Collection (Oxford Colleges)
Encyclopedia
At Colleges of the University of Oxford
, a Collection may be one of two things:
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, a Collection may be one of two things:
- An examination taken at the beginning of termAcademic termAn academic term is a division of an academic year, the time during which a school, college or university holds classes. These divisions may be called terms...
by undergraduates/graduates, testing the work done in the previous term, and often based on past paperPast paperA past paper is an examination paper from a previous year or previous years, usually used either for exam practice or for tests such as University of Oxford College Collections.Exam candidates find past papers valuable in test preparation...
questions (typically a three-hour exam). Undergraduates usually sit one or two Collections per term, but this can vary by tutor and by college. Collections are College (or sometimes departmental), rather than University, examinations and assist in predicting a student's final degreeAcademic degreeAn academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
result rather than constituting a part of it.- A Penal Collection might be set if an undergraduate has failed to work hard enough. Failure to achieve a minimum mark set in advance may result in the student's being rusticatedRustication (academia)Rustication is a term used at Oxbridge to mean being sent down or expelled temporarily. The term derives from the Latin word rus, countryside, to indicate that a student has been sent back to their family in the country, or from medieval Latin rustici, meaning "heathens or barbarians"...
for a set period, or even being “sent down” — that is, permanently expelled from the College.
- A Penal Collection might be set if an undergraduate has failed to work hard enough. Failure to achieve a minimum mark set in advance may result in the student's being rusticated
- A meeting at the end of term, usually with a set of tutors or - very occasionally - with the Head of House of the College, at which reports of the term's work are read, or (especially for postgraduates) the student's progress is discussed. These are sometimes known as “hand-shaking”, or “Principal's (Dean's/Master's/Warden's/President's/Provost's, etc.) Collections”.