Cambridge The University of Cambridge

Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a collegiate research university in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Founded in 1209^[9] and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's fourth-oldest surviving university.^[10] The university grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople.^[11] The two English ancient universities share many common features and are often jointly referred to as Oxbridge. Cambridge is ranked among the most prestigious universities in the world.
Cambridge is formed from a variety of institutions which include 31 semi-autonomous constituent colleges and over 150 academic departments, faculties and other institutions organised into six schools. All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. All students are members of a college. The university does not have a main campus, and its colleges and central facilities are scattered throughout the city. Undergraduate teaching at Cambridge centres on weekly small-group supervisions in the colleges in groups of typically 1–4 students. This intensive method of teaching is widely considered the 'jewel in the crown' of an Oxbridge undergraduate education.^{[12][13][14][15][16]} In addition, lectures, seminars, laboratory work and occasionally further supervisions are provided by the central university faculties and departments. Postgraduate teaching is provided predominantly centrally.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment combines the oldest university press in the world with one of the world's leading examining bodies, which provides assessment to over eight million learners globally every year. The university also operates eight cultural and scientific museums, including the Fitzwilliam Museum, as well as a botanic garden. Cambridge's libraries, of which there are over 100, hold a total of around 16 million books, around nine million of which are in Cambridge University Library, a legal deposit library. The university is home to, but independent of, the Cambridge Union – the world's oldest debating society. The university is closely linked to the development of the high-tech business cluster known as 'Silicon Fen', the largest technology cluster in Europe.^[17] It is the central member of Cambridge University Health Partners, an academic health science centre based around the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
By endowment size, Cambridge is the wealthiest university in Europe.^[18][19] In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2019, the central university, excluding colleges, had a total income of £2.192 billion, of which £592.4 million was from research grants and contracts.^[4] At the end of the same financial year, the central university and colleges together possessed a combined endowment of over £7.1 billion and overall consolidated net assets (excluding 'immaterial' historical assets) of over £12.5 billion.^[20] A member of numerous associations and part of the 'golden triangle' of English universities, Cambridge has educated many notable alumni, including eminent mathematicians, scientists, politicians, lawyers, philosophers, writers and actors. As of October 2020, 121 Nobel laureates, 11 Fields Medalists, 7 Turing Award winners, 47 heads of state, and 14 British prime ministers have been affiliated with Cambridge as students, alumni, faculty or research staff.^[21] As of 2016, University alumni had won 194 Olympic medals.
By the late 12th century, the Cambridge area already had a scholarly and ecclesiastical reputation, due to monks from the nearby bishopric church of Ely. However, it was an incident at Oxford which is most likely to have led to the establishment of the university: three Oxford scholars were hanged by the town authorities for the death of a woman, without consulting the ecclesiastical authorities, who would normally take precedence (and pardon the scholars) in such a case, but were at that time in conflict with King John. Fearing more violence from the townsfolk, scholars from the University of Oxford started to move away to cities such as Paris, Reading, and Cambridge. Subsequently, enough scholars remained in Cambridge to form the nucleus of a new university when it had become safe enough for academia to resume at Oxford.^[9][23][24] In order to claim precedence, it is common for Cambridge to trace its founding to the 1231 charter from Henry III granting it the right to discipline its own members (ius non-trahi extra) and an exemption from some taxes; Oxford was not granted similar rights until 1248.^[25]
A bull in 1233 from Pope Gregory IX gave graduates from Cambridge the right to teach "everywhere in Christendom".^[26] After Cambridge was described as a studium generale in a letter from Pope Nicholas IV in 1290,^[27] and confirmed as such in a bull by Pope John XXII in 1318,^[28] it became common for researchers from other European medieval universities to visit Cambridge to study or to give lecture courses.^[27]