Regent's Park College | |
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Blazon: Argent on a cross gules an open Bible proper irradiated or the pages inscribed with the words DOMINUS JESUS in letters sable on a chief wavy azure fish or.
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University | University of Oxford |
Location | Pusey Street |
Coordinates | 51°45′26″N 1°15′39″W / 51.757255°N 1.260964°WCoordinates: 51°45′26″N 1°15′39″W / 51.757255°N 1.260964°W |
Full name | Regent's Park College, Oxford |
Latin name | Collegium de Principis Cum Regentis Paradiso |
Motto | Omnia probate quod bonum tenete (Latin) |
Established | 1810, incorporating an education society founded 1752 |
Named for | Regent's Park, London |
Previous names | Stepney Academy (to 1856) |
Principal | The Revd Dr Robert Ellis |
Undergraduates | 120 |
Postgraduates | 50 |
Grace | see below |
Website | rpc |
Boat club | JCR Website |
Map | |
Regent's Park College (known colloquially within the University as Regent's) is a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford, situated in central Oxford, just off St Giles'.
Founded in 1810, the College moved to its present site in 1927, and became a licensed Hall of the University in 1957. The College now admits both undergraduate and graduate students to take Oxford degrees in a variety of Arts, Humanities and Social Science subjects. It is one of the only academic institutions within the University of Oxford to have accepted women as well as men since before the mid-twentieth century, with women attending the College since the 1920s. The College also trains men and women for ordained ministry among Baptist churches in Great Britain and overseas.
Regent's Park College traces its roots to the formation of the London Baptist Education Society in 1752. This venture led to the development of the Stepney Academy in East London in 1810 – The impetus for the creation of the Academy arose from the fact that only members of the Church of England were given places at ancient universities. In 1810 there were only three students, but by 1850 the number had risen to 26.
In 1849 Dr Joseph Angus (Principal 1849–1893) became Principal at just 33 years old. At the beginning of his time as Principal, Angus admitted a small number of lay students to college. His belief was that it would benefit the ministerial students to have contact with them as well as bringing much needed finances to the Academy. After sites in Gordon Square and Primrose Hill were considered, on 12 December 1855 Angus decided to relocate the College to Holford House in the rural environs of Regent's Park and to rename the Academy 'Regent's Park College'. Holford House was a private dwelling built in the classical Georgian style on crown land. Students were able to read for university degrees in the Arts and Law, as well as training for Christian ministry. After many long ties with University College London which trace back to 1856, In 1901 the College became an official Divinity School of the University of London. In 1920 G. P. Gould (1896–1920) passed the role of Principal on to H. Wheeler Robinson, a post he would hold until 1942. Wheeler Robinson was educated at Regent's Park College for one session; he then went to Edinburgh University and finally onto Mansfield College, Oxford. Wheeler Robinson believed that Oxford was a more congenial setting than London for a college. This belief, coupled with the lure of the advantages of the tutorial system and the fact that the Baptist Church remained the only Free Church denomination without a college in one of the ancient universities, led Wheeler Robinson to decide to relocate the college to Oxford.