Wadham College, Oxford

Wadham College
University of Oxford
Arms: Gules, a chevron between 3 roses argent barbed vert (Wadham); impaling Gules, a bend or between 2 escallops argent (Petre)[1]
Scarf colours: black, with two grey-blue stripes a quarter of a scarf-width in from either edge, each stripe edged with a yellow pinstripe on the right-hand side only
LocationParks Road
Coordinates51°45′21″N 1°15′17″W / 51.755871°N 1.254593°W / 51.755871; -1.254593
Full nameWarden, Fellows and Scholars of Wadham College of the Foundation of Nicholas Wadham Esquire and Dorothy His Wife in the University of Oxford
Latin nameCollegium Wadhami
Established1610; 414 years ago (1610)
Named forDorothy (née Petre) and Nicholas Wadham
Sister collegeChrist's College, Cambridge
WardenRobert Hannigan
Undergraduates471[2] (2022)
Postgraduates217[2] (2022)
Websitewadham.ox.ac.uk
Boat clubWadham College Boat Club
Map
Wadham College, Oxford is located in Oxford city centre
Wadham College, Oxford
Location in Oxford city centre

Wadham College (/ˈwɒdəm/) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford[3] in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, according to the will of her late husband Nicholas Wadham, a member of an ancient Devon and Somerset family.

The central buildings, a notable example of Jacobean architecture, were designed by the architect William Arnold and erected between 1610 and 1613. They include a large and ornate Hall. Adjacent to the central buildings are the Wadham Gardens. Wadham is one of the largest colleges of the University of Oxford, with about 480 undergraduates and 240 graduate students.[2] The college publishes an annual magazine for alumni, the Wadham College Gazette.[4] As of 2022, it had an estimated financial endowment of £113 million,[5] and in the 2021-2022 academic year ranked 7th in the Norrington Table, a measure which ranks Oxford colleges by academic performance.[6]

Amongst Wadham's most famous alumni is Sir Christopher Wren. Wren was one of a brilliant group of experimental scientists at Oxford in the 1650s, the Oxford Philosophical Club, which included Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke. This group held regular meetings at Wadham College under the guidance of the warden, John Wilkins, and the group formed the nucleus which went on to found the Royal Society.

  1. ^ (engraver.), Thomas Robson (1 January 1830). "The British herald, or Cabinet of armorial bearings of the nobility & gentry of Great Britain & Ireland" – via Google Books.
  2. ^ a b c "Student numbers | University of Oxford". www.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Wadham College | University of Oxford". www.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  4. ^ Wadham College Gazette, Wadham College, retrieved 7 August 2022
  5. ^ "Wadham College Annual Report and Financial Statements" (PDF). Retrieved 13 July 2023.
  6. ^ "Undergraduate Degree Classifications". University of Oxford. Retrieved 26 December 2023.