Opening Oxford 1871-

25/04/2022

There is just 10 days to go until our concert at the Sheldonian Theatre on 4 May!

Book your (free!) tickets while they last! https://openingoxford1871.web.ox.ac.uk/event/concert

We are also proudly supporting the Oxford University Ukrainian Society at this event. A collection will take place for a number of dedicated charities in Ukraine at the interval and at the end of the concert. All donations are hugely appreciated!

To see the brilliant work being done by the Ukrainian Society and the charities they support, visit their FB page https://www.facebook.com/UASocietyOxford

or website https://ukrainianoxford.org/

Fundraising Dinner Join us for a Fundraising Dinner to support Ukrainian charities. For tickets, please follow this link. We look forward to you joining us! Past OUUS events: SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE RALLY Join Us Sunday, 6 March 2022, 13:00 – 14:30 Radcliffe Square, Oxford, OX1 3BG Show solidarity...

21/04/2022

We're delighted to announce the details of our forthcoming concert at the Sheldonian Theatre on 4 May!

Join us for a musical miscellany in celebration of Oxford's diversity, generously supported by TORCH as Part of the Humanities Cultural Programme.

Tickets are entirely FREE but booking is essential. For details on how to book tickets, and for more information about the event, see our website: https://openingoxford1871.web.ox.ac.uk/event/concert

We can't wait to see you there!

Oxford today resounds with many different voices. Walking on a Sunday evening, visitors can hear the singing of Anglican choral music as it mingles with other, more recent arrivals: songs in Sanskrit, Arabic, Hebrew, and a myriad of other sacred tongues. The talk on the streets is even more diverse,...

13/01/2022

Today's the day! Oxford Re-Formed launches this evening at 6pm.

Please do join us via Crowdcast tonight for what promises to be a fascinating exploration of how religious difference played a crucial role in making Oxford a global University and diverse city.

5 tickets remaining (!) so book while you can at

11/01/2022

Want to know more about OXFORD RE-FORMED? Take a look at our recent blog: https://openingoxford1871.web.ox.ac.uk/article/oxford-re-formed

Interested in attending the launch event this THURSDAY (6pm)? There’s still time to book your tickets via MoX: https://museum-of-oxford.arttickets.org.uk/museum-of-oxford/2022-01-13-oxford-re-formed

Don’t miss out!

How has the Reformation been commemorated, forgotten, or re-imagined in Oxford over the past five hundred years? We first began thinking about this question when we noticed a memorial on Oxford’s High Street that surprised us. On the front of Oriel College’s Rhodes Building, opened in 1911, is a...

06/01/2022

There's still time to book your tickets for the online launch of 'Oxford Re-Formed' next Thursday (13 Jan) at 6pm.

The digital exhibition explores the visual and material traces of the Reformation in Oxford's cityscape.

For more information and to book your tickets see:

Since the Reformation in the early sixteenth century, Oxford’s community, culture, and cityscape have been repeatedly transformed by various moments of religious upheaval. The lives, debates, and conflicts of both the Protestant and Catholic Reformations have been represented, revised, and retold ...

05/01/2022

New Year, new blog!

We are delighted to begin 2022 with a fantastic blog from Isabel Keating, archivist for the European Province, The Society of the Holy Child Jesus CIO.

Isabel gives a fascinating account of Cherwell Edge and the experiences of Catholic women in Oxford.

Link:

Before becoming Linacre College in 1977, Cherwell Edge on St Cross Road was once a residence for Catholic women attending the University of Oxford named St Fridewide’s. Managed by sisters of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus (SHCJ), St Frideswide’s, Cherwell Edge was part of the Society of Oxf...

21/12/2021

New blog!

Farhan Nizami C.B.E. gives a fascinating account of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies - an independent institution of Muslim inspiration in Oxford since 1985.

Link: https://openingoxford1871.web.ox.ac.uk/article/dreaming-spires-dreaming-minarets

Keep posted for more blogs in the New Year on the relationship between Oxford and India; the Cherwell Edge and the sisters of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus; and many more!

When I arrived at Wadham as a graduate student in 1979, the political hot topic of the time was the struggle against apartheid: by then, most provisions of the 1871 Tests Act were of merely historical interest. But, not the Act’s stated objective, to render the best education ‘freely accessible....

17/12/2021

A Friday lunchtime bonus - the second new blog this week!

Jack Nicholson explores the founding of Pusey House by Oxford Anglicans in honour of Edward Bouverie Pusey.

Pusey House is a chaplaincy, library, and social space. It is a centre for the Catholic life and witness within the Anglican Church.

15/12/2021

New blog alert!

Jane Shaw explores the extraordinary history of Harris Manchester College and the college's on-going contributions to Oxford's spiritual and cultural life.

Link:

The 1871 legislation, opening up Oxford and Cambridge to students of all beliefs (or none), inspired the tutors and trustees of Manchester New College, which was then attached to the University of London, to begin a discussion about whether to move to Oxford. That discussion went on for nearly two d...

06/12/2021

Here is a showcase of recent work by our fantastic bloggers. Find:

Will Ghosh's exploration of the writer V.S. Naipaul's experiences of Oxford: https://openingoxford1871.web.ox.ac.uk/article/the-enigma-of-arrival-v.s.-naipaul-in-oxford

Shamara Wettimuny's examination of the studies of the first Sri Lankan Buddhist Monk at Oxford, the Venerable Suriyagoda Sumangala:https://openingoxford1871.web.ox.ac.uk/article/venerable-suriyagoda-sumangala-the-first-sri-lankan-buddhist-monk-at-0

William Gibson's investigation of Methodist scholars at Oxford:https://openingoxford1871.web.ox.ac.uk/article/methodism-and-university-test-act

For many more, see: https://openingoxford1871.web.ox.ac.uk/blog

06/12/2021

Here is Professor Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, explaining the significance of the Universities Test Act. https://fb.watch/9JII-6MyQ9/

06/12/2021

Welcome to the page for 'Opening Oxford 1871'!

A little about us:

In 1871 an act of parliament finally opened Oxford to all faiths and none. For centuries, the University had been closed to those who were not members of the established Church. The Universities Tests Act changed all that. It was an incomplete process, not least because women remained excluded. But the result was, in many ways, the beginning of the modern global university, with students and staff of diverse faiths, sexualities, genders, nationalities, and races.

We will use the 150th anniversary of the Act as a lens through which to explore Oxford’s transformational change over the past century and a half, to discuss ongoing barriers to study and employment, and to map the University’s commitment to opening up further in the post-Covid future.

Follow this page for updates of events, blogs and workshops celebrating Oxford's diversity and exploring ways in which Oxford could be more open still.