University of Cambridge is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious academic institutions. Dating back some 800 years to 1209, Cambridge boasts more than 100 academic departments and several world-class research centers that have produced more than 80 Nobel Prize winners. The university is home to more than 16,000 students enrolled in some 30 colleges, each of which acts as an independent institution. Teaching responsibilities are shared between the colleges and university departments; degrees are awarded by the university. Its alumni have included such prominent notables as Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Stephen Hawking.

The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. The name is sometimes abbreviated as Cantab. in post-nominals, a shortened form of Cantabrigiensis (an adjective derived from Cantabrigia, the Latinised form of Cambridge).

The University grew out of an association of scholars in the city of Cambridge that was formed, early records suggest, in 1209 by scholars leaving Oxford after a dispute with local townsfolk there. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are often jointly referred to as Oxbridge. In addition to cultural and practical associations as a historic part of English society, the two universities also have a long history of rivalry with each other.

Academically, Cambridge is consistently ranked in the world's top 5 universities. It has traditionally been an academic institution of choice of the Royal Family (King Edward VII, King George VI and Prince Charles were all undergraduates) and has produced 82 Nobel Laureates to date, more than any other university according to some counts.

Organization

Cambridge is a collegiate university, meaning that it is made up of self-governing and independent colleges, each with its own property and income. Most colleges bring together academics and students from a broad range of disciplines (though certain colleges do have particular strengths e.g. Gonville and Caius College for Medicine), and within each faculty, school or department within the university, academics from many different colleges will be found.

The Faculties are responsible for ensuring that lectures are given, arranging seminars, performing research and determining the syllabi for teaching, overseen by the General Board. Together with the central administration headed by the Vice-Chancellor, they make up the entire Cambridge University. Facilities such as libraries are provided on all these levels: by the University (the Cambridge University Library), by the departments (departmental libraries such as the Squire Law Library), and by the individual colleges (all of which maintain a multi-discipline library, generally aimed mainly at their undergraduates).

Colleges

All students and many of the academics are attached to colleges, where they live, eat and socialise. It is also the place where students may receive their small group teaching sessions, known as supervisions. Each college appoints its own teaching staff and fellows in each subject; decides which students to admit, in accordance with University regulations; provides small group teaching sessions, for undergraduates (though lectures are arranged and degrees are awarded by the university); and is responsible for the domestic arrangements and welfare of its own undergraduates, graduates, post-doctoral researchers, and staff in general.

The University of Cambridge currently has 31 colleges, of which three admit only women (Murray Edwards, Newnham and Lucy Cavendish). The remaining 28 are now mixed, though most were originally all-male. Magdalene was the last all-male college to begin admitting women in 1988. Two colleges admit only postgraduates (Clare Hall and Darwin), and four more admit mature students (i.e. 21 years or older on date of matriculation) or graduate students (Hughes Hall, Lucy Cavendish, St Edmund’s and Wolfson). The other 25 colleges admit both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Colleges are not required to admit students in all subjects, with some colleges choosing not to offer subjects such as architecture or history of art, but most offer close to the complete range. Some colleges maintain a bias towards certain subjects, for example with Churchill leaning towards the sciences and engineering, while others such as St Catharine's College aim for a balanced intake. Costs to students (accommodation and food prices) vary considerably from college to college.[citation needed] Others maintain much more informal reputations, such as for the students of Kings College to hold left-wing and Liberal political views, or Robinson College's attempts to minimise its environmental impact.

There are also several theological colleges in Cambridge, (for example Westminster College and Ridley Hall Theological College) that are loosely affiliated with the university through the Cambridge Theological Federation.

Schools, Faculties, and Departments

In addition to the 31 colleges, the University is made up of over 150 Departments, Faculties, Schools, Syndicates and other institutions. Members of these are usually also members of one (or more) of the colleges, and responsibility for running the entire academic programme of the University is divided amongst them.

A 'School' in the University of Cambridge is a broad administrative grouping of related subjects, each covering a specified group of Faculties. Each has an elected supervisory body - The Council of the School - comprising representatives of the constituent Faculties and Departments in each School. There are six Schools:

Arts and Humanities

Biological Sciences, including Veterinary Medicine

Clinical Medicine

Humanities and Social Sciences

Physical Sciences

Technology

Teaching and research in Cambridge is organized by Faculties. The Faculties have different organizational sub-structures which partly reflect their history and partly their operational needs, which may include a number of Departments and other institutions. In addition, a small number of bodies entitled Syndicates have responsibilities for teaching and research, exercising powers similar in effect to those of Faculty Boards. Examples are Cambridge Assessment, the University Press, and the University Library.

Central administration

The Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor

The current Chancellor of the University is the Duke of Edinburgh. The current Vice-Chancellor is Alison Richard. The office of Chancellor, which is held for life, is mainly ceremonial, while the Vice-Chancellor is de facto the principal academic and administrative officer. The University's internal governance is carried out almost entirely by its own members, with no external representation on its governing body, the Regent House (though there is external representation on the Audit Committee, and there are four external members on the University's Council).

The Senate and the Regent House

The Senate consists of all holders of the MA degree or higher degrees. It elects the Chancellor and the High Steward, and it elected Members to the House of Commons for the Cambridge University constituency until their abolition in 1950, but otherwise it has not had a major role since 1926, before which it fulfilled all the functions which the Regent House fulfills today, and was the University's governing body, just as the Regent House is today.

The Regent House is the University's governing body, a direct democracy comprising all resident senior members of the University and the Colleges, together with the Chancellor, the High Steward, the Deputy High Steward, and the Commissary.

The Council and the General Board

Although the University Council is the principal executive and policy-making body of the University, therefore, it must report and be accountable to the Regent House through a variety of checks and balances. It has the right of reporting to the University, and is obliged to advise the Regent House on matters of general concern to the University. It does both of these by causing notices to be published by authority in the Cambridge University Reporter, the official journal of the University. Since January 2005, the membership of the Council has included two external members, and the Regent House voted for an increase from two to four in the number of external members in March 2008, and this was approved by Her Majesty the Queen in July 2008.

The General Board of the Faculties is responsible for the academic and educational policy of the University, and is accountable to the Council for its management of these affairs.

Faculty Boards are responsible to the General Board; other Boards and Syndicates are responsible either to the General Board (if primarily for academic purposes) or to the Council. In this way, the various arms of the University are kept under the supervision of the central administration, and thus the Regent House.

Finances

In late 2006, the total financial endowment of the university and the colleges was estimated at £4.1 billion (US$8.2 billion): £1.2 billion tied directly to the university, £2.9 billion to the colleges. This endowment is arguably the largest in Europe. Oxford (including its colleges) is possibly ranked second, having reported an endowment valued at £3.9bn in mid-2006.The Central European University in Budapest has the third largest endowment, with an estimated €400 million in 2005. Each college is an independent charitable institution with its own endowment, separate from that of the central university endowment.

If ranked on a US university endowment table using figures reported in 2006, Cambridge would rank sixth or seventh (depending on whether one includes the University of Texas System – which incorporates nine full scale universities and six health institutions), or fourth in a ranking compared with only the eight Ivy League institutions.

Comparisons between Cambridge's endowment and those of other top US universities are however inaccurate because being a state-funded public university, Cambridge receives a major portion of its income through education and research grants from the British Government. In 2006, it was reported that approximately one third of Cambridge’s income comes from UK government funding for teaching and research, with another third coming from other research grants. Endowment income contributes around 6%.

Benefactions and Fundraising

In 2000, Bill Gates of Microsoft donated US$210 million through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to endow the Gates Scholarships for students from outside the UK seeking postgraduate study at Cambridge. The University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, which taught the world’s first computing course in 1953, is housed in a building partly funded by Gates and named after his grandfather, William Gates.[citation needed]

In 2005, the Cambridge 800th Anniversary Campaign was launched, aimed at raising £1 billion by 2012 – the first US-style University fundraising campaign in Europe. £663 million of funds have been secured to date.

University activities

Research

Cambridge University has research departments and teaching faculties in most academic disciplines. Cambridge tends to have a slight bias towards scientific subjects, but it also has a number of strong humanities and social science faculties. All research and lectures are conducted by University Departments. The colleges are in charge of giving or arranging most supervision, student accommodation, and funding most extracurricular activities. During the 1990s Cambridge added a substantial number of new specialist research laboratories on several University sites around the city, and major expansion continues on a number of sites.

Cambridge is a member of the Russell Group, a network of research-led British universities; the Coimbra Group, an association of leading European universities; the League of European Research Universities; and the International Alliance of Research Universities. It is also considered part of the "Golden Triangle", a geographical concentration of UK university research.

Building on its reputation for enterprise, science and technology, Cambridge has a partnership with MIT in the United States, the Cambridge–MIT Institute.

Teaching

The principal method of teaching at Cambridge colleges is the supervision. These are typically weekly hour-long sessions in which small groups of students - usually between one and three - meet with a member of the university's teaching staff or a doctoral student. Students are normally required to complete an essay or assignment in advance of the supervision, which they will discuss with the supervisor during the session, along with any concerns or difficulties they have had with the material presented in that week's lectures. Lectures at Cambridge are often described as being almost a mere 'bolt-on' to these supervisions. Students typically receive two or three supervisions per week. This pedagogical system is often cited as being unique to Cambridge and Oxford (where “supervisions” are known as “tutorials”)

The concept of grading students' work quantitatively was developed by a tutor named William Farish at the University of Cambridge in 1792.

Admissions

The application system to Cambridge and Oxford often involves additional requirements, with candidates typically called to face-to-face interviews.

How applicants perform in the interview process is an important factor in determining which students are accepted.[28] Most applicants are expected to be predicted at least three A-grade A-level qualifications relevant to their chosen undergraduate course, or equivalent overseas qualifications. Due to a very high proportion of applicants receiving the highest school grades, the interview process is crucial for distinguishing between the most able candidates. In 2006, 5,228 students who were rejected went on to get 3 A levels or more at grade A, representing about 63% of all applicants rejected. The interview is performed by College Fellows, who evaluate candidates on unexamined factors such as potential for original thinking and creativity. For exceptional candidates, a Matriculation Offer is sometimes offered, requiring only two A-levels at grade E or above - Christ's College is unusual in making this offer to about one-third of successful candidates, in order to relieve very able candidates of some pressure in their final 'A level' year (or equivalent), although this is now quite uncommon.[citation needed]

In recent years, admissions tutors in certain subjects have required applicants to sit the more difficult STEP papers, tuition for which is not normally provided by British schools outside the private or independent sector, in addition to achieving top grades in their A-levels or International Baccalaureate diplomas. For example, almost every college requires 1,2, and a significant number requiring 1,1, or better in the 2 STEP Papers as well as A grades at A-levels including A-level Mathematics and Further Mathematics in order to be considered for entry for the Mathematical Tripos. Between one-half and two-thirds of those who apply with the required grades are given offers of a place.

Public debate in the United Kingdom continues over whether admissions processes at Oxford and Cambridge are entirely merit based and fair; whether enough students from state schools are encouraged to apply to Cambridge; and whether these students succeed in gaining entry. Almost half of all successful applicants come from independent schools. However, the average qualifications for successful applicants from state schools are slightly lower than the average qualification of successful applicants from private schools [citation needed]. Critics have argued that the lack of state school applicants with the required grades applying to Cambridge and Oxford has had a negative impact on Oxbridge’s reputation for many years, and the University has encouraged pupils from state schools to apply for Cambridge to help redress the imbalance. Others counter that government pressure to increase state school admissions constitutes inappropriate social engineering.[30][31] The proportion of undergraduates drawn from independent schools has dropped over the years, and such applicants now form only a significant minority (42.1%) of the intake. In 2005, 32% of the 3599 applicants from independent schools were admitted to Cambridge, as opposed to 24% of the 6674 applications from state schools. In 2008 the University of Cambridge received a gift of £4m to improve its accessibility to candidates from maintained schools.

Graduate admission is first decided by the faculty or department relating to the applicant’s subject. This effectively guarantees admission to a college - though not necessarily the applicant’s preferred choice.

Publishing

The University’s publishing arm, the Cambridge University Press, is the oldest printer and publisher in the world.

Public Examinations

The University set up its Local Examination Syndicate in 1858. Today, the Syndicate, which is known as Cambridge Assessment, is Europe’s largest assessment agency and it plays a leading role in researching, developing and delivering assessments across the globe.

Sport and other extracurricular activities

See also: List of social activities at the University of Cambridge and Category:Clubs and societies of the University of Cambridge

Further information: University website list of societies

Cambridge maintains a long tradition of student participation in sport and recreation. Rowing is a particularly popular sport at Cambridge, and there are competitions between colleges, notably the bumps races, and against Oxford, the Boat Race. There are also Varsity matches against Oxford in many other sports, ranging from cricket and rugby, to chess and tiddlywinks. Athletes representing the university in certain sports entitle them to apply for a Cambridge Blue at the discretion of the Blues Committee, consisting of the captains of the thirteen most prestigious sports. There is also the self-described “unashamedly elite Hawks’ Club, which is for men only, whose membership is usually restricted to Cambridge Full Blues and Half Blues.

The Cambridge Union serves as a focus for debating. Drama societies notably include the Amateur Dramatic Club (ADC) and the comedy club Footlights, which are known for producing well-known showbusiness personalities. Student newspapers include the long-established Varsity and its younger rival, The Cambridge Student. The student-run radio station, CUR1350, promotes broadcast journalism.

History

Roger of Wendover wrote that the University of Cambridge could trace its origins to a crime committed in 1209. Although not always a reliable source, the detail given in his contemporaneous writings lends them credence.

Two Oxford scholars were convicted of the murder or manslaughter of a woman and were hanged by the town authorities with the assent of the King. In protest at the hanging, the University of Oxford went into voluntary suspension, and scholars migrated to a number of other locations, including the pre-existing school at Cambridge (Cambridge had been recorded as a “school” rather than university when John Grim held the office of Master there in 1201). These exile Oxford scholars (post-graduate researchers by present day terminology) started Cambridge’s life as a university in 1209.

Cambridge’s status as a university is further confirmed by a decree in 1233 from Pope Gregory IX which awarded the ius non trahi extra (a form of legal protection) to the chancellor and universitas of scholars at Cambridge.

After Cambridge was described as a studium generale in a letter by Pope Nicholas IV in 1290, and confirmed as such in a bull by Pope John XXII in 1318, it became common for researchers from other European medieval universities to come and visit Cambridge to study or to give lecture courses.

Foundation of the Colleges

Cambridge’s colleges were originally an incidental feature of the system. No college is as old as the university itself. The colleges were endowed fellowships of scholars. There were also institutions without endowments, called hostels. The hostels were gradually absorbed by the colleges over the centuries, but they have left some indicators of their time, such as the name of Garret Hostel Lane.

Hugh Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founded Peterhouse in 1284, Cambridge’s first college. Many colleges were founded during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but colleges continued to be established throughout the centuries to modern times, although there was a gap of 204 years between the founding of Sidney Sussex in 1596 and Downing in 1800. The most recent college established is Robinson, built in the late 1970s. However, Hughes Hall only achieved full university college status in April 2007, making it the newest full college.[37]

In medieval times, colleges were founded so that their students would pray for the souls of the founders. For that reason they were often associated with chapels or abbeys. A change in the colleges’ focus occurred in 1536 with the dissolution of the monasteries. King Henry VIII ordered the university to disband its Faculty of Canon Law and to stop teaching “scholastic philosophy”. In response, colleges changed their curricula away from canon law and towards the classics, the Bible, and mathematics.

Mathematics

From the time of Isaac Newton in the later 17th century until the mid-19th century, the university maintained a strong emphasis on mathematics. Study of this subject was compulsory for graduation, and students were required to take an exam for the Bachelor of Arts degree, the main first degree at Cambridge in both arts and science subjects. This exam is known as a Tripos.

Students awarded first-class honours after completing the mathematics Tripos were named wranglers. The Cambridge Mathematical Tripos was competitive and helped produce some of the most famous names in British science, including James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Kelvin, and Lord Rayleigh. However, some famous students, such as G. H. Hardy, disliked the system, feeling that people were too interested in accumulating marks in exams and not interested in the subject itself.

Although diversified in its research and teaching interests, Cambridge today maintains its strength in mathematics. The Isaac Newton Institute, part of the university, is widely regarded as the UK’s national research institute for mathematics and theoretical physics. Cambridge alumni have won eight Fields Medals and one Abel Prize for mathematics. The University also runs a special Certificate of Advanced Studies in Mathematics course.

Contributions to the advancement of science

Many of the most important scientific discoveries and revolutions were made by Cambridge alumni. These include:

Understanding the scientific method, by Francis Bacon

The laws of motion, by Sir Isaac Newton

The discovery of the electron, by J. J. Thomson

The splitting of the atom by Sir John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton

The unification of electromagnetism, by James Clerk Maxwell

The discovery of hydrogen, by Henry Cavendish

Evolution by natural selection, by Charles Darwin

The Turing machine, a basic model for computation, by Alan Turing

The structure of DNA, by Francis Crick and James D. Watson

Women’s education

Originally all students were male. The first colleges for women were Girton College (founded by Emily Davies) in 1869 and Newnham College in 1872 followed by New Hall in 1954. The first women students were examined in 1882 but attempts to make women full members of the university did not succeed until 1947. Although Cambridge did not give degrees to women until this date women were in fact allowed to study courses, sit examinations, and have their results recorded from the nineteenth century onwards. In the twentieth century women could be given a titular degree”; although they were not denied recognised qualifications, without a full degree they were excluded from the governing of the university. Since students must belong to a college, and since established colleges remained closed to women, women found admissions restricted to colleges established only for women. Starting with Churchill College, all of the men’s colleges began to admit women between 1972 and 1988. One women’s college, Girton, also began to admit male students from 1979, but the other women’s colleges did not follow suit. As a result of St Hilda's College, Oxford ending its ban on male students in 2008, Cambridge is now the only remaining United Kingdom University with colleges which refuse to admit males, with three such institutions in total.In the academic year 2004–5, the university’s student gender ratio, including post-graduates, was male 52%: female 48%.

Myths, legends and traditions

As an institution with such a long history, the University has developed a large number of myths and legends. The vast majority of these are untrue, but have been propagated nonetheless by generations of students and tour guides.

A discontinued tradition is that of the wooden spoon, the ‘prize’ awarded to the student with the lowest passing grade in the final examinations of the Mathematical Tripos. The last of these spoons was awarded in 1909 to Cuthbert Lempriere Holthouse, an oarsman of the Lady Margaret Boat Club of St John’s College. It was over one metre in length and had an oar blade for a handle. It can now be seen outside the Senior Combination Room of St John's. Since 1909, results were published alphabetically within class rather than score order. This made it harder to ascertain who the winner of the spoon was (unless there was only one person in the third class), and so the practice was abandoned.

On the other hand, the legend of the Austin 7 delivery van that ended up on the apex of the Senate House is no myth at all. The Caius College website recounts in detail how this vehicle “went up in the world”.

Each Christmas Eve, BBC radio and television broadcasts The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge. The radio broadcast has been a national Christmas tradition since it was first transmitted in 1928 (though the festival has existed since 1918). The radio broadcast is carried worldwide by the BBC World Service and is also syndicated to hundreds of radio stations in the USA. The first television broadcast of the festival was in 1954.

Reputation

Historically, Cambridge University has had an extremely strong reputation for both mathematics and the sciences.

According to UCAS, Cambridge and Oxford are the most academically selective universities in the United Kingdom – there is a special national admissions process which sets Oxbridge apart from other British universities. Traditionally, Cambridge applicants have had to fill the Cambridge Application Form (CAF) in addition to UCAS although this will no longer be necessary for entry beginning 2009, being replaced with a more standard supplementary information form, in line with other universities in the UK.

In the most recent British Government Research Assessment Exercise in 2001, Cambridge was ranked first in the country. In 2005, it was reported that Cambridge produces more PhDs per year than any other British university (over 30% more than second placed Oxford). In 2006, a Thomson Scientific study showed that Cambridge has the highest research paper output of any British university, and is also the top research producer (as assessed by total paper citation count) in 10 out of 21 major British research fields analyses (Imperial College came second, leading in 3 fields). Another study published the same year by Evidence showed that Cambridge won a larger proportion (6.6%) of total British research grants and contracts than any other university (coming first in three out of four broad discipline fields).

The university is also closely linked with the development of the high-tech business cluster in and around Cambridge, which forms the area known as Silicon Fen or sometimes the “Cambridge Phenomenon”. In 2004, it was reported that Silicon Fen was the second largest venture capital market in the world, after Silicon Valley. Estimates reported in February 2006 suggest that there were about 250 active startup companies directly linked with the university, worth around US$6 billion.

The list of the literature

1. Cambridge in the 1830s : The Letters of Alexander Chisholm Gooden, 1831-1841 (History of the University of Cambridge)

2. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English.

3. Encyclopedia of British Writers, 19th and 20th Centuries.

4. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature.