University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the world's most prestigious universities.
The University grew out of an association of scholars in the city of Cambridge that was formed, early records suggest, in 1209 by scholars leaving Oxford after a dispute with local townsfolk over a killing.
The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are often jointly referred to as Oxbridge. In addition to cultural and practical associations as a historic part of English society, the two universities also have a long history of rivalry with each other.
Cantabrigian is the formal adjective meaning "of Cambridge University" which is also used as a term for the university's members (abbreviated as Cantab. in post-nominal letters for alumni).

Organisation
The current Chancellor of the university is the Duke of Edinburgh. The current Vice-Chancellor is Professor Alison Richard. The office of Chancellor, which is held for life, is mainly ceremonial, while the Vice-Chancellor is de facto the prinicipal academic and administrative officer. The University's internal governance is carried out almost entirely by its own members, with little external representation on its governing bodies with the exception of the Audit Committee. The governing body of the University is the Regent House (comprised of resident senior members of the University and the Colleges, together with the Chancellor, the High Steward; High Steward, the Deputy High Steward, and the Commissary). The University Council is the principal executive and policy-making body of the University, and is subject to Regent House. Since January 2005, the membership of the Council has included two external members. The Cambridge Reporter Regent House and The Senate consists of all holders of the M.A. degree or higher degrees. It elects the Chancellor and the High Steward; until their abolition in 1950, it elected Members to the House of Commons for the Cambridge University constituency, but otherwise it has not had a major role since 1926.

Colleges
Cambridge University has research departments and teaching faculties in most academic disciplines. Cambridge tends to have a slight bias towards scientific subjects, but it also has a number of strong humanities and social science faculties. Academic staff (and often graduate students for the larger subjects) teach the undergraduates in both lectures and personal supervisions in which a ratio of one teacher to between one and three students is usually maintained. This pedagogical system is often cited as being unique to the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford (where "supervisions" are known as "tutorials") – similar practices can be found elsewhere, though not on the Oxbridge scale.
All research and lectures are conducted by University Departments. The colleges are in charge of giving or arranging most supervisions, student accommodation, and funding most extra-curricular activities. During the 1990s Cambridge added a substantial number of new specialist research laboratories on several University sites around the city, and major expansion continues on a number of sites[21].
Cambridge is a member of the Russell Group, a network of research-led British universities; the Coimbra Group, an association of leading European universities; the League of European Research Universities; and the International Alliance of Research Universities. It is also considered part of the "Golden Triangle", a geographical concentration of UK university research.
See also Category:Departments of the University of Cambridge and Departments in the University of Cambridge

Research and teaching
In 2006, it was reported that approximately one third of Cambridge's income comes from UK government funding for teaching and research, with another third coming from other research grants. Endowment income contributes around 6%.
In 2005, the Cambridge 800th Anniversary Campaign was launched, aimed at raising £1 billion by 2012 – the first US-style university fundraising campaign in Europe. £300 million of funds had already been secured in the pre-launch period.

Finances
International rankings of research universities produced in 2006 by The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) (with Quacquarelli Symonds - sometimes known as the THES - QS rankings)

Reputation

History
Roger of Wendover wrote that Cambridge University could trace its origins to a crime committed in 1209. Although not always a reliable source, the detail given in his contemporaneous writings lends them credence. Two Oxford scholars were convicted of the murder or manslaughter of a woman and were hanged by the town authorities with the assent of the King. In protest at the hanging, the University of Oxford went into voluntary suspension, and scholars migrated to a number of other locations, including the pre-existing school at Cambridge (Cambridge had been recorded as a "school" rather than University when John Grim held the office of Master there in 1201). These post-graduate researchers from Oxford started Cambridge's life as a University in 1209. Cambridge's status as a University is further confirmed by a decree in 1233 from Pope Gregory IX which awarded the ius non trahi extra (a form of legal protection) to the chancellor and universitas of scholars at Cambridge. After Cambridge was recognised by papal bull as a studium generale by Pope Nicholas IV in 1290, it became common for researchers from other European medieval universities to come and visit Cambridge to study or to give lecture courses.

Early history
Cambridge's colleges were originally an incidental feature of the system. No college is as old as the university itself. The colleges were endowed fellowships of scholars. There were also institutions without endowments, called hostels. The hostels were gradually absorbed by the colleges over the centuries, but they have left some indicators of their time, such as the name of Garrett Hostel Lane.
Hugh Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founded Peterhouse in 1284, Cambridge's first college. Many colleges were founded during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but colleges continued to be established throughout the centuries to modern times, although there was a gap of 204 years between the founding of Sidney Sussex in 1596 and Downing in 1800. The most recent college established is Robinson, built in the late 1970s.
In medieval times, colleges were founded so that their students would pray for the souls of the founders. For that reason they were often associated with chapels or abbeys. A change in the colleges' focus occurred in 1536 with the dissolution of the monasteries. King Henry VIII ordered the university to disband its Faculty of Canon Law and to stop teaching "scholastic philosophy". In response, colleges changed their curricula away from canon law and towards the classics, the Bible, and mathematics.

Foundation of the Colleges
From the time of Isaac Newton in the later 17th century until the mid-19th century, the university maintained a strong emphasis on mathematics. Study of this subject was compulsory for graduation, and students were required to take an exam for the Bachelor of Arts degree, the main first degree at Cambridge in both arts and science subjects. This exam is known as a Tripos. Students awarded first-class honours after completing the mathematics Tripos were named wranglers. The Cambridge Mathematical Tripos was competitive and helped produce some of the most famous names in British science, including James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Kelvin, and Lord Rayleigh. However, some famous students, such as G. H. Hardy, disliked the system, feeling that people were too interested in accumulating marks in exams and not interested in the subject itself.
Although diversified in its research and teaching interests, Cambridge today maintains its strength in mathematics. The Isaac Newton Institute, part of the university, is widely regarded as the UK's national research institute for mathematics and theoretical physics. Cambridge alumni have won eight Fields Medals and one Abel Prize for mathematics. The University also runs a special Certificate of Advanced Studies in Mathematics course.

Mathematics
Originally all students were male. The first colleges for women were Girton College (founded by Emily Davies) in 1869 and Newnham College in 1872. The first women students were examined in 1882 but attempts to make women full members of the university did not succeed until 1947. Although Cambridge did not give degrees to women until this date women were in fact allowed to study courses, sit examinations, and have their results recorded from the nineteenth century onwards. In the twentieth century women could be given a "titular degree"; although they were not denied recognised qualifications, without a full degree they were excluded from the governing of the university. Since students must belong to a college, and since established colleges remained closed to women, women found admissions restricted to colleges established only for women. All of the men's colleges began to admit women between 1960 and 1988. One women's college, Girton, also began to admit men, but the other women's colleges did not follow suit. In the academic year 2004-5, the university's student gender ratio, including post-graduates, was male 52%: female 48% (Source: Cambridge University Reporter, [22]).

Women's education

Admissions
The proportion drawn from private/independent schools has diminished over the years, and now form a significant minority of the intake. In 2005, UK applicants from private/independent schools accounted for about 40% of the total number of undergraduate acceptances[23].

History
The application system to Cambridge and Oxford often involves additional requirements. Candidates are also typically called to face-to-face interviews.
How applicants perform in the interview process best determines which candidates are accepted.

Today
Cambridge maintains a long tradition of student participation in sports and recreation. Rowing is a particularly popular sport at Cambridge, and there are competitions between colleges (notably the bumps races) and against Oxford (the Boat Race). There are also Varsity matches against Oxford in many other sports, ranging from rugby (see Cambridge University RUFC) and cricket, to chess and tiddlywinks. Athletes representing the university in certain sports entitle them to apply for a Cambridge Blue at the discretion of the Blues Committee, consisting of the captains of the thirteen most prestigious sports. There is also the self-described "unashamedly elite" Hawks' Club (men only), whose membership is usually restricted to Cambridge Full Blues and Half Blues.
The Cambridge Union serves as a focus for debating. Drama societies notably include the Amateur Dramatic Club (ADC) and the comedy club Footlights, which are known for producing well-known showbusiness personalities. Student newspapers include the long-established Varsity and its younger rival, The Cambridge Student. The student-run radio station, CUR1350, promotes broadcast journalism.
See also: List of social activities at the University of Cambridge and Category:Clubs and societies of the University of Cambridge
Further information: University website list of societies

Sports and other extracurricular activities

Main article: University of Cambridge legends Myths, legends and traditions
Building on its reputation for enterprise, science and technology, Cambridge has a partnership with MIT in the United States, the Cambridge-MIT Institute.
In 2000, Bill Gates of Microsoft donated US$210 million through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to endow the Gates Scholarships for students from outside the UK seeking postgraduate study at Cambridge. The University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, which taught the world's first computing course in 1953, is housed in a building partly funded by Gates and named after his grandfather, William Gates.
After the founding of Harvard College in 1636 at Newtowne, Massachusetts, the town adopted the new name of "Cambridge" in 1638 to promote its reputation as an academic centre. The first president (Henry Dunster), the first benefactor (John Harvard), and the first schoolmaster (Nathaniel Eaton) of Harvard were all Cambridge University alumni, as was the then ruling (and first) governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop. In 1629, Winthrop had led the signing of the founding document of the city of Boston, Massachusetts, which was known as the Cambridge Agreement, after the university [25].
The concept of grading students' work quantitatively was developed by a tutor named William Farish at the University of Cambridge in 1792.
In the Meiji Era (1868-1912), several Japanese students studied at the university.[26]
In Japan, there is a Cambridge and Oxford Society,[27] a rare example of the name Cambridge coming before Oxford when the two universities are referred to together — traditionally, the order used when referring to both universities is "Oxford and Cambridge", the order in which they were founded. The probable reason for this inversion is that the Cambridge Club was founded first in Japan, and it also had more members than its Oxford counterpart when they amalgamated in 1905.
The University's publishing arm, the Cambridge University Press, is the oldest printer and publisher in the world.
The University set up its Local Examination Syndicate almost 150 years ago, in 1858. Today, the Syndicate, which is known as Cambridge Assessment, is Europe's largest assessment agency and it plays a leading role in researching, developing and delivering assessments across the globe.

Miscellaneous
See also List of University of Cambridge members (extensive list), Alumni of the University of Cambridge (college lists) and Academics of the University of Cambridge (lists of academics).

Charles Babbage (Trinity, Peterhouse)
Sir Francis Bacon (Trinity)
Sir William Lawrence Bragg (Trinity)
Subhash Chandra Bose (Fitzwilliam)
Lord Byron (Trinity)
James Chadwick (Gonville & Caius)
Charles, Prince of Wales (Trinity)
John Cleese (Downing)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Jesus)
Francis Crick (Churchill, Gonville & Caius)
Oliver Cromwell (Sidney Sussex)
Charles Darwin (Christ's)
Paul Dirac (St John's)
Desiderius Erasmus (Queens')
Rosalind Franklin (Newnham)
Germaine Greer (Newnham)
William Harvey (Gonville & Caius)
Stephen Hawking (Trinity Hall, Gonville & Caius)
Ted Hughes (Pembroke)
Allama Mohammad Iqbal (Trinity)
Jinyong (Louis Cha) (St John's)
Lord Kelvin (Peterhouse)
John Maynard Keynes (King's)
Kim Dae-Jung (Clare Hall)
C. S. Lewis (Magdalene)
Christopher Marlowe (Corpus Christi)
James Clerk Maxwell (Peterhouse, Trinity)
Ian McKellen (St Catharine's)
A. A. Milne (Trinity)
John Milton (Christ's)
Vladimir Nabokov (Trinity)
Jawaharlal Nehru (Trinity)
Isaac Newton (Trinity)
William Pitt the Younger (Pembroke)
Sylvia Plath (Newnham)
Bertrand Russell (Trinity)
Ernest Rutherford (Trinity)
Fred Sanger (St John's)
Siegfried Sassoon (Clare)
Simon Schama (Christ's)
Amartya Sen (Trinity)
Manmohan Singh (St. John's)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Trinity)
J. J. Thomson (Trinity)
Emma Thompson (Newnham)
Alan Turing (King's)
James D. Watson (Clare)
William Wilberforce (St John's)
Maurice Wilkins (St John's)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (Trinity)
William Wordsworth (St John's)
Lee Kuan Yew (Fitzwilliam) Selected notable members

Cambridge University in literature and popular culture
See also the list of Fictional Cambridge Colleges

Chaucer's The Reeve's Tale takes place at Soler Halle. It is believed that this refers to King's Hall, which later became part of Trinity College.
The Glittering Prizes (1976 TV drama) and Oxbridge Blues (1984 TV drama) by Frederic Raphael.
The Longest Journey and Maurice by E.M. Forster
Still Life by A. S. Byatt
Chariots of Fire, 1981 film
Peter's Friends, 1992 film
The Masters and The Affair by C. P. Snow (features an unnamed fictional college, partly based on his own college, Christ's)
Porterhouse Blue and its sequel Grantchester Grind by Tom Sharpe feature Porterhouse, a fictional Cambridge College.
Darkness at Pemberley by T. H. White
All Sorts and Conditions of Men by Sir Walter Besant
High Table, Lower Orders BBC Radio comedy serial broadcast in 2005 and 2006 set in a fictional college.
The Matthew Bartholomew Chronicles, a series of murder mysteries, by Susanna Gregory
Avenging Angel, a murder mystery by the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah
Eskimo Day is a 1996 BBC TV drama, written by Jack Rosenthal, and starring Maureen Lipman, Tom Wilkinson, and Alec Guinness, about the relationship between parents and teenagers during an admissions interview day at Queens' College. There was also a 1997 sequel, Cold Enough for Snow.
The final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, (All Good Things…) features the android character Data as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in his Cambridge college rooms. An establishing location shot shows a futuristic version of the Cambridge University skyline around the year 2395.
Civilization - a classic turn-based strategy video game by Sid Meier features "Isaac Newton's College" as a Wonder of the World. This could be a reference to Cambridge University as a whole or to Trinity College specifically. The video accompanying the wonder in Civilization II however, erroneously shows the University of Oxford.
In many novels and plays by Thomas Bernhard, Cambridge (Geistesnest) is the refuge of a Geistesmensch escaping from Austria
In Tom Stoppard's 2006 play Rock 'n Roll, Cambridge University is a key setting.
In Bob Fosse's 1972 film Cabaret, one of the central characters, Englishman Brian Roberts is a King's College student finishing his German studies in Berlin.
In Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room, the protagonist Jacob Flanders attends Cambridge. Fiction

A concise history of the University of Cambridge, by Elisabeth Leedham-Green, Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-521-43978-7, ISBN 978-0-521-43978-7
A history of the University of Cambridge, by Christopher N.L. Brooke, Cambridge University Press, 4 volumes, 1988-2004, ISBN 0-521-32882-9, ISBN 0-521-35059-X, ISBN 0-521-35060-3, ISBN 0-521-34350-X
Bedders, bulldogs and bedells: a Cambridge glossary, by Frank Stubbings, Cambridge 1995 ISBN 0-521-47978-9
Japanese Students at Cambridge University in the Meiji Era, 1868-1912: Pioneers for the Modernization of Japan [28], by Noboru Koyama, translated by Ian Ruxton [29], Lulu Press, September 2004, ISBN 1-4116-1256-6. This book includes information about the wooden spoon and the university in the 19th century as well as the Japanese students.
Teaching and Learning in 19th century Cambridge, by J. Smith and C. Stray (ed.), Boydell Press, 2001 ISBN 0-85115-783-1
The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge and of the Colleges of Cambridge and Eton, Robert Willis, Edited by John Willis Clark, 1988. Three volume set, Cambridge University Press ISBN 0-521-35851-5
The Cambridge Apostles: A History of Cambridge University's Elite Intellectual Secret Society, by Richard Deacon, Cassell, 1985, ISBN 0-947728-13-9 Non-fiction

University activities

Cambridge University Professorships, Chancellors and Vice-Chancellors
Cambridge University (UK Parliament constituency)
Registrary
List of Oxbridge sister colleges
Oxbridge scarf colours
Academic dress of the University of Cambridge
Formal Hall (formal evening meals) Organisations and institutions associated with the university

List of organisations with Royal patronage
Primate experiments at Cambridge University
Cambridge University Students' Union