Cambridge University

Cambridge University, at Cambridge, England, one of the oldest English-language universities in the world. Originating in the early 12th cent. (legend places its origin even earlier than that of Oxford Univ.), Cambridge was organized into residential colleges, like those of Oxford, by the end of the 13th cent.

Colleges

The 31 colleges presently associated with Cambridge, with their dates of founding, are Peterhouse, or St. Peter's (1284), Clare (1326), Pembroke (1347), Gonville (1348; refounded as Gonville and Caius, 1558), Trinity Hall (1350), Corpus Christi (1352), King's (1441), Queens' (1448), St. Catharine's (1473), Jesus (1496), Christ's (1505), St. John's (1511), Magdalene (1542; pronounced môd`lĭn), Trinity (1546), Emmanuel (1584), Sidney Sussex (1596), Downing (1800), Homerton (1824; for students of education), Girton (1869), Selwyn (1882), Hughes (founded 1885 as Cambridge Training College for Women; approved foundation 1968), St. Edmund's (1896), Churchill (1960), Fitzwilliam (founded 1869 as a noncollegiate society, became a college 1966), and Robinson (1977).

The women's colleges are Newnham (1871), New Hall (1954), and Lucy Cavendish (1965). Girton (formerly a women's college) and Newnham were pioneers in university education for women. Although women took university examinations in the 1880s and after 1921 were awarded degrees, their colleges were not admitted to full university status until 1948. Darwin College (1964), Wolfson College (1965; founded as University College, renamed 1973), and Clare Hall (1966) are graduate institutions.

Curriculum and Facilities

Cambridge was a center of the new learning of the Renaissance and of the theology of the Reformation; in modern times it has excelled in science. It has faculties of classics, divinity, English, architecture and history of art, modern and medieval languages, Oriental studies, music, economics and politics, history, law, philosophy, education, engineering, earth sciences and geography, mathematics, biology, archaeology and anthropology, physics and chemistry, and medicine. There are also departments of veterinary medicine, chemical engineering, land economy, and the history and philosophy of science as well as a computer laboratory.

Cambridge's famous Cavendish Laboratory of experimental physics was opened in 1873; the Cavendish professors have been outstanding names in physics. The chapel of King's College (1446), the Fitzwilliam Museum, and the botanic gardens are notable features of the university. There are also centers for African, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and South Asian studies; international law; archaeological research; medical genetics; and superconduvtivity research. Instruction at Cambridge is similar to the system at Oxford, except that tutors are called supervisors and the degree examination is known as the tripos. Until 1948, Cambridge Univ. sent two representatives to Parliament. The Cambridge Univ. Press dates from the 16th cent.

Bibliography

See E. Vale, Cambridge and Its Colleges (1959); F. A. Reeve, Cambridge (1964); C. R. Benstead, Portrait of Cambridge (1968).

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Cambridge University 

one of the oldest and largest of the British universities. It was founded in Cambridge in 1209. Initially it consisted of a group of houses, or “colleges,” housing students who attended lectures given intermittently by scholars. Gradually the lecturing system became more organized. As early as the 13th century the traditional courses—the humanities, jurisprudence, theology, and medicine—had been instituted.

In the 16th century T. More was one of the trustees of the university. Erasmus of Rotterdam taught there. Somewhat later Cambridge became a center of the English Reformation, and in the 17th century the university was a seat of the advanced learning of the day. Instruction was based on F. Bacon’s inductive method, a practice that led to concurrent development of the natural sciences and the humanities. From 1669 to 1702, Newton was a professor there. In 1837, C. Darwin received a master’s degree from Cambridge. The Cavendish Laboratory, in which J. C. Maxwell, P. Dirac, J. Thomson, and E. Rutherford worked, played a prominent role in the revolution in physics at the turn of the century. The Lister Biochemical Institute and the Cambridge Observatories have made a great contribution to science.

The university has retained many traditional features in its organization. As in the past, it consists of colleges that are self-governing corporations. Each college has 300–400 students in various faculties.

The university is headed by the chancellor, who is chosen from among the high-ranking officials; the actual director is the vice-chancellor, who has under him a council of the directors of the colleges. Since tuition is high, it is difficult for the children of working people to attend the university.

In 1971 the university had 28 men’s and women’s colleges and the following faculties: classics, divinity, English, fine arts, modern and medieval languages, music, Oriental studies, economics and politics, history, education, law, moral science, engineering, geography and geology, mathematics, physics and chemistry, agriculture, archaeology and anthropology, biology (two faculties), medicine, and chemical engineering. The university includes centers for African, international, Latin American, and South Asian studies; institutes for polar research and theoretical astronomy; a research group for the breeding and maintenance of domestic animals; schools for the biological and physical sciences; the Fitzwilliam Museum, a museum of classical archaeology, a museum of archaeology and ethnography, a zoological museum, a geological museum, and a museum of the history of science; an observatory; botanical gardens; and an agricultural station. In 1971 the university had a student body of nearly 11,000 and a faculty of more than 1,000, including 150 professors. Its library contained more than 3 million volumes (1971).

V. P. LAPCHINSKAIA