Collegiate Universities
Oxford and Cambridge — known collectively as ‘Oxbridge’ (maybe ‘Camford’ never caught on) — are the two most famous universities in the world and they’re both collegiate, along with Durham, Kent, Lancaster and York. Officially, London University is also collegiate (but in its own unique way) and the University of Wales too (but not so as you’d notice).
A collegiate system means that the university acts as an umbrella organisation for smaller educational establishments called colleges. Each university operates the system differently and at some (Kent and York in particular), it’s so weak the colleges are not much more than suped-up halls of residence.
The big difference, however, is that you only belong to a hall of residence while you’re living there, but with a college, you’re a member for life (or at least for as long as you’re a student). That gives you access to the college facilities which — as well as accommodation — usually include bars, entertainments, sports, welfare, libraries, computers and student representation. At non-collegiate universities, these things would all happen at a university-wide (or at least a site-wide level), but might be spread a little thinner as a result.
At Oxbridge and Lancaster, the academics tend to be attached to particular colleges and most teaching is done with your college chums by a college tutor rather than in your subject department or faculty.
Colleges tend to inspire some students to a kind of tribal loyalty, competing against other colleges in sports, debating, drama and all sorts. Being small communities they’re often close-knit and supportive — claustrophobic even — and certain colleges are often identified with certain types year after year: arty radicos, chinless Sloanes, rugger buggers, Christians, and so on.
Of course, the reality behind the stereotypes depends on the size of the colleges and the number of them.
Oxford and Cambridge have about 30 colleges each, mostly of between 100 and 600 students. At Durham, they’ve got 16 and on average they’re about twice that size. (By the way, they’re the only universities that still have any single sex colleges and Durham’s last is about to go mixed.) The other universities have fewer colleges and so naturally, most of them are a bit bigger.
For most students, college life is really supportive. It’s not just the better amenities they usually get, but that they feel they belong somewhere.
However, if life on a campus can get a bit claustrophobic, then life in a college can be like being trapped in a lift with a bunch of Sun reporters. You can’t fart without everyone knowing and commenting on what you had for dinner.
Some students complain colleges are too much like school. They cosset students so much, it can cramp their style.
However, one advantage of collegiate universities is that, if you don’t like it, you can always get out and pursue your interests on a university or department level. For instance, if the bar in college gets boring, not only are there bars in everyone else’s colleges, but there’s also usually a bar at the students’ union. Similarly, if you want to get into student journalism, but the college magazine is just a small-time gossip rag, you can get involved in the university-wide newspaper.
It’s the best of both worlds: you can choose your main sphere — college or university. Or department. Okay, the best of three worlds. Having said that though, facilities and organisations at university level or in departments may not be quite as good as they might be at some other universities because they’re more than compensated for in the colleges. For example, York University’s student’s union has no building of its own.
Last updated on: 21 May 2008