One of the oldest and smallest colleges, the beautiful College of Oriel is 300m from Carfax, cunningly hidden down a side street. It maintains a conservative bent and was the last Oxford College to go co-educational (in 1985). Its quiet closed quads and tight communal spirit can be either inspiring or suffocating. It has been thoroughly deserving of its sporty reputation in recent years, with triumphs in most things involving balls or water – and the celebratory drinking sessions persist with aplomb (and considerable rowdiness).
| Sex ratio (M:F): 57:43 |
Founded: 1326 |
| Full-time u’grads: 300 |
Part-time: n/a |
| Postgrads: 155 |
Mature: n/a |
State:private school: 60:40
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International: n/a |
| Academic ranking: 15 |
Disabled: n/a |
Humming student-staffed bar with pool table, dartboard, table football and games machines, unsettlingly popular karaoke; varied weekly recitals and film screenings; respected chapel choir; regular cabaret; ball every three years. Well-funded library (100,000 books, 74 study places) split into Junior and Senior sections, Junior Library open 24hrs during term; 21 networked computers in two suites; all rooms have Ethernet. Anglican chapel with termly RC masses; TV room (sorry, ‘Noam Chomsky Entertainment Wing’) with video and Sky, arcade and pinball machines; JCR shop. Left-wing JCR, currently withholding subscription from OUSU (students are still technically members though). Squash courts, multi-gym, 6.5 acres of playing fields a mile away; ideally positioned for the river; rowers by tradition – unbeaten for nine years, darts and rugby also doing well; annual KPMG-sponsored regatta. All students can live in (£82–£112/25wks), either on site or at James Mellon Hall a mile away; about half en suite; quality mixed but improving; some entry phones; students eat in hall; formals six days a week; moderate food but carbolicious all-you-can-eat breakfasts. LGBT, postgrad, international, male and female Welfare Officers, self-defence classes; nurse available five mornings a week, free condoms, cheap attack alarms. Older bits bad for access, adapted rooms at James Mellon Hall. Range of scholarships, prizes and bursaries (£500–1,200) including JCR hardship fund. Oxford Opportunity bursaries for undergrads. Alternative prospectus.
FAMOUS ALUMNI
Matthew Arnold (poet); Beau Brummel (dandy); Sir Thomas More (martyr and Utopian); Cardinal Newman (Oxford Movement); Sir Walter Raleigh (potatoes and general swashbuckling); Cecil Rhodes (dodgy imperialist); A J P Taylor (historian).