FreeArticlesArchive

It’s a long journey for the second oldest university of the English speaking world – over 800 years. Every year sees hopeful candidates lining up to get through the hallowed portals of the University. Cambridge has a long and colourful history, and a tradition of academic excellence, and continues to be a ‘craze factor’ for students along with Oxford.

History

It was the year 1209. The University of Oxford was already functioning. Cambridge was mentioned as a famous ‘school’. Legend has it that two scholars of Oxford were charged with the murder of a woman, found guilty and hanged. The University protested through a voluntary suspension, and widespread brawls. After a particularly violent clash with the townspeople, a number of scholars fled to Cambridge, where they set up their own University. This also marked the beginning of the famous Oxbridge rivalry. The first college of the University was established in 1284 by Hugh Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Colleges continued to be built throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. There was a gap of 204 years between Sidney Sussex in 1596, and Downing in 1800. The newest college is Robinson’s, built in the 1970’s. At present, there are some 31 colleges under Cambridge.

These were originally established as chapels where the students would offer prayers for the souls of the founders. Therefore, the tags like ‘chapel’ or ‘church’ still remain attached to their names. In 1536, King Henry VIII dissolved the functions of several monasteries as a part of his break from the Vatican to establish the Anglican Church. He disbanded the Faculty of Canon Law, stopped the teaching of ‘scholastic philosophy’, and the focus of attention shifted in Cambridge towards the study of the classics, the Bible and Mathematics.

The students for Cambridge were chosen predominantly from fee-paying public or independent schools of Britain till the 1960’s and, therefore, had a mostly socially elite student body. However, the reforms have changed matters now, and in 2005, the public/independent school intake for undergraduates constituted only 40% of the total student population.

The first college for women, Girton, was founded by Emily Davies in 1869. Several other colleges for women opened up thereafter. While women were allowed to sit for exams, they were not awarded degrees and, therefore, were not a part of the administration till 1947. Girton again came into news when it started taking male students too. Now all colleges take women, though there are still a few all male clubs and societies in Cambridge. The academic year 2004-05 recorded a gender ratio of 52% male students and 48% females.

Reputation

International listings of research universities produced by the Times Higher Education Supplement places Cambridge in the second place for 2006. So does a similar list compiled by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. A survey by ‘Newsweek’ in the same year ranks Cambridge in the sixth position. UCAS has officially declared Oxbridge as the most selective universities of the nation. Between 1997–2006, the Sunday Times ranked Cambridge as the league table topper. A 2005 survey revealed that Cambridge produces 30% more Ph.Ds annually as compared to Oxford. Cambridge and, consequently, also wins the lion’s share of the research grants of the nation. Apart from producing a bevy of politicians, scientists and writers, Cambridge has produced 81 Nobel laureates – the highest in the world. In fact, it is the third largest cradle of laureates after the UK and the USA taken overall as countries. Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, William Harvey, Jane Goodall, Francis Crick, Stephen Hawking are part of the Cambridge galaxy, with writers like Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, Nabokov, Ted Hughes, John Milton, Sylvia Plath, and Salman Rushdie. It has also produced a large number of heads of states, including ministers from other countries.

Cambridge University still continues to be replete with legends and traditions and, as several educationists have pointed out, scores over Oxford in two ways. Firstly, its degree system is less arcane; secondly, it has a better research faculty – especially in Maths, science and biomedicine.
And it still remains the dream of many students across the globe.