and senior common room (college fellows/professors). Each of these groups quite literally have their own room for socializing, taking tea, watching TV, reading, etc. Undergrads take classes in their college and receive their degree from the college, hence the prestige is quite important. However, as a graduate student I am academically based in my department and merely use the college as a social hub.

In many respects the college system is the antithesis of a major public university like UC Irvine where 21,000 undergraduates navigate the campus on an individual basis. While the sense of community is a tremendous advantage, there are also significant disadvantages, most notably the quality of the facilities and access to resources. Each of Oxford’s colleges has its own gym, sports fields, boathouse, library, dining hall, computer lab, etc. This means that there is significant disparity among the colleges, but also, on the whole, the facilities are less impressive than those at large public universities in the States. For example, the St. John’s gym is reputed to be one of the nicest in Oxford. But it is barely the size of a squash court and contains a squat rack, a handful of weigh machines, three treadmills, two ellipticals and a stationary bike. Compare this to the UC Irvine ARC (Anteater Recreation Center), which is quite literally the size of the Arc, and holds four indoor squash courts, three full size basketball courts, an indoor track, over a hundred aerobic machines, two separate weight rooms, group fitness rooms, a pool and more. The same argument can be made for the dining hall. Breakfast entails four types of cereal and a handful of hot items as opposed to the full General Mills spectrum and a veritable smorgasbord of waffles, pancakes, omelets, etc available at UC Irvine’s cafeteria. And rather than a buffet of pizza, burgers, soup, salad, casseroles, etc., dinner here usually consists of two choices. Last night it was between stuffed beef olive (I don’t even know what that is and wasn’t brave enough to find out) and stuffed tomatoes. And of course this is invariably accompanied by some type of potato and a green vegetable- peas, lima beans, etc.

Now this criticism is probably just my American prejudice- an obsession with variety and quantity. However, the true inefficiencies of the college system can be seen when you look at the libraries. Last week I needed to check out Henry Kissenger’s book, Dimplomacy but St. John’s didn’t have a copy available and the one in my department library was checked out as well. Even though 29 other colleges own the book, I can’t borrow from them. So my only choice is to go to the main library, the Bodleian and sit there while I read. You see, the Bodleian doesn’t check books out. To anyone. Ever. Just ask King Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, both of whom tried to borrow books and were soundly rebuffed. Also, should you choose to use the Bodleian, you have to swear an oath promising not to light a fire within the library. Apparently 117 miles of shelving makes for excellent kindling. Interesting side note- at Oxford I’m not “doing a” MPhil in International Relations, I am “reading for” and MPhil. And that is because centuries ago, the chief allure of Oxford wasn’t the quality of it’s teaching but rather access to the university’s 100+ libraries. So obviously there is something to be said for the breadth of Oxford’s collection but unless you are looking for a rare manuscript, the inaccessibility of many texts is likely to be the chief consequence of the decentralized system.

In short, the college libraries, dining halls, gyms, and other facilities leave something to be desired when compared to US universities. However, these shortcomings are probably offset by the delightful tradition that is formal hall, college sports competitions such as rowing and the highly subsidized drinks selection in the college pub. But these are topics for a later date.