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Beginnings of the University In 1209, students escaping from hostile townspeople in Oxford fled to Cambridge and formed a University there. The oldest college which still exists, Peterhouse, was founded in 1284. One of the most impressive buildings in Cambridge, King\'s College Chapel, was begun in 1446 by King Henry VI. The project was completed in 1515 during the reign of King Henry VIII. Cambridge University Press originated with a printing licence issued in 1534. Hobson\'s Conduit, the first project to bring clean drinking water to the town centre, was built in 1610 (by the Hobson of Hobson\'s choice).
Parts of it survive today. Addenbrooke\'s Hospital was founded in 1719. The railway and station were built in 1845. According to legend, the University dictated their location: well away from the centre of town, so that the possibility of quick access to London would not distract students from their work. However, there is no basis for this in fact. Despite having a University, Cambridge was not granted its city charter until 1951.
Cambridge does not have a cathedral, which was traditionally a pre-requisite for city status. The University of Cambridge (often called Cambridge University, or just Cambridge), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. Early records indicate that the university grew out of an association of scholars in the city of Cambridge, probably formed in 1209 by scholars escaping from Oxford after a fight with local townsmen. According to UCAS, Cambridge and Oxford are the most academically selective universities in the United Kingdom - there is a special national admissions process which sets Oxbridge apart from other UK universities. The university has often topped league tables ranking British universities - for instance, Cambridge was ranked first in the Sunday Times league table every year between 1997 and 2005. In the most recent UK government Research Assessment Exercise in 2001[1], Cambridge was ranked first in the country.
In 2005, it was reported that Cambridge produces substantially more PhDs per year than any other UK university (over 30% more than second placed Oxford)[2]. In 2006, a Thomson Scientific study showed that Cambridge has the highest research paper output of any UK university, and is also the top research producer (as assessed by total paper citation count) in 10 out of 21 major UK research fields analyzed[3]. In addition to a long distinguished tradition in the humanities and the arts, the University of Cambridge is especially known for producing prominent scientists and mathematicians. This distinguished list includes Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, William Harvey, Paul Dirac, J. J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, James Clerk Maxwell, Francis Crick, Alan Turing, Stephen Hawking, and Fred Sanger.
The university is also closely linked with the development of the high-tech business cluster in and around Cambridge, which forms the area known as Silicon Fen or sometimes the "Cambridge Phenomenon". In 2004, it was reported that Silicon Fen was the second largest venture capital market in the world, after Silicon Valley. Estimates reported in February 2006 suggest that there were about 250 active startup companies directly linked with the university, worth around US$6 billion. Early 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. Mathematics (V) 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. Women's education (L) 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, [8]). Myths, legends and traditions (v) There are many popular myths associated with Cambridge University. One famous myth relates to Queens' College's so-called Mathematical Bridge (pictured right). Supposedly constructed by Sir Isaac Newton, it reportedly held itself together without any bolts or screws. Legend has it inquisitive students took it apart and were then unable to reassemble it without bolts. However, the bridge was erected 22 years after Newton's death.
This myth may have arisen from the fact that earlier versions of the bridge used iron pins and screws at the joints, whereas the current bridge uses more visible nuts and bolts. Another famous myth involves the Clare Bridge of Clare College. Spherical stone ornaments adorn this bridge. One of these has a quarter sphere wedge removed from the back. This is a feature pointed out on almost all tours over the bridge. Legend has it that the bridge's builder was not paid in full due to the college's dissatisfaction with its construction.
The builder thus took revenge and committed an act of petty vandalism. Though lacking evidence, this legend is commonly accepted. A discontinued tradition is that of the wooden spoon, the 'prize' awarded to the student with the lowest passing grade in the final examinations of the Mathematical Tripos. The last of these spoons was awarded in 1909 to Cuthbert Lempriere Holthouse, an oarsman of the Lady Margaret Boat Club of St John's College. It was over one metre in length and had an oar blade for a handle. Since 1909, results were published alphabetically within class rather than score order.
This made it harder to ascertain who the winner of the spoon was (unless there was only one person in the third class), and so the practice was abandoned. On the other hand, the legend of the Austin Seven delivery van that ended up on the apex of the Senate House is no myth at all. The Caius College website recounts in detail how this vehicle "went up in the world".
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