Look out of the OISE windows any time now and you'll see Oxford undergraduates wending their way down the High towards Magdalen Bridge and (no doubt with some trepidation) entering the august portals of the Examination Schools to sit their 'Finals'. They're easy to recognise because they're in 'sub-fusc' - black suits and gowns, bow ties, etc.
It isn't perhaps not quite so easy to recognize a senior member of the university. Apart, that is, from the traditional image of the untidy eccentric professor who dashes out of the lab shouting "Eureka" and gets awarded a Nobel prize for some scientific breakthrough or other.... Actually this kind of brilliant scientist, while many undoubtedly exist in Oxford, is these days more likely to be dressed quite conventionally and be indistinguishable from any other man or woman in the street. Also it must be said that this image is more redolent of Cambridge than Oxford, as Cambridge is more science based than Oxford, where 70% of students are studying (or' reading') non-scientific subjects.
Apart from professors there are lots of types of senior members. These range from Readers through to Lecturers, and include Dons, Fellows, Deans and Proctors. If we include the so-called 'Heads of House' (i.e. the bosses of the 38 colleges) there are many more, as it seems each college is determined to bestow a unique title on its leader: so Corpus has a President, The Queen's College a Provost, Balliol a Master, Exeter a Rector, and so on.
It isn't perhaps not quite so easy to recognize a senior member of the university. Apart, that is, from the traditional image of the untidy eccentric professor who dashes out of the lab shouting "Eureka" and gets awarded a Nobel prize for some scientific breakthrough or other.... Actually this kind of brilliant scientist, while many undoubtedly exist in Oxford, is these days more likely to be dressed quite conventionally and be indistinguishable from any other man or woman in the street. Also it must be said that this image is more redolent of Cambridge than Oxford, as Cambridge is more science based than Oxford, where 70% of students are studying (or' reading') non-scientific subjects.
Apart from professors there are lots of types of senior members. These range from Readers through to Lecturers, and include Dons, Fellows, Deans and Proctors. If we include the so-called 'Heads of House' (i.e. the bosses of the 38 colleges) there are many more, as it seems each college is determined to bestow a unique title on its leader: so Corpus has a President, The Queen's College a Provost, Balliol a Master, Exeter a Rector, and so on.
The situation is made more confusing by the fact that some titles relate to the university and others to colleges. For example, the proctors are the university police, although these days undergraduates have to reckon with the Thames Valley Police as well if they step out of line.
Traditionally a professor was the head of a department, e.g. chemistry: it was therefore a university appointment. But many professorships are linked to colleges - after all there is no building called 'the university', and professors need a college hall to dine in! Another change - brought on I believe by Oxford in the past having very few professors, and if you weren't a professor it was harder to get a good job in an American university - is in the number of professors. I was in the inorganic chemistry building the other day and counted a dozen or so professors in that department alone. So there's been serious inflation amongst Oxford professors in recent times.
Another basically university position is Reader. These rank immediately below professors, and generally work in a university department rather than teaching in a college - but of course they nearly all have college positions too, like the professors. Tutors, on the other hand, are generally employed by a college, and conduct 'tutorials' (like 1 to 1 lessons at OISE. This is the hallmark way Oxford and Cambridge undergraduates are taught, as opposed to a lecture system as at most universities.
However, just to complicate matters, there are lectures too to supplement the tutorial system; these often take place in the Examination Schools, but sometimes in faculty buildings, such as the Law Library. So there are lecturers as well as tutors, and these are paid by the university generally although often they have college positions too.
How about fellows? These are 'incorporated' senior members of a college. They are usually tutors who after a few years tutoring get elected to a fellowship; in a way they are like the directors of a company - their job being, apart from their academic duties, to run their college. Some may not teach at all: some may conduct research full-time, and the fellowship may include the burser, who manages the college's finance. The fellowship normally selects the next college President, Principal or Master, as the case may be. By the way I haven't forgotten Dean: he is the boss of Christ Church, and has this special title because he also runs the Cathedral.
A horribly vague term is 'don'. The dictionary just says that, apart from being a Spanish gentleman, a don is a 'university teacher, esp. a senior member of a college at Oxford or Cambridge'. Pretty much like a fellow then, officially; but in general usage I would say that the term 'an Oxford don' is generic and refers to any senior member of the university as well as of a college.
Slightly baffling,eh? And I haven't even got on to scouts, chaplains and no doubt many others. Anyway there is little need to worry who is what at the moment, since the university is about to depart on its mammoth 4 month summer vacation.
By Kit Villiers
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