The University of Oxford (informally Oxford University, or simply Oxford), located in the City of Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.
The History of Oxford University can be traced to 1167 with the expulsion of foreigners from the University of Paris.
As a result, many English scholars returned from France to settle in Oxford.
The historian Gerald of Wales lectured to the scholars in 1188.
In 1190, the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived.
The head of the University was named a chancellor from 1201, and the masters were recognised as a universitas or corporation in 1231.
Students associated together, on the basis of geographical origins, into two nations, representing the North (including the Scots) and the South (including the Irish and the Welsh).
In later centuries, geographical origins continued to influence many students' affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford.
Members of many religious orders, including Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians, settled in Oxford in the mid-13th century, gained influence, and maintained houses for students.
At about the same time, private benefactors established colleges to serve as self-contained scholarly communities.
From the late 15th century onward, the new learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced Oxford .
With the Reformation the method of teaching at the university was transformed from the medieval Scholastic method to Renaissance education, although institutions associated with the university suffered loss of land and revenues.
In 1636, Chancellor William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, codified the university statutes; these to a large extent remained the university's governing regulations until the mid-19th century.
Laud was also responsible for the granting of a charter securing privileges for the university press, and he made significant contributions to the Bodleian Library, the main library of the university.
In 1605 Oxford was still a walled city, but several colleges had been built outside the city walls.
The university was a centre of the Royalist Party during the English Civil War (1642-1649), while the town favoured the opposing Parliamentarian cause.
Soldier-statesman Oliver Cromwell, chancellor of the university from 1650 to 1657, was responsible for preventing both Oxford and Cambridge from being closed down by the Puritans, who viewed university education as dangerous to religious beliefs.
From the mid-18th century onward, however, the University of Oxford took little part in political conflicts.
The mid nineteenth century saw the aftermath of the Oxford Movement (1833-1845) led amongst others by the future Cardinal Newman.
Administrative reforms during the 19th century included the replacement of oral examinations with written entrance tests, greater tolerance for religious dissent, and the establishment of four colleges for women.
Although the University's emphasis traditionally had been on classical knowledge, its curriculum expanded in the course of the 19th century and now attaches equal importance to scientific and medical studies.
More than forty Nobel laureates and more than fifty world leaders have been affiliated with the University of Oxford.
Paralumun New Age Village