
Oxbridge is a
portmanteau
In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together. of the
Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, the two oldest, wealthiest, and most prestigious universities in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. The term is used to refer to them collectively, in contrast to other British universities, and more broadly to describe characteristics reminiscent of them, often with implications of superior social or intellectual status or
elitism
Elitism is the notion that individuals who form an elite — a select group with desirable qualities such as intellect, wealth, power, physical attractiveness, notability, special skills, experience, lineage — are more likely to be construc ...
.
Origins
Although both universities were founded more than eight centuries ago, the term ''Oxbridge'' is relatively recent. In
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portra ...
's novel ''
Pendennis'', published in 1850, the main character attends the fictional
Boniface College, Oxbridge. According to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...
'', the first recorded use of the word was by
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device.
Vir ...
, who, citing
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portra ...
, referenced it in her 1929 essay "
A Room of One's Own." The term was used in the ''
Times Educational Supplement'' in 1957, and the following year in ''Universities Quarterly''.
When expanded, the universities are almost always referred to as "Oxford and Cambridge", the order in which they were founded. A notable exception is Tokyo's ''Cambridge and Oxford Society''; this probably arises from the fact that the Cambridge Club was founded there first, and also had more members than its Oxford counterpart when they amalgamated in 1905.
Meaning

In addition to being a collective term, ''Oxbridge'' is often used as shorthand for characteristics the two institutions share:
*They are the two
oldest universities in continuous operation in the UK. Both were founded more than 800 years ago,
and remained England's only universities until the 19th century. This duopoly was actively protected, with both universities until the 1820s requiring their graduates to swear not to teach at any other universities in England, and lobbying royalty to close down establishments at
Northampton
Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...
,
Stamford and
Durham. Between them, they have educated a large number of Britain's most prominent scientists, writers, and politicians, as well as noted figures in many other fields.
*Each has a similar
collegiate structure, whereby the university is a cooperative of its constituent colleges, which are responsible for
supervisions/tutorials (the principal undergraduate teaching method, unique to Oxbridge), accommodation and pastoral care.
*They have established similar institutions and facilities such as leading publishing houses (
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
and
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
), botanical gardens (
University of Oxford Botanic Garden and
Cambridge University Botanic Garden), museums (the
Ashmolean and the
Fitzwilliam),
legal deposit libraries (the
Bodleian and the
Cambridge University Library),
debating societies (the
Oxford Union and the
Cambridge Union), and notable comedy groups (
The Oxford Revue and
The Cambridge Footlights).
*
Rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge also has a long history, dating back to around 1209, when Cambridge was founded by scholars taking refuge from hostile Oxford townsmen, and celebrated to this day in
varsity matches such as
The Boat Race.
*They are usually the top-scoring institutions in cross-subject UK university rankings, so they are targeted by ambitious pupils, parents and schools. Entrance is extremely competitive and some schools promote themselves based on the achievement Oxbridge offers. Combined, the two universities award over one-sixth of all English full-time research doctorates.
*Oxford and Cambridge have common approaches to
undergraduate admissions. Until the mid-1980s, entry was typically by sitting special entrance
exams. Applications must be made at least three months earlier than to other UK universities (the deadline for applications to Oxbridge is mid-October whereas the deadline for all other universities, apart from applicants for medicine, is in January). Additionally, candidates may not apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the same year, apart from a few exceptions (e.g. organ scholars). Most candidates achieve, or are predicted to achieve, outstanding results in their final school exams, and consequently interviews are usually used to check whether the course is well suited to the applicant's interests and aptitudes, and to look for evidence of self-motivation, independent thinking, academic potential and ability to learn through the tutorial system.
* Membership of the
Oxford and Cambridge Club is largely restricted to those who are members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
Criticism

The word ''Oxbridge'' may also be used pejoratively: as a descriptor of
social class
A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class and the Bourgeoisie, capitalist class. Membership of a social class can for exam ...
(referring to the professional classes who dominated the intake of both universities at the beginning of the twentieth century), as shorthand for an
elite
In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...
that "continues to dominate Britain's political and cultural establishment"
and a parental attitude that "continues to see UK higher education through an Oxbridge prism", or to describe a "pressure-cooker" culture that attracts and then fails to support overachievers "who are vulnerable to a kind of self-inflicted stress that can all too often become unbearable" and high-flying state school students who find "coping with the workload very difficult in terms of balancing work and life" and "feel socially out of
heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...
depth".
The
Sutton Trust maintains that the
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
and the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
"recruit" disproportionately from eight schools (
Westminster School
Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as do ...
,
Eton College
Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...
,
Hills Road Sixth Form College,
St Paul's School,
Peter Symonds College,
St Paul's Girls' School,
King's College School, and
Magdalen College School). They examined published admissions data from 2015 to 2017 and found that, out of the 19,851 places during the three years, the eight schools accounted for 1,310, whereas 2,900 other schools with historically few admissions to Oxbridge accounted for 1,220.
Related terms
Other portmanteaus have been coined that extend the term ''Oxbridge'', with different degrees of recognition:
The term ''Loxbridge''
is also used referring to the
golden triangle of London, Oxford, and Cambridge. It was also adopted as the name of the
Ancient History
Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...
conference now known as ''AMPAH''.
Doxbridge is another example of this, referring to
Durham, Oxford and Cambridge.
''Doxbridge'' was also used for an annual inter-collegiate sports tournament between some of the colleges of Durham, Oxford, Cambridge and
York
York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
.
''Woxbridge'' is the name of the annual conference between the business schools of
Warwick, Oxford and Cambridge.
When the
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...
topped the 2023 UK universities ranking in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', the top three institutions were labelled ''Stoxbridge'' to reflect the new order.
Thackeray's ''
Pendennis'', which introduced the term ''Oxbridge'', also introduced ''Camford'' as another combination of the university names – "he was a Camford man and very nearly got the English Prize Poem" – but this term has never achieved the same degree of usage as ''Oxbridge''. Camford is, however, used as the name of a fictional university city in the
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...
story ''
The Adventure of the Creeping Man'' (1923).
See also
*
Armorial of British universities
*
Golden triangle, sometimes referred to as Loxbridge: an unofficial grouping of Oxford, Cambridge and certain elite universities in London
*
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
, a grouping of eight elite universities in the United States
*
Oxford–Cambridge rivalry
*
Russell Group
The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its members' interests, principally to governme ...
References
{{Authority control
Academic culture
Colloquial terms for groups of universities and colleges
Culture of England
Terminology of the University of Cambridge
Terminology of the University of Oxford