Committee to provide state support on the ground that the public ‘lecturing which was done in most Universities by persons employed by the University was, in Oxford, done by the College teachers’ (quoted in Dunbabin, p. 653). This went into effect in January 1950.
The faculty boards are responsible for scheduling the lectures given by both University and college teachers. ‘Practically all lectures, even those held in college lecture rooms, are open to all members of the University without conditions or payment of special fees …. No record is kept of attendance, but an undergraduate is expected to attend such lectures as may be recommended by his tutor’ (L.A. Crosby, ‘The Oxford System of Education’, Oxford of Today (1927), pp. 48–9). The most important form of study for the undergraduate, however, is the tutorial.
Immediately on arrival in the University, each undergraduate is assigned by his College to a tutor … a Fellow, Tutor, or Lecturer of his or some other College, subject to whose guidance, the undergraduate will pursue his studies (or ‘reading’, in the Oxford phrase) during terms and vacations throughout his course at the University. The tutor directs the student’s work, advises him to attend certain lectures, and to read certain books. One or twice weekly the student spends an hour or more in conference with the tutor; at which time he usually reads an essay or essays embodying the results of his reading since the last conference. The essay is followed by the tutor’s comments and criticism, and an informal discussion, in which the tutor aims to assist the undergraduate in the analysis and correct statement of the matter involved. [Crosby, pp. 49–50]
At Oxford the word lecture refers to a presentation to a potentially large audience, almost always open to all members of the University without condition or charge, at which attendance is not required and the speaker does not pause to discuss his or her subject or to take questions. Class, in contrast, refers to instruction with a more limited number of specially enrolled students, which may make use of written materials as well as discussion. Classes are sometimes referred to as group conferences or seminars.
MISCELLANEOUS
Tolkien entered Exeter College by virtue of having earned an Open Classical Exhibition offered by that college. (An exhibition is less prestigious, and usually of less value, than a scholarship.) But a student could not matriculate, or enrol in the University, without first having passed Responsions, an entrance examination in four subjects, or having already obtained (as had Tolkien) School Certificate passes in relevant subjects. The choice of these varied, but in earlier years Greek and Latin were essential. Responsions was converted into a University entrance examination in 1926. Later a student had to pass the First Public Examination, either Honour Moderations or Pass Moderations (with a choice of subjects), generally taken not earlier than the third term after matriculation, before continuing his studies. Until 1932 a student also had to pass an Examination in Holy Scripture (‘Divvers Prelim’). Since Tolkien was entered to study Literae Humaniores (‘more humane letters’), also called ‘Greats’ (i.e. Classics), he took Classical Honour Moderations, but had he intended to study English from the beginning he could have taken Pass Moderations. It was not until Michaelmas Term 1948 that a First Public Examination specifically for the English Honour School was enabled.
At the end of his time at Oxford the student took the Second Public Examination, or Final Examination, in one of a number of Honour Schools or in a Pass School. In Tolkien’s time candidates were awarded first-, second-third- or fourth-class Honours, generally referred to as having ‘taken a First’, a ‘Second’, and so forth.
The Oxford academic year consists of three eight-week terms, known as Full Terms, each beginning on a Sunday during which lectures are given. Students will arrive probably a little earlier, and faculty may also have duties outside of Full Term. The first of the terms is Michaelmas Term from early to mid-October through about the middle of December. Next, after a vacation of six weeks (Christmas vacation), is Hilary Term (sometimes called Lent Term), from around mid-January to mid-March. Finally, after another six-week (Easter) vacation, is Trinity Term (or Summer Term), from late April or the beginning of May until late June. Final Honours Examinations are taken at the end of Trinity Term of the student’s final year at the school, followed after an interval by a public viva voce (oral) examination, or ‘viva’. Between the end of Trinity Term and the beginning of Michaelmas Term is the ‘long vacation’ (or ‘long vac’). The Handbook to the University of Oxford warns that although the year is thus divided almost equally between term and vacation, ‘it is an essential part of the Oxford system that the undergraduate shall do a great deal of his reading in vacation, and anybody who relies solely on his work during term will certainly meet with disaster in his examinations’ (Carleton Kemp Allen, ‘College Life’ (1933), p. 121).
As an undergraduate Tolkien would have been expected to wear academic dress – a black gown and cap – at lectures and during tutorials, in the presence of University officials, at ceremonies, and during examinations, as well as on other occasions. Later, as a Master of Arts, Tolkien wore ‘a full-style black gown … reaching below the calf … with a full gathered yoke behind and closed sleeves with a crescent-shaped cut at the bottom and an opening at the elbow’ with a hood ‘made from black corded silk or art silk edged and lined with crimson or shot crimson silk or art silk’ and a square cap (D.R. Venables and R.E. Clifford, Academic Dress of the University of Oxford (8th edn. 1998), p. 30). As an Honorary D.Litt. his full academic dress was ‘a scarlet robe with bell-shaped sleeves, of which the body is made from scarlet cloth with facings and sleeves of grey silk’ (p. 18). At examinations and formal occasions, men were required to wear sub-fusc clothing underneath the gown: a dark suit, socks, and footwear, and a white shirt, collar, and tie. When lecturing Tolkien wore his gown, but over ordinary clothes.
Technically Encaenia is a meeting of Convocation, held in the Sheldonian Theatre on the Wednesday of the ninth week in Trinity Term (that is, the Wednesday following the end of the Full Term), which is presided over by the Chancellor and at which honorary degrees are conferred and prize compositions read. In the morning before the ceremony the Chancellor, those being honoured (the honorands), Doctors, Heads of colleges, and other University dignitaries in full academic dress are entertained in the college of the Vice-Chancellor to enjoy strawberries and champagne provided by the benefaction of Lord Crewe in the early eighteenth century. They then walk in procession to the Sheldonian. The honorands wait in the Divinity School, and after the Chancellor has opened the proceedings are escorted into the Theatre, where each is introduced by the Public Orator with a speech in Latin and admitted to his or her new degree. The Orator then delivers the Creweian Oration on events of the past year, and either he or the Professor of Poetry commemorate the University’s benefactors. In the afternoon is an Encaenia garden party.
See further, The History of the University of Oxford, Vol. VII: Nineteenth-Century Oxford, Part 2, ed. M.G. Brock and M.C. Curthoys (2000). See also *Examinations; *Libraries and archives; *Oxford English School; *Societies and clubs. The Chronology volume of the Companion and Guide illustrates by example the flow of the Oxford academic year and Tolkien’s duties on the college and University levels.
Oxford English Dictionary. The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, sometimes cited as NED, or Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to give it its later and more familiar title, traces the meaning and usage of English words from their earliest appearance and illustrates them with quotations. Work on it began in 1858, under Herbert Coleridge (1830–1861) and F.J. Furnivall (1825–1910) successively, along lines suggested in 1857 by Richard Chenevix Trench, then the Dean of Westminster. Its most eminent editor, James A.H. Murray (1837–1915), succeeded Furnivall in 1879, and the first fascicle of the dictionary, A–Ant, was published at last in 1884. Murray was followed at his death by his associate *Henry Bradley, who was later joined by *William Craigie and *C.T. Onions. The dictionary proper was completed in
