Student's Handbook to the University and Colleges of Oxford

THE University is a body corporate invested with all the usual powers of corporations, and also with various peculiar privileges, such as the right of exercising jurisdiction civil and criminal over its members, the right of returning two representatives to the House of Commons, and the power of conferring degrees.

It is open without respect of birth, age, or creed to all persons who satisfy the appointed officers that they are likely to derive educational advantage from its membership: and, subject only to necessary limitations of academical standing, any person who has been admitted as a member is eligible to compete for all its prizes and distinctions, save only that Degrees in Divinity are confined to members of the Church of England.

The members of the University are at present upwards of thirteen thousand in number. They are either 'graduates,' members who have taken a degree, or 'undergraduates,' members who have not yet taken a degree. There are more than nine thousand graduates and about 3,500 undergraduates. Only a small proportion of the graduates are in residence, and only a small proportion of the undergraduates are not in residence. The graduates who are not in residence are all those who have left Oxford after taking a degree in the ordinary course and have retained their position as members of the University by the payment of certain dues; the graduates who are in residence consist chiefly of those who are engaged in the educational work of the University or in research. The undergraduates who are in residence are, of course, those who are going through the ordinary course of academical study which precedes the taking of a degree; the undergraduates not in residence are those whose academical course has been for some cause interrupted, or who have not formally taken the degree for which they have

qualified themselves by passing examinations and by residence, but who have not severed their connexion with the University by taking their names off the books and ceasing to pay annual dues.

Those members of the University who have not taken the degree of Master of Arts or of Doctor of Civil Law, Medicine, or Divinity have no share in the government of the University. This is in the hands of three bodies:

1. 'Convocation,' which consists of all the members of the University who have taken the degrees of Master of Arts or of Doctor of Medicine, Civil Law or Divinity, resident or non-resident.

2. 'The Congregation of the University,' which consists of certain ex officio members, and of all members of Convocation who reside in Oxford for 140 days in the academical year.

3. 'The Hebdomadal Council,' which consists of the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, the Ex-Vice-Chancellor for a certain period after the expiration of his term of office, the two Proctors, and eighteen members elected by Congregation. Six of these must be chosen from the Heads of Colleges and Halls, six from the Professors, and six from members of Convocation of five years' standing.

Besides the Congregation of the University, which was established by Act of Parliament in 1854, there is another 'House of Congregation,' now generally called 'The Ancient House of Congregation.' The framers of the Act of 1854 intended this Congregation to be superseded by the Congregation of the University, but the Act only established the new body in addition to the old. The Ancient House consists of all Doctors and Masters of Arts for the space of two years after their admission to their respective degrees, all Professors, University Examiners, resident Doctors, and all Heads and Deans of Colleges and Principals of Halls. Its only powers are now the granting of ordinary degrees, which, after the requirements of the University have been satisfied, is a pure formality, and the confirmation of the appointment of Examiners.

The Hebdomadal Council alone has the power of initiating legislation. A new statute framed by it must be promulgated in the Congregation of the University, which may adopt, reject, or amend it. In its approved form it must be submitted to Convocation, which may adopt or reject, but cannot amend it. Besides confirming or rejecting statutes which have passed Congregation,

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