A permanent private hall (PPH) in the University of Oxford is an educational institution within the University. There are four permanent private halls at Oxford, three of which admit undergraduates. They were founded by different Christian denominations.
Students at PPHs are members of the University of Oxford and have full access to the University's facilities and activities.
The University of Oxford has 36 colleges, three societies, and four permanent private halls (PPHs) of religious foundation. The colleges and PPHs are autonomous self-governing corporations within the university.
These colleges are not only houses of residence, but have substantial responsibility for teaching undergraduate students. Generally tutorials (one of the main methods of teaching in Oxford) and classes are the responsibility of colleges, while lectures, examinations, laboratories, and the central library are run by the university. Students normally have most of their tutorials in their own college, but often have a couple of modules taught at other colleges or even at faculties and departments. Most colleges take both graduates and undergraduates, but several are for graduates only.
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 world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. It grew rapidly from 1167, when Henry II prohibited English students from attending the University of Paris. After escalating conflict between students and the Oxford townspeople, some Oxford academics fled northeast to Cambridge, where they established the University of Cambridge in 1209. The two universities share many common features and are jointly referred to as Oxbridge.
The University of Oxford is made up of 43 colleges. Formally, only 36 of these are called colleges (independent bodies) while 4 are permanent private halls (owned by a larger religious organisation), and 3 are societies (controlled directly by the University). and a range of academic departments that are organised into four divisions. Colleges control their own membership and activities. Typically social life for students is centred around fellow college members. All students are members of a college. Oxford does not have a main campus. Its buildings and facilities are scattered throughout the city centre and around the town. Undergraduate teaching at the university consists of lectures, small-group tutorials at the colleges and halls, seminars, laboratory work and tutorials provided by the central university faculties and departments. Postgraduate teaching is provided in a predominantly centralised fashion.
St Stephen's House is an Anglican theological college with observer status at the University of Oxford. From 2003 to 2023 it was a permanent private hall.
The college typically matriculates a small number of undergraduate students (five in the academic year 2022–23), but has graduate students in a number of fields including theology, Byzantine studies, education, and music. Between 2003 and 2023, roughly one quarter of the students were pursuing professional training as classroom teachers, and another quarter professional theological and ministerial training as priests, with the other half following a diverse range of studies and research, many remotely or on a flexible basis.
Wycliffe Hall (/ˈwɪklɪf/) is a permanent private hall of the University of Oxford affiliated with the Church of England, specialising in philosophy, theology, and religion. It is named after the Bible translator and reformer John Wycliffe, who was master of Balliol College, Oxford in the 14th century.
Founded in 1877, Wycliffe Hall provides theological training to women and men for ordained and lay ministries in the Church of England as well as other Anglican and non-Anglican churches. There are also a number of independent students studying theology, education and philosophy at undergraduate or postgraduate level. The hall is rooted in and has a history of Evangelical Anglicanism and includes strong influences of Charismatic, Conservative and Open Evangelical traditions.
St Benet's Hall (known colloquially as Benet's) was a permanent private hall (PPH) of the University of Oxford, originally a Roman Catholic religious house of studies. It closed in 2022. The principal building was located at the northern end of St Giles' on its western side, close to the junction with Woodstock Road, Oxford.