Education

History of Education

The world's oldest continuously operating institution of higher learning – founded in AD 859 as Qarawiyyin Mosque, but only became a university in 1965		Fez (Morocco)
Second oldest: Al–Azhar University, founded as a mosque in AD 969 but only became a university in 1962		Cairo
Europe's oldest university, and the oldest in the world in continuous operation (according to Wikipedia) – founded in 1088		Bologna
Britain's oldest university (first college – University College – founded 1249)		Oxford
Britain's second oldest university (first college – Peterhouse – founded 1284)		Cambridge
Scotland's oldest university, and Britain's third oldest (1411)		St. Andrew's
Britain's fourth oldest university (1451)		Glasgow
Britain's fifth oldest university (1495)		Aberdeen
Britain's sixth oldest university (1583)		Edinburgh
England's third oldest university, and Britain's seventh oldest (1832)		Durham
Northern Ireland's oldest university (1845)		Queen's, Belfast

Timeline

Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez, Morocco (see above) founded		AD 859
Al–Azhar University in Cairo (see above) founded		AD 969
Bologna University (Europe's oldest) founded		1088
University of Paris (Europe's second oldest) founded		c. 1150
Britain's oldest university (first college – University College) founded		1249
Sorbonne College founded as part of the University of Paris		1257
University of Cambridge – Britain's second – founded		1284
University of St. Andrew's –Scotland's oldest, and Britain's third oldest – founded		1411
Eton School founded by King Henry VI		1440
University of Glasgow – Britain's fourth oldest – founded		1451
University of Aberdeen – Britain's fifth oldest – founded		1495
Harrow School founded		1571
University of Edinburgh – Britain's sixth oldest – founded		1583
Yale University founded (as the Collegiate School of Brandford, Connecticut)		1636
University of Durham – England's third oldest, and Britain's seventh oldest – founded		1832
Queen's University, Belfast – Northern Ireland's oldest – founded		1845
Girton College, Cambridge – Oxbridge's first college for women (known at the time as the College for Women) opened (successful students were awarded 'titular degrees')		1868
Oxford's first women's colleges (Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville) established		1879
Oxford University awards degrees to women for the first time		1920
Cambridge University awards degrees to women for the first time		1947
Churchill (Cambridge) becomes the first Oxbridge college to admit both men and women		1972
Hughes Hall (Cambridge) – previously mature women students only – begins admitting mature men		1973
Five Oxford men's colleges (Brasenose, Jesus, Wadham, Hertford and St. Catherine's) begin admitting women		1974
Girton begins admitting men (other women's colleges – Newnham 1871, New Hall 1954, Lucy Cavendish 1965 – have not yet followed suit)		1979
Oriel – Oxford's last men–only college – begins admitting women		1985
St. Hilda's – Oxford's last single–sex college – begins admitting men		2008

The Open University receives its Royal Charter		23 April 1969
Open University first broadcast (on TV)		1971
Open University awards its first degrees		1973

The Ivy League

Name		Location		Founded
Harvard		Cambridge, Massachusetts		1636
Yale		New Haven, Connecticut		1701
Pennsylvania		Philadelphia		1740
Princeton		Princeton, New Jersey		1746
Columbia		New York City		1754
Brown		Providence, Rhode Island		1764
Dartmouth College		Hanover, New Hampshire		1769
Cornell		Ithaca, New York		1865

Old Boys

Old Alleynians are former pupils of		Dulwich College
Old Carthusians are former pupils of		Charterhouse
Old Stoics are former pupils of		Stowe
Old Wykehamists are former pupils of		Winchester

Oxbridge

Cambridge terms	October to December		Michaelmas
	January to March		Lent
	April to June		Easter

Oxford terms	October to December		Michaelmas
	January to March		Hilary
	April to June		Trinity

Term common to Oxford and Cambridge		Michaelmas
Length of each term, at Cambridge		60 days (8 weeks 4 days)
Length of each term, at Oxford		56 days (8 weeks)

Cambridge terms run from Tuesday to Friday; Oxford terms run from Sunday to Saturday.

The first Oxbridge college, alphabetically; founded in 1438, has no students (every member automatically becomes a Fellow, or don)		All Souls (Oxford)
The first Cambridge college, alphabetically (founded in 1505)		Christ's
Cambridge's last college, alphabetically: founded in 1965 as University College, changed its name in 1973 in recognition of a charitable benefaction; Oxford has a college of the same name, founded at the same time and named after the same benefactor		Wolfson
The last Oxbridge college, alphabetically: founded in 1714 and named after the home county of its benefactor		Worcester (Oxford)

Cambridge colleges		31
Oxford colleges (not including six Permanent Private Halls)		38
Name given to the riverside lawns where Cambridge colleges back onto the River Cam		The Backs
Controversial private (all–male) dining club for former public schoolboys at Oxford: former members include Boris Johnson, David Cameron, George Osborne and Jeremy Hunt; often featured in fiction and drama, e.g. in the 2014 film The Riot Club (based on a stage play entitled Posh, whose writer naturally denied any link)		Bullingdon Club
Abbreviation for a degree from Cambridge University		Cantab
Oxford college: founded in 1525 by Cardinal Wolsey, as Cardinal College; suppressed in 1531, after Wolsey's fall, but refounded in 1532 by Henry VIII as King Henry VIII's College; refounded again by Henry VIII in 1546 (under its current name) as part of the reorganisation of the Church of England		Christ Church
Seat of the Bishop of Oxford – the world's only educational institution that's also a cathedral
Has produced 13 prime ministers – more than any other college
Oxford has quads (quadrangles); Cambridge has		(Great) Courts
Oxford college formed in 2008 by the merger of two existing colleges, founded in 1979 and 1969 respectively		Green Templeton
The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols has been held every Christmas Eve since 1918, and broadcast every year since 1928 (except 1930), from (Cambridge college)		King's
St. David's College – affiliated to both Oxford and Cambridge (?)		Lampeter
Gained a First in maths at Oxford, 1985, aged 13		Ruth Lawrence
Prestigious chair of mathematics at Cambridge, established in 1664: holders include Isaac Newton (1669–1702), Charles Babbage (1828–39), Paul Dirac (1932–69), Stephen Hawking (1979–2009)		Lucasian Chair
Cambridge college for women only, founded in 1954 as New Hall; name changed in 2008 in honour of its founder and its new benefactors		Murray Edwards
Cambridge University's oldest college, founded in 1284 (the claim to be Oxford's oldest is disputed between University, Balliol and Merton)		Peterhouse
Cambridge University's newest college (founded in 1977)		Robinson
Oliver Cromwell's Cambridge college (founded in 1596, he was one of its first students; his head was interred there in 1960, having been detached from his body and put on public display after his disinterment from Westminster Abbey following the Restoration; it survived in private hands; the fate of the rest of the body is not known.)		Sidney Sussex
Margaret Thatcher's college (Oxford)		Somerville
Oxford's last single–sex college – admitted its first male students 2008 (Cambridge still has three women–only colleges)		St. Hilda's
Traditionally Cambridge's most prestigious college: founded by Henry VIII in 1546 (same year as he refounded Christ Church, Oxford)		Trinity
Famous for its Great Court (the largest enclosed court in Europe) – not least because of the fabled Great Court Run, featured in the film Chariots of Fire (although Harold Abrahams in fact never did it)
Prince Charles's college

Subjects

Christopher Wren was a professor (at Oxford, 1661–73) of		Astronomy
Carol Vorderman's degree subject		Engineering
Prince William graduated (in 2005) in		Geography
Subject that Prince William originally enrolled at St. Andrews University in 2001 to study, and in which Kate Middleton graduated		History of Art
Prince Charles's degree subject		History
Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)'s subject		Mathematics

Colloquial name for an undergraduate course focused on classics (Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Latin, ancient Greek, and philosophy) at Oxford and some other universities – also known by the Latin name Literae humaniores ("more human studies") – as opposed to divine studies, or theology		Greats
Colloquial name for the Politics, Philosophy and Economics course at Oxford		Modern greats

University Locations

Some of these include the name of the town or city in their full titles. Obviously you wouldn't include any of these in the question.

Note also that some of them have campuses in other places. If in doubt, question setters may be well advised to ask where the main campuses are.

Anglia Ruskin (main campus)		Cambridge
Aston		Birmingham
Bishop Grosseteste		Lincoln
Brunel (town in West London)		Uxbridge
Central Lancashire (University of)		Preston
De Montfort		Leicester
East Anglia (University of)		Norwich
Edge Hill		Ormskirk
Essex		Colchester
Hallam		Sheffield
Harper Adams (former agricultural college)		Newport, Shropshire
Heriot–Watt (founded in 1821 as a School of Arts, became a university in 1966); Napier (founded in 1964 as a Technical College, became a university in 1992)		Edinburgh
John Moores		Liverpool
Kent		Canterbury
The Open University (headquarters of)		Milton Keynes
Queen's		Belfast
Robert Gordon		Aberdeen
Royal Agricultural (formerly the Royal Agricultural College)		Cirencester
Surrey		Guildford
Warwick		Coventry
West of England (University of)		Bristol

Falmer – site of the University of Sussex's main campus – is on the ouskirts of

Brighton

McGill (founded in 1821, by royal charter issued by King George IV)

Montreal

The Liberal Arts

According to Wikipedia, "liberal arts education ... is the traditional academic program in Western higher education. [It] generally covers three areas: sciences, arts, and humanities."

Astronomy

Mathematics

Geometry

Music

Grammar

Logic

Rhetoric

Wikipedia goes on to explain that the first four of these were brought together by the followers of Pythagoras, and became known as the 'disciplines of the mediaeval quadrivium', while the last three were grouped together in Plato's Dialogues, and became known as the 'trivium' (in imitation of the quadrivium). The seven together "eventually" became known as 'the seven liberal arts', with the quadrivium being also known as the 'upper division' and the trivium as the 'lower division''.

Other

Influential headmaster of Rugby School, 1828–42		Thomas Arnold
French school–leaving certificate & university entrance qualification		Baccalaureate
The Cavendish Laboratory – a world–renowned centre for experimental physics – is the Department of Physics at the University of		Cambridge
Samuel Pepys's diaries are kept at his university – (which is)
King's School, England's oldest independent school (founded 597) is in		Canterbury
First Chancellor of Birmingham University		Joseph Chamberlain
Public school: founded in London in 1611, moved to its current site on the outskirts of Godalming, Surrey, in 1872; former pupils include John Wesley (but not Charles), the second Earl of Liverpool (UK Prime Minister 1812–27), Robert Baden–Powell, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Robert Graves, Peter May, David and Jonathan Dimbleby, Peter Gabriel (and other members of Genesis), and the mountaineers Wilfrid Noyce and Stephen Venables		Charterhouse
Prestigious music school in the centre of Manchester: established in 1969, incorporating the Hospital School of the same name, which was founded as a charity school in 1653		Chetham's
Self–governing college of London University, specialising in the history of art; named after the industrialist who founded it in 1932, its art collection has been housed in Somerset House since 1989		Courtauld Institute
Founded in 1843 as a School of Design, known from 1970 to 1987 as Lanchester Polytechnic; became in 1987 the Polytechnic of, and in 1992 the University of (English city)		Coventry
Collegiate university in the North of England (founded in 1832 – England's third oldest, and Britain's seventh oldest)		Durham
Difficulty in learning or comprehending arithmetic (understanding numbers, how to manipulate numbers, etc.) – the numerical equivalent of dyslexia		Dyscalculia
Ivy League university that administers the Pulitzer Prize (after newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer left money to it in his will for the purpose)		Columbia
Founded 1440 by Henry VI, to prepare students for Cambridge		Eton College
The wall game and the field game (two forms of football) and the game of fives (similar to squash) all originated at
Private school in Edinburgh, founded 1870, attended by Tony Blair and James Bond		Fettes College
Private clubs for male students at US colleges		Fraternities
Flagship international educational exchange programme, sponsored by the US government: named after the Senator who founded it in 1946		Fulbright Program
School near Elgin, Scotland, founded in 1934 by the German–born educator Kurt Hahn; attended by Princes Philip, Charles, Andrew and Edward (and Peter and Zara Philips); also "Nasty" Nick Bateman, Charles Kennedy, and Jason Connery; referred to by Prince Charles as "Colditz in kilts"; motto Plus est en vous (More is in you)		Gordonstoun
Byron, Sheridan, Spencer Perceval, Peel, Palmerston, Baldwin, Churchill: all attended		Harrow School
The game of squash originated at
Israel's second oldest university (after the Technion) – founded 1918: its first board included Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, and, Chaim Weizmann (who later became Israel's first president – a post that Einstein turned down following his death); Einstein bequeathed it the copyright to all his personal writings, and the use of his name and associated imagery		The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Town on the River Neckar, in Baden–Würtemberg: home to Germany's oldest university, founded in 1386		Heidelberg
One who supervises exam candidates (esp. to prevent cheating)		Invigilator
The Technion (based in Haifa), founded in 1912 under the Ottoman Empire, and specialising in science subjects – is the oldest university in		Israel
Sporting 'conference' that has become a metonym for the eight long–established and prestigious US universities that take part in it		Ivy League
Influential university based in Baltimore, Maryland: founded 1876, named after its founding benefactor		John Hopkins
First British university to award degrees to women (1878)		London
Birkbeck, Goldsmiths and Queen Mary are three of the 18 colleges of (British university)
University at which Mick Jagger was studying, before he left to perform full–time with the Rolling Stones		London School of Economics (LSE)
School founded in 1843 for the sons of Church of England clergy: attended by Princess Eugenie and Kate Middleton		Marlborough
The UK's largest co–educational boarding school: founded in 1935 by cricketer Jack Meyer, in Street, Somerset (originally housed in a mansion built by the Clark family); former pupils include Tony Blackburn, Duncan Goodhew, Lily Allen, and Welsh rugby legends Gareth Edwards and J. P. R. Williams		Millfield
Headquarters of the Open University		Milton Keynes
Nursery education: providing generous facilities for practical play and allowing children to develop at their own pace		Montessori method
Size of bottles in which free school milk was provided		One third of a pint
British university with most students		Open University
Northamptonshire market town: gave its name to England's third largest boarding school (after Eton and Millfield)		Oundle
Women's college at Harvard		Radcliffe
Professorships created by kings or queens at various British (and Irish) universities		Regius professorships
International postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford: named after the English businessman and politician who established it in 1902		Rhodes Scholarship
Famous girls' school on the outskirts of Brighton – founded in 1885		Roedean
School founded in 1567 by Lawrence Sheriff		Rugby
Founded in Oxford, 1899 to provide educational opportunities for working class men and those with no previous qualifications – not part of Oxford University.  Named after the leading English art critic of the Victorian era – also a social critic and philanthropist – who was Oxford's first Slade Professor of Fine Art		Ruskin College
Group of large, research–led British universities, established 1994		Russell Group
Art collector and philanthropist, 1788–1868, established (in his will) chairs (professorships) of Fine Art at Oxford, Cambridge and London universities; the School of Fine Art, founded in his name in 1871 and linked to University College London, resulted from the same bequest		Felix Slade
American universities: second–year student		Sophomore
College of the University of Paris, founded in 1257 (ten years after Oxford), whose name is informally used to refer to the university itself (which was actually founded approximately 100 years earlier)		Sorbonne
"Private research university" sited between San Jose and San Francisco, California: founded in 1885 by a US Senator, a former railroad tycoon and Governor of California (and his wife); named after their only child, Leland Jr., who had died of typhoid fever the previous year aged 15		Stanford
In a notorious 'prison experiment' that was carried out there in 1971, students were chosen to role–play prisoners and guards; abandoned after six days (of a planned 14) after 'guards' enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some 'prisoners' to "psychological torture"
Public school in Buckinghamshire, founded in 1923 by J. F. Roxburgh; see Old Boys		Stowe
Controversial, unconventional boarding school in Suffolk, founded 1921 by A. S. Neill		Summerhill
University: rustication		Suspension
The College of William and Mary – the second–oldest institution of higher education in the USA, and the ninth–oldest in the English–speaking world (founded in 1693 – 57 years after Harvard, but 8 years before Yale) is in (state)		Virginia
Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School of Brandford, Connecticut; renamed in 1718 after a governor of the East Inda Company, in recognition of a gift		Yale University

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24