Anna Lech Oxbridge

1.

Do you know anyone who has been to Oxbridge? If your answer is “no”, you have nothing to worry about because there is no such a town on the map of England! The name Oxbridge should sound familiarfamiliarfamiliar, though. This termtermterm is a combination of Oxford and Cambridge, the UK’s most famous and renownedrenownedrenowned universities. Both of them are among the top ten universities in the world and have many centuriescentury [centuries]centuries of tradition. By saying Oxbridge, we mean the highest quality education, history and unique atmosphere of the two ancientancientancient cities.

2.

Oxford and Cambridge are both made up of colleges. These are separate sections or academic communitiescommunities [community]communities of each university or, as students like to say, uniuniuni. Colleges have traditional names, such as Trinity College in Cambridge or Christ Church in Oxford, and are located in beautiful historic buildings. Each college has its own student accommodationaccommodationaccommodation, dining hallsdining halls [dining hall]dining halls, common roomscommon rooms [common room]common rooms, libraries and many other facilitiesfacilities [facility]facilities for students. Most colleges have about 300‑500 students at a time but they focus on teaching in very small groups. Teachers in these groups are called tutorstutors [tutor]tutors. Tutors are very often well‑known professors famous for their books and discoveries. The lectureslectures [lecture]lectures, classes or one‑to‑one sessionsone‑to‑one sessions [one‑to‑one session]one‑to‑one sessions given by tutors are called tutorialstutorials [tutorial]tutorials in Oxford and supervisions in Cambridge.

3.

Some colleges are as old as 700 years and they have their own peculiarpeculiarpeculiar customscustoms [custom]customs. At special ceremonies, such as graduationgraduationgraduation or formal dinners, students and tutors use LatinLatinLatin and wear traditional uniforms called gownsgowns [gown]gowns. Oxford students may wear a flower pinned to their gowns — a white carnationcarnationcarnation for their first examexamexam, a red one for the last exam and pink for all the other ones. Students and tutors often use special words that may not be understood outside their community.

4.

Oxbridge students feel proud of their colleges and very often competecompetecompete with each other in different sport disciplines. The most famous Oxbridge sports event is the Boat Race — an annualannualannual set of rowingrowingrowing racesraces [race]races between Cambridge University and Oxford University boat clubs. The races are usually held on the River Thames in London. There are eight rowersrowers [rower]rowers in each boat. Members of each team are traditionally known as “blues”. Cambridge boats are light blue and Oxford boats are dark blue. It is a great honourhonourhonour to be a “blue” and represent your college and university during the races.

5.

Both Oxford and Cambridge students have a great opportunity to enjoy prestigiousprestigious prestigious sporting events and have a rich social life but most of all they are offered the best education in the world. Many famous Nobel Prize winners, politicians, scientists or writers are Oxbridge graduatesgraduates [graduate]graduates. J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of “Hobbit” and the “Lord of the Rings” was a student and professor at Oxford while Sir Isaac Newton graduated fromgraduated from [graduate from]graduated from Cambridge. Luckily, studying at Oxbridge is not just an option for the world’s upper classesupper classesupper classes. Both universities are open to giftedgiftedgifted and hardworking young people from all over the world and there are many scholarshipscholarshipscholarship programs for the less well‑offwell‑offwell‑off.

1 Źródło: Anna Lech, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.