All Souls College, Oxford | |
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Blazon: Or, a chevron between three cinquefoils gules.
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University | Oxford |
Location | High Street, Oxford |
Coordinates | 51°45′12″N 1°15′11″W / 51.753279°N 1.253041°WCoordinates: 51°45′12″N 1°15′11″W / 51.753279°N 1.253041°W |
Full name | The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford |
Latin name | Collegium Omnium Animarum |
Established | 1438 |
Named for | Feast of All Souls |
Sister college | Trinity Hall, Cambridge |
Warden | John Vickers |
Undergraduates | None |
Postgraduates | 8 (2012) |
Website | www |
Map | |
All Souls College (official name: The Warden and the College of the Souls of All Faithful People Deceased in the University of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England.
Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become Fellows (i.e., full members of the College's governing body). It has no undergraduate members, but each year recent graduates of the university and graduates of other universities now registered as postgraduate students at Oxford are eligible to apply for Examination Fellowships through a competitive examination (once described as "the hardest exam in the world") and, for the several shortlisted after the examinations, an interview.
All Souls is one of the wealthiest colleges in Oxford, with a financial endowment of £286.4m (2014). However, since the College's principal source of revenue is its endowment, it only ranks nineteenth among Oxford colleges with respect to total income. All Souls is a registered charity under English law.
The college is located on the north side of the High Street adjoining Radcliffe Square to the west. To the east is The Queen's College with Hertford College to the North.
The current Warden (head of the College) is Sir John Vickers, a graduate of Oriel College, Oxford.
The College was founded by Henry VI of England and Henry Chichele (fellow of New College and Archbishop of Canterbury), in 1438. The Statutes provided for the Warden and forty fellows – all to take Holy Orders; twenty-four to study arts, philosophy and theology; and sixteen to study civil or canon law. The College's Codrington Library, completed in 1751, was completed through the bequest of Christopher Codrington in 1710, a wealthy plantation owner from Barbados, who attended Oxford and later became colonial governor of the Leeward Islands. Today the College is primarily a graduate research institution.