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Education

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History of Education
The Ivy League
Old Boys
Oxbridge
Subjects
University Locations
The Liberal Arts
Other

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 Click to show or hide the answer
Second oldest: Al–Azhar University, founded as a mosque in AD 969 but only became a university in 1962 Click to show or hide the answer
Europe's oldest university, and the oldest in the world in continuous operation (according to Wikipedia) – founded in 1088 Click to show or hide the answer
Britain's oldest university (first college – University College – founded 1249) Click to show or hide the answer
Britain's second oldest university (first college – Peterhouse – founded 1284) Click to show or hide the answer
Scotland's oldest university, and Britain's third oldest (1411) Click to show or hide the answer
Britain's fourth oldest university (1451) Click to show or hide the answer
Britain's fifth oldest university (1495) Click to show or hide the answer
Britain's sixth oldest university (1583) Click to show or hide the answer
England's third oldest university, and Britain's seventh oldest (1832) Click to show or hide the answer
Northern Ireland's oldest university (1845) Click to show or hide the answer

Timeline

Qarawiyyin Mosque in Fez, Morocco (see above) founded Click to show or hide the answer
Al–Azhar University in Cairo (see above) founded Click to show or hide the answer
Bologna University (Europe's oldest) founded Click to show or hide the answer
University of Paris (Europe's second oldest) founded Click to show or hide the answer
Britain's oldest university (first college – University College) founded Click to show or hide the answer
Sorbonne College founded as part of the University of Paris Click to show or hide the answer
University of Cambridge – Britain's second – founded Click to show or hide the answer
University of St. Andrew's –Scotland's oldest, and Britain's third oldest – founded Click to show or hide the answer
Eton School founded by King Henry VI Click to show or hide the answer
University of Glasgow – Britain's fourth oldest – founded Click to show or hide the answer
University of Aberdeen – Britain's fifth oldest – founded Click to show or hide the answer
Harrow School founded Click to show or hide the answer
University of Edinburgh – Britain's sixth oldest – founded Click to show or hide the answer
Yale University founded (as the Collegiate School of Brandford, Connecticut) Click to show or hide the answer
University of Durham – England's third oldest, and Britain's seventh oldest – founded Click to show or hide the answer
Queen's University, Belfast – Northern Ireland's oldest – founded Click to show or hide the answer
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') Click to show or hide the answer
Oxford's first women's colleges (Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville) established Click to show or hide the answer
Oxford University awards degrees to women for the first time Click to show or hide the answer
Cambridge University awards degrees to women for the first time Click to show or hide the answer
Churchill (Cambridge) becomes the first Oxbridge college to admit both men and women Click to show or hide the answer
Hughes Hall (Cambridge) – previously mature women students only – begins admitting mature men Click to show or hide the answer
Five Oxford men's colleges (Brasenose, Jesus, Wadham, Hertford and St. Catherine's) begin admitting women Click to show or hide the answer
Girton begins admitting men (other women's colleges – Newnham 1871, New Hall 1954, Lucy Cavendish 1965 – have not yet followed suit) Click to show or hide the answer
Oriel – Oxford's last men–only college – begins admitting women Click to show or hide the answer
St. Hilda's – Oxford's last single–sex college – begins admitting men Click to show or hide the answer

The Open University receives its Royal Charter Click to show or hide the answer
Open University first broadcast (on TV) Click to show or hide the answer
Open University awards its first degrees Click to show or hide the answer

The Ivy League

Name Location Founded
Harvard Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer
Yale Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer
Pennsylvania Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer
Princeton Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer
Columbia Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer
Brown Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer
Dartmouth College Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer
Cornell Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer

Old Boys

Old Alleynians are former pupils of Click to show or hide the answer
Old Carthusians are former pupils of Click to show or hide the answer
Old Stoics are former pupils of Click to show or hide the answer
Old Wykehamists are former pupils of Click to show or hide the answer

Oxbridge

Cambridge terms October to December Click to show or hide the answer
January to March Click to show or hide the answer
April to June Click to show or hide the answer

Oxford terms October to December Click to show or hide the answer
January to March Click to show or hide the answer
April to June Click to show or hide the answer

Term common to Oxford and Cambridge Click to show or hide the answer
Length of each term, at Cambridge Click to show or hide the answer
Length of each term, at Oxford Click to show or hide the answer

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)Click for more information Click to show or hide the answer
The first Cambridge college, alphabetically (founded in 1505) Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
The last Oxbridge college, alphabetically: founded in 1714 and named after the home county of its benefactor Click to show or hide the answer

Cambridge colleges Click to show or hide the answer
Oxford colleges (not including six Permanent Private Halls) Click to show or hide the answer
Name given to the riverside lawns where Cambridge colleges back onto the River Cam Click to show or hide the answer
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) Click to show or hide the answer
Abbreviation for a degree from Cambridge University Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
Oxford college formed in 2008 by the merger of two existing colleges, founded in 1979 and 1969 respectively Click to show or hide the answer
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) Click to show or hide the answer
St. David's College – affiliated to both Oxford and Cambridge (?) Click to show or hide the answer
Gained a First in maths at Oxford, 1985, aged 13 Click to show or hide the answer
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) Click to show or hide the answer
Cambridge college for women only, founded in 1954 as New Hall; name changed in 2008 in honour of its founder and its new benefactors Click to show or hide the answer
Cambridge University's oldest college, founded in 1284 (the claim to be Oxford's oldest is disputed between University, Balliol and Merton) Click to show or hide the answer
Cambridge University's newest college (founded in 1977) Click to show or hide the answer
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.) Click to show or hide the answer
Margaret Thatcher's college (Oxford) Click to show or hide the answer
Oxford's last single–sex college – admitted its first male students 2008 (Cambridge still has three women–only colleges) Click to show or hide the answer
Traditionally Cambridge's most prestigious college: founded by Henry VIII in 1546 (same year as he refounded Christ Church, Oxford) Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
Carol Vorderman's degree subject Click to show or hide the answer
Prince William graduated (in 2005) in Click to show or hide the answer
Subject that Prince William originally enrolled at St. Andrews University in 2001 to study, and in which Kate Middleton graduated Click to show or hide the answer
Prince Charles's degree subject Click to show or hide the answer
Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)'s subject Click to show or hide the answer

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 Click to show or hide the answer
Colloquial name for the Politics, Philosophy and Economics course at Oxford Click to show or hide the answer

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) Click to show or hide the answer
Aston Click to show or hide the answer
Bishop Grosseteste Click to show or hide the answer
Brunel (town in West London) Click to show or hide the answer
Central Lancashire (University of) Click to show or hide the answer
De MontfortClick for more information Click to show or hide the answer
East Anglia (University of) Click to show or hide the answer
Edge HillClick for more information Click to show or hide the answer
Essex Click to show or hide the answer
Hallam Click to show or hide the answer
Harper Adams (former agricultural college) Click to show or hide the answer
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) Click to show or hide the answer
John Moores Click to show or hide the answer
Kent Click to show or hide the answer
The Open University (headquarters of) Click to show or hide the answer
Queen's Click to show or hide the answer
Robert Gordon Click to show or hide the answer
Royal Agricultural (formerly the Royal Agricultural College) Click to show or hide the answer
Surrey Click to show or hide the answer
Warwick Click to show or hide the answer
West of England (University of) Click to show or hide the answer

Falmer – site of the University of Sussex's main campus – is on the ouskirts of Click to show or hide the answer

McGill (founded in 1821, by royal charter issued by King George IV) Click to show or hide the answer

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."

Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer Click to show or hide the answer

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 Click to show or hide the answer
French school–leaving certificate & university entrance qualification Click to show or hide the answer
The Cavendish Laboratory – a world–renowned centre for experimental physics – is the Department of Physics at the University of Click to show or hide the answer
Samuel Pepys's diaries are kept at his university – (which is)
King's School, England's oldest independent school (founded 597) is in Click to show or hide the answer
First Chancellor of Birmingham University Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
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) Click to show or hide the answer
Collegiate university in the North of England (founded in 1832 – England's third oldest, and Britain's seventh oldest)Click for more information Click to show or hide the answer
Difficulty in learning or comprehending arithmetic (understanding numbers, how to manipulate numbers, etc.) – the numerical equivalent of dyslexia Click to show or hide the answer
Ivy League university that administers the Pulitzer Prize (after newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer left money to it in his will for the purpose) Click to show or hide the answer
Founded 1440 by Henry VI, to prepare students for Cambridge Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
Private clubs for male students at US colleges Click to show or hide the answer
Flagship international educational exchange programme, sponsored by the US government: named after the Senator who founded it in 1946 Click to show or hide the answer
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) Click to show or hide the answer
Byron, Sheridan, Spencer Perceval, Peel, Palmerston, Baldwin, Churchill: all attended Click for more information Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
Town on the River Neckar, in Baden–Würtemberg: home to Germany's oldest university, founded in 1386 Click to show or hide the answer
One who supervises exam candidates (esp. to prevent cheating) Click to show or hide the answer
The Technion (based in Haifa), founded in 1912 under the Ottoman Empire, and specialising in science subjects – is the oldest university in Click to show or hide the answer
Sporting 'conference' that has become a metonym for the eight long–established and prestigious US universities that take part in it Click to show or hide the answer
Influential university based in Baltimore, Maryland: founded 1876, named after its founding benefactor Click to show or hide the answer
First British university to award degrees to women (1878) Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
School founded in 1843 for the sons of Church of England clergy: attended by Princess Eugenie and Kate Middleton Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
Headquarters of the Open University Click to show or hide the answer
Nursery education: providing generous facilities for practical play and allowing children to develop at their own pace Click to show or hide the answer
Size of bottles in which free school milk was provided Click to show or hide the answer
British university with most students Click to show or hide the answer
Northamptonshire market town: gave its name to England's third largest boarding school (after Eton and Millfield) Click to show or hide the answer
Women's college at Harvard Click to show or hide the answer
Professorships created by kings or queens at various British (and Irish) universities Click to show or hide the answer
International postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford: named after the English businessman and politician who established it in 1902 Click to show or hide the answer
Famous girls' school on the outskirts of Brighton – founded in 1885 Click to show or hide the answer
School founded in 1567 by Lawrence Sheriff Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
Group of large, research–led British universities, established 1994 Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
American universities: second–year student Click to show or hide the answer
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) Click to show or hide the answer
"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 Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer
Controversial, unconventional boarding school in Suffolk, founded 1921 by A. S. Neill Click to show or hide the answer
University: rustication Click to show or hide the answer
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) Click to show or hide the answer
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 Click to show or hide the answer

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24