Fictional colleges are found in many modern novels, films, and other works of fiction, probably because they allow the author greater licence for invention and a reduced risk of being accused of libel or slander, as might happen if the author depicted unsavory events as occurring at a real-life institution. Below is a list of some of the fictional colleges of the University of Oxford.
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials novels feature a number of fictional Oxford colleges:
The Inspector Morse series of book by Colin Dexter is predominantly set within Oxford and its environs, including the University. Consequently, many fictional colleges are named. The derived television series, Inspector Morse, Lewis and Endeavour, continue the idea.
Thomas Hardy's novel Jude the Obscure features a number of fictional 'Christminster' colleges, a thinly fictionalized version of Oxford:
Loss and Gain by Blessed John Henry Newman tells the story of the conversion of Charles Reding, an Oxford student, to Catholicism. In the novel, Newman creates the following colleges: