St Benet's Hall, Oxford

St Benet's Hall
University	University of Oxford
Location	38 St Giles', Oxford
Coordinates	51°45′29″N 1°15′39″W / 51.757952°N 1.260787°W / 51.757952; -1.260787
Full name	St Benet's Hall
Latin name	Aula Privata Sancti Benedicti
Motto	Ausculta, o fili, praecepta magistri Listen, O child, to the master's precepts
Established	1897
Named for	St Benedict of Nursia
Sister college	None
Master	Werner Jeanrond
Undergraduates	47
Postgraduates	18
Website	st-benets.ox.ac.uk
Boat club	Boat Club
Map
Location in Oxford city centre

St Benet's Hall (known colloquially as "Benet's") is a Permanent Private Hall (PPH) of the University of Oxford. Established in 1897 by Ampleforth Abbey, it is a Benedictine foundation whose principal historic function was to allow its monks to be able to study for secular degrees at the University. Today, most members of the Hall are not monks, but lay undergraduates and graduates. The hall, which is still owned by Ampleforth Abbey, has a Benedictine and Roman Catholic ethos. However, there is no requirement that members of the hall should be Catholics.

St Benet's was the last constituent body of the University of Oxford admitting men alone to read for undergraduate and graduate degrees. It was also the last single-sex college or hall in the University after St Hilda's College, the last all-women's college in Oxford, admitted men in 2008. In November 2013, the hall formally announced its intention to admit women graduate students within one year and women undergraduates as soon as additional housing facilities were obtained. Women were admitted as graduate students in October 2014 and as undergraduates in October 2016. Thus, 2016 is the year that all constituent colleges and halls of the University became fully co-educational. The University of Cambridge still has two constituent colleges for women only.

The 2007 review of the PPHs conducted by the university concluded that St Benet's had a "good sense of its place within the collegiate University" and drew attention to the "commitment and care" of the hall's academic staff. In May 2013, the Student Barometer survey results showed that St Benet's Hall has the highest overall student satisfaction score out of the 44 constituent colleges and permanent private halls of the University.

Its principal building is located at the northern end of St Giles' on its western side, close to the junction with , Oxford.

Benedictine monks had studied and taught at Oxford since at least 1281 when Gloucester Abbey founded Gloucester College. The area today known as Gloucester Green was named after this college. In 1291, Durham Abbey founded Durham College, and in 1362 Christ Church Priory in Canterbury founded Canterbury College. All three Benedictine colleges were closed between 1536 and 1545 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. Gloucester College was eventually re-founded as Worcester College. Durham College was re-founded as Trinity College. The original college's name is preserved in Trinity's Durham Quadrangle. Canterbury College's property was acquired by Christ Church. Until the establishment of St Benet's Hall in 1897, the Benedictines had been absent from the University for over 350 years.