Topic summary
Jesus College, Oxford
Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street. The college was founded by Queen Elizabeth I on 27 June 1571. A major driving force behind the establishment of the college was Hugh Price (or Ap Rhys), a churchman from Brecon in Wales. The oldest buildings, in the first quadrangle, date from the 16th and early 17th centuries; a second quadrangle was added between about 1640 and about 1713, and a third quadrangle was built in about 1906. Further accommodation was built on the main site to mark the 400th anniversary of the college, in 1971, and student flats have been constructed at sites in north and east Oxford. A fourth quadrangle was completed in 2021.
There are about 475 students at any one time; the Principal of the college is Lindsay Skoll. Former students include Harold Wilson (who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), Kevin Rudd (Prime Minister of Australia), Norman Washington Manley (Prime Minister of Jamaica), T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), Angus Buchanan (winner of the Victoria Cross), Viscount Sankey (Lord Chancellor), Edwin Yoder (Pulitzer Prize winning journalist), Roger Parry (media and technology entrepreneur) and over 30 Members of Parliament. Past or present fellows of the college include the historians Sir Goronwy Edwards, Yuval Noah Harari and Niall Ferguson, the philosopher Galen Strawson, and the political philosopher John Gray. Past students and fellows in the sciences include John Houghton (physicist) and Nobel Laureate Peter J. Ratcliffe.