Balliol College

Balliol College is a thriving academic community in the heart of Oxford. It exists to advance education at both undergraduate and graduate levels, to facilitate and to encourage scholarship and research at the very highest levels, and to promote excellence in learning, as one of the colleges within the University of Oxford.

Founded in 1263, Balliol is one of Oxford’s oldest colleges; the oldest academic institution in the English-speaking world still on its original site; and almost certainly the oldest co-founded by a woman anywhere. It is also one of Oxford’s largest colleges. Led by the Master, the community consists of about 70 Fellows.

Many of these are Tutorial Fellows who, with the College Lecturers, teach around 370 undergraduate students; about the same number of students read for graduate degrees. There are also about 120 non-academic staff.

The College is run by those Fellows who form its Governing Body, through a system of committees composed of Fellows, students and staff. Beyond the College walls, but also part of the Balliol community, are its Honorary Fellows and Emeritus Fellows, and the 8,000 or so Balliol alumni.