Oxbridge rivalry

For people who check facts

Oxbridge is a portmanteau word referring to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England. They are among the most famous and prestigious universities in the world. Both were founded circa the 11th to 13th centuries (the exact dates are unclear), and between them they have produced a large number of Britain's prominent scientists, writers and politicians.

The competition between Oxford and Cambridge also has a long history, dating back to the days when Cambridge was founded by dissident scholars from Oxford. Oxford is perhaps more famous in the United States because of the Rhodes Scholarships, and the fact that former US president Bill Clinton went there. However, Cambridge is generally acknowledged in academic circles as the better science/engineering school, and lends its name to the pre-eminent American university town: John Harvard having been a Cambridge man. These are of course generalisations, as the names Oxford and Cambridge have different meanings to different people.

Similarities between Oxford and Cambridge

The two universities share a collegiate structure: both are composed of over 30 autonomous colleges which provide a social environment for groups of students to live, work and sleep in. The colleges are all part of the greater university however, and students studying the same subject are all given lectures together, irrespective of their college (however, choice of college at Oxford is more important than at Cambridge, since no Oxford college admits students to study every single subject available at the university, whereas at Cambridge, most colleges do give their students the choice to study any subject).

Colleges within each university regularly compete with each other in a variety of tournaments (e.g. rugby, rowing and chess), but will happily pool their talent to form university teams for competitions against the greater enemy (Oxford, or Cambridge as the case may be). This attitude is reflected in the fact that Oxford and Cambridge both refer to each other as "the other place".

Differences between Oxford and Cambridge

The city of Oxford is slightly larger and more industrial than Cambridge. Oxford was previously associated with the motor industry, whereas Cambridge has aeronautical engineering and more high technology manufacturers.

Oxford is more often featured in the cinema; recent films with scenes shot in Oxford include Iris and the Harry Potter movies. Oxford was also one of several British cities competing for the title of European Capital of Culture 2008 but lost to Liverpool. However, although the city of Oxford appears more popular with tourists, the single most famous building in either city is King's College Chapel in Cambridge.

There are also some linguistic differences between the universities. For example, the undergraduate student body is referred to as the 'JCR' in both universities, but in Oxford this stands for Junior Common Room, whereas Cambridge has Junior Combination Rooms.

Indirect competition between the two universities

There has been much direct and indirect competition between the two universities for a number of years. Indirect competition can perhaps be measured by the success of the alumni of each university. Oxford has a greater literary heritage, including Tolkien, Lewis Carroll and Philip Pullman. It is also seen as a stronger university for training politicians, as it has produced approximately twice as many British Prime Ministers as Cambridge, including the current PM Tony Blair.

Cambridge's reputation is much more impressive in engineering and the sciences, as it has been associated with most of Britain's greatest scientists, including Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and James Clerk Maxwell. Its alumni have also been linked with some of the most critical scientific ideas and breakthroughs of the last few hundred years, including the theory of gravity, the theory of evolution, the structure of DNA, the discovery of the electron and the splitting of the atom. Cambridge also claims many technological innovations, including the construction of the EDSAC: one of the world's first computers as well as the first jet engine. In addition, Cambridge has more Nobel Prize winners associated with it than any other university in the world.

It is easy to stereotype the two institutions as having different strengths. Oxford does have an annual Literary Festival, and Cambridge has an annual Science Festival, but Cambridge has also produced distinguished figures outside science, such as the poet Lord Byron, and Oxford has produced famous scientists, including Robert Hooke.

There is of course no winner of the "alumni battle", as graduates from both universities have been successful in many different walks of life (which is only to be expected from institutions so old), and many of them have been associated with both Oxford and Cambridge in any case.

Direct competition between the two universities

Several annual competitions are held between Oxford and Cambridge. The most famous of these is the Boat Race: a rowing event that started in 1829, although it has not been held on some years. It was first won by Oxford, but Cambridge currently lead the series with 78 wins to Oxford's 71, with one dead heat in 1877. Recent races have become extremely heated: Oxford won by the shortest ever margin of 1 foot in 2003. Cambridge won the 150th Boat Race in 2004, with the umpire turning down an Oxford claim of a foul arising from an incident early in the race, in which Oxford steered into Cambridge resulting in a clash of oars and the unseating of Oxford's bow-man.

League tables

Over the last few years, British universities have been subjected to the increasing popularity of university league tables, which rank universities based on the inspected quality of their teaching and research, as well as other criteria, such as spending on facilities and dropout rates.

Cambridge has been the big winner of these league tables, having consistently topped almost all of them since they were first published in the early 1990s. The accuracy of these tables is disputed, however, since some rely on teaching and research assessments that are several years old. Oxford has been placed first in a few league tables that put more emphasis on the amount of facilities spending rather than the quality of the teaching. However, in 2004, The Guardian put Cambridge above Oxford, whereas The Times placed Oxford in first place, above its rival.

Inter-university insults

Oxonians (Oxford people) sometimes refer to Cambridge as "the Poly on the fens" (Polytechnics were an inferior British higher education institution, now uprated into Universities; the surrounding countryside of Cambridge is fenland). Oxford students nickname their Cambridge counterparts 'tabs', short for Cantabrigians.

In turn, Cantabrigians (Cambridge people) refer to Oxford University as being situated in "the Latin quarter of Cowley", a grimy industrial suburb of Oxford.

The official colour of Oxford is dark blue, whereas Cambridge's is light blue. Since Cambridge is younger than Oxford, Oxonians sometimes refer to Cambridge as a "pale imitation of the real thing" while Cantabrigians, who insist that Oxford was a beta test for their own university, refer to it as "the Dark Side".

Oxbridge cooperation

Despite the impassioned rivalry between the two universities, there is also much cooperation when the need arises. Most Oxford colleges have a sister college in Cambridge (but because Oxford has more colleges than Cambridge, not all colleges have a "sister"); it is seldom the college with the same name, so for example Trinity College, Cambridge is the sister college of Christ Church, Oxford, while Trinity College, Oxford is the sister college of Churchill College, Cambridge.

Oxford and Cambridge are also seen as socially elitist, and this reputation has discouraged many able students from applying. The two universities have worked together on public relations exercises to dispel their reputation as bastions of snobbery, with the aim of increasing the number of state school educated students at the universities. Unfortunately, the public has not been entirely receptive to these exercises, and the number of state school educated students at the universities remains disproportionately low.