The University of Durham Collegiate Example
Posted by R. J. O’Hara for the Collegiate Way
25 July 2001 (collegiateway.org) — The residential college model originated in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and their colleges are in fact legal corporations independent of the universities. Each of them has extensive teaching functions as well. This degree of independence is unlikely to be recreated when new colleges are established today, and it is often pointed to as a reason why modern universities cannot establish “real” residential colleges. If the Oxford/Cambridge arrangement is a block to your thinking, I invite you to explore the third old collegiate university in Britain, the University of Durham. Durham’s system of residential colleges has been in place since the mid-1800s, and most of its colleges are not independent corporations, but rather units of the central university. This is the model that is more likely to be successful in new creations today, and Durham in fact continues to expand its own collegiate system. To learn more about the Durham colleges pay a visit to the Collegiate Way’s directory of Residential Colleges Worldwide.
