Rewley House, located on the corner of

Wellington Square Wellington Square may refer to: * Wellington Square, North Adelaide, South Australia * Wellington Square, Perth, in Western Australia * A neighbourhood in Burlington, Ontario, Canada * A square in Kolkata, India, renamed Subodh Chandra Mallik Squar ...

and St John Street in the city of

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, is the primary base of

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a 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 second-oldest continuously operating u ...

's Department for Continuing Education (previously the Department of External Studies).

History

The building known as Rewley House was originally built in 1873 as a convent school, St Anne's Rewley. By 1903, the school had ceased operation, and the building stood dormant until 1927, when it was purchased by 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 ...

as a headquarters for its adult education activities.Lawrence Goldman, ''Dons and Workers, Oxford and Adult Education Since 1850'',

Clarendon 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 ...

, Oxford, 1995. Oxford University was one of the founders of the

adult education Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained educating activities in order to gain new knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralph G. ''The Pr ...

movement in the

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in the late 19th century. By the 20th century the University's outreach efforts had grown to such a level as to make a base in Oxford necessary. A report of 1919 recommended "''the establishment of a Centre or House for Extra-Mural Students''". The old St Anne's became Rewley House, and was the ideal base of operations — particularly since the small hotels in Wellington Square had long been used as accommodation by the University's external students coming to Oxford for residential portions of their courses. Rewley House in the 1920s included a library, a common room and lecture halls. Further expansion in the 1960s and 1980s added accommodation and dining facilities for students, in addition to more teaching classrooms and a

lecture theatre A lecture hall or lecture theatre is a large room used for lectures, typically at a college or university. Unlike flexible lecture rooms and classrooms with capacities normally below one hundred, the capacity of lecture halls can sometimes be m ...

Kellogg College Kellogg College is a graduate-only constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1990 as Rewley House, Kellogg is the university's 36th college and the largest by number of students both full and part-time. Named after ...

, the University's only college dedicated to the needs of part-time adult students, was based in Rewley House until the late 1990s, when it moved to its own grounds nearby on

Banbury Road Banbury Road is a major arterial road in Oxford, England, running from St Giles' at the south end, north towards Banbury through the leafy suburb of North Oxford and Summertown, with its local shopping centre. Parallel and to the west is the ...

in Oxford. The name "Rewley" is taken from

Rewley Abbey The Cistercian Abbey of Rewley was an abbey in Oxford, England. It was founded in the 13th century by Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall. Edmund's father, Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, founder of Hailes Abbey, had intended to establish a college or ...

, a 13th-century

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

monastery which stood nearby. The

Oxford University Department for Continuing Education The University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education is a department within the University of Oxford that provides continuing education mainly for part-time and mature students. It is located at Rewley House, Wellington Square, and at ...

offers over 700 courses annually to over 15,000 students, making it one of the largest departments at the University, and a leading provider of part-time adult education worldwide.

References

{{Libraries of the University of Oxford School buildings completed in 1873 Buildings and structures in Oxford Buildings and structures of the University of Oxford Kellogg College, Oxford