Oxford University

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As we all know, Mulder went to Oxford University, but few people realise just how downright weird Oxford is. Whether you're planning a whole story about his student days or just a few lines in which he remembers his days in Oxford, you could do well to read this FAQ. For example, even a simple sentence like, "When I was at Oxford my room-mate and I went to dinner with one of my professors" contains two mistakes.

However, as with everything on this site, the information is intended for guidance only, should you care to use it. There is no obligation to use it. I will never flame anyone or nitpick should they get anything wrong.

This FAQ was written by (Pellinor).

The Questions

1. How do you know about Oxford?
2. When was Mulder at Oxford?
3. Did Mulder do an undergraduate or a graduate degree?
4. What letters can Mulder put after his name?
5. What is the College system?
6. What College did Mulder go to?
7. What is the campus like?
8. Where did Mulder live?
9. How did Mulder travel?
10. Where did Mulder eat?
11. What did Mulder wear?
12. What did he study?
    • Courses in general
    • The Psychology course
13. What about exams?
14. How long are the terms?
15. What did he call his teachers?
16. What sports did he play?
17. Where did he socialise?
18. What amusing anecdotes could he tell?
19. Could he have pursued any paranormal interests?
20. Anything else?
21. Where can I find out more?

The Answers

1. How do you know about Oxford?

   In other words, can you trust me to be accurate? Well, I hope so. I'm writing from personal experience. I studied History at Merton College, Oxford between 1989 and 1992 and my husband studied Philosophy and Psychology (note the psychology) at St Johns' College. Of course Mulder was there ten years before we were, but I've tried to make allowances for this.

2. When was Mulder at Oxford? This is a hard one, even though we have now seen (in "Ususual Suspects" and "Kill Switch") that he was there from 1983-1986. Accept this if you like (it's easier), but there are contradictions and problems. For more on this, see the Mulder page.

   We know that he was there in 1983, for both he and Phoebe (in "Fire") refer to "ten years ago." His British fellow students would all have "gone up" to Oxford in the October after their nineteenth birthday, which for Mulder would be October 1980. However, there is no age limit on admittance. There have been cases of child prodigies "going up" at the age of 12 or so, so you can chose to send Mulder there whenever you like.

   As for how long he was there, an undergraduate psychology degree takes three years, no more no less, however brilliant you are. One of the requirements of getting the degree is that you must live in Oxford for a full nine terms. A postgraduate degree usually takes three or four years, but it's largely up to the individual. Some take five or six years. Some drag on for all eternity.

   In "Fire", Phoebe says "Did you leave your sense of humour in Oxford ten years ago" which could mean he left Oxford in 1983, in which case what did he do with the next five years? Alternatively it could mean he and Phoebe spilt up in 1983, but he stayed there longer. In the Pilot episode he says he came back from Oxford and then was recruited by the FBI, with no mention of anything else in between.

3. Did Mulder do an undergraduate or a graduate degree?

   Those "Unusual Suspects" dates suggest he only did an undergraduate degree, but many fanfic writers tend to assume Mulder has a doctorate. Rumour has it that CC chose not to give Mulder a doctorate since he wanted to make him more of a "regular guy", but, if he hasn't, it certainly presents a problem accounting for the missing years in the mid-eighties, as discussed above. Also, profilers at the ISU require a doctorate, and it has been pointed out that Mulder would require at last a master's degree to enable him to be described as "a psychologist".

   But he certainly didn't do a Master's degree. There is no course of study at Oxford with that name. Students who want to stay on after their three undergraduate years go straight on to do a doctorate. Oxford graduates can get an MA, but only by waiting seven years, paying a small amount of money and going to a ceremony in which old men in gowns speak Latin at them.

4. What letters can Mulder put after his name?

   An undergraduate psychology degree would give him a BA. A doctorate would give him a D Phil (not a PhD).

   That "AB", shown in his records in "Unusual Suspects" and "Kill Switch", doesn't exist. He would get a BA, even though psychology is a science. All Oxford undergraduate degrees are called Bachelor or Arts, even in subjects like Physics.

   In "Dreamland II", we see his diploma (though we don't call them by that name in Oxford). The real one is written on cream paper, with black writing, and a blue coat of arms near the top.

5. What is the College system?

   Oxford University is really more like a federation of 30 semi- autonomous mini universities called Colleges. It is the College which employs teaching staff and accepts new students, the College which provides food, accommodation and support, and the College which sets most of the rules which impinge on a student's life. For each subject, the syllabus is set centrally, so all Colleges teach their students the same course, but it's up to the individual College quite how to do it. The University also sets and administers the exams, and is the body which actually grants degrees - hence "The University of Oxford" on Mulder's diploma in Dreamland II, not the name of the College. (Some people have questioned whether the diploma should have said "The University of Oxford" at the top, instead of "Oxford University." In fact, it should have. "The University of Oxford" is the correct usage, used on official documents and such like. In daily conversation and informal writing, people would use "Oxford University", though).

   Most Colleges offer most subjects, but inevitably some end up getting a better reputation academically than others. For each subject there are a few Colleges unofficially considered to be the best. However, many aspiring students decide which College to apply to for non-academic reasons, such as location, appearance, quality of food, the fact thath their father went there etc.

   What is important to remember is that most students tend to feel more loyalty to their College than their University. The College is usually where they live, eat, study, are taught, and socialise. When I think of my student days I always think "when I was at Merton," and never "when I was at Oxford."

6. What College did Mulder go to?

   Whichever you like, although at that time Sommerville, St Hugh's and St Hilda's were for women only. The others were all mixed, but some Colleges only stopped being all male in 1979 or just before. Was Phoebe one of the pioneering first women at a previous bastion of maleness?

   If you do decide to allocate him to a College, chose one which suits your needs. They vary immensely, both in size, age and appearance. A lot are mediæval and very pretty, but some are very modern. Their size varies from about 200 students to about 600. You could always make one up if you like. Colin Dexter, a British crime writer, sets his Inspector Morse stories at the fictional Lonsdale College, presumably because it doesn't go down too well legally if you accuse the head of a real College of being a warped mass murderer.

   Click here to be taken to a page of links to all the Colleges' home pages.

7. What is the campus like?

   A trick question! Oxford is not a campus university. The Colleges and other University buildings are scattered all over the city centre, but you should forget any preconceptions you have of a city centre. The centre of Oxford is dominated by the University. The Colleges are so close that there are some streets which have hardly any buildings newer than 1600. The skyline is all mediæval towers, spires and a dome or two. There are no modern highrise buildings. There are also a good lot of parks, playing fields and things.

   The Colleges themselves are usually based around quads - a square of grass or stone, with continuous buildings around all four sides. Most Colleges have around three quads, a chapel, a garden and a few outlying more modern buildings. Quads are connected by archways, and there are doors all around the quad, leading straight into staircases. The main gate into each College is guarded by the Porter's Lodge, where the porters can answer all questions, and where every student has a pigeon hole for their mail. (There is an internal mail system for communication between Colleges, called "Pigeon Post").

8. Where did Mulder live?

   Most students "live in", which means they have a single room in College, containing a bed, simple furniture, and usually a sink. Some lucky students, usually graduates or final year undergraduates, get a "set", which consists of a bedroom and a living room. The rooms are usually grouped vertically by "staircases" which are arranged around the quads. There tend to be between 4 and 8 rooms on each floor of the staircase, and they share a bathroom. (This sometimes has just a bath, sometimes just a shower, sometimes both. There is sometimes a seperate room for a toilet but sometimes it's in the same room as the bath.) In older Colleges the staircases are old mediæval spiral affairs, which tends to give rooms of character but little warmth. The quads all have names, and the staircases and rooms have numbers, so rooms are called things like "Front 4.3", "St Alban's 5.12" etc.

   Try not to give Mulder a room-mate. I have never come across anyone sharing a room. The nearest I've found is, very occasionally, two students, who have their own rooms, sharing a study/living room area.

   In the mixed (co-ed) Colleges, there is no attempt to make all- male or all-female staircases, or all-male or all-female bathrooms.

   Students who live in have to cope with scouts. These used to be personal servants and spies, but now are simply cleaners. But they are cleaners who burst into your room early every morning and start cleaning it, and are thus the cause of many an embarrassing situation. Putting your bin (to Americans: trash can) outside your door is the equivilent of a "do not disturb" sign, but is in itself food for gossip.

   Climbing over walls is another fun tradition of living in. The main College gates lock at midnight. Nowadays everyone has a key to the small side door, but until fairly recently they didn't, leading to queues of people waiting to climb back into their College, or out of their girlfriend's. I can't find out if Mulder would have had a "late gate key" or not, but I hope not. I feel this could be why he's so good at breaking into secret installations.

   Some Colleges make students "live out" for a year. Usually four or five friends get together to rent a house, and take a room each. Despite the independence it offers, this isn't very popular. You end up living miles out of the centre (and hardly anyone brings a car. Everyone cycles or walks) and it costs a lot more than living in.

9. How did Mulder travel?

   Colleges have very little parking, and the town has even less, so hardly anyone brings a car into College. Bicycles are the traditional student means of transport, and every the outside wall of every College is always lined with bicycles about three or four thick. The whole central univeristy area is only about a mile across so everywhere is walkable to in twenty minutes or so.

   If Mulder wanted to go to London (to see Conan Doyle's tomb, for example!) he could get the train or the bus. Oxford's only about 50 miles from London and takes about an hour by train. Trains are very frequent. However, trains are beyond the average student budget. The bus costs about a third or a quarter of the price. Due to Oxford having two competing bus companies, there is a very cheap and very frequent service to London every ten minutes, from dawn to after mid night. It takes about 90 minutes, except when you run into the London commuter traffic in the morning and evening. To travel around London, most people use the Underground (for Americans: subway), popularly called "the tube".

10. What did Mulder wear?

    No, this isn't a silly question. Of course, most of the time Mulder would wear whatever he wanted to, but there are certain times he would have had to wear academc dress. All students have to have a black gown. Undergraduates ("commoners") have a sleeveless short gown, undergraduates with scholarships ("scholars") have a longer one, and graduates have an even longer one. These are worn at the formal evening meal and certain other occasions, like meeting the head of College for your termly report.

    Full academic costume is called "sub-fusc". For men, this consists of a suit, a white bow-tie, gown, and black mortar board (a silly square hat which perches on top of your head and falls off all the time.) This is compulsary wear for exams.

11. Where did Mulder eat?

    There are seldom any cooking facilities for students living in College. Meals are taken in "Hall", the College dining hall, which tends to be all dark panels and old portraits of stern men. Every evening is the option of going to "Formal Hall" which is waiter service, though only one choice on the menu. Everyone wears gowns, and there is a Latin grace. Food is typically very good, and very cheap.

    Here is a picture of a College dining hall.

    There are lots of restaurants in the town, though some are rather beyond most students' budgets. The time Mulder was there would have been the time all the American chains were beginning to reach England. The classic Oxford experience for those middle of the night hunger pangs is the Kebab van. The area around a kebab van becomes something of a social centre after midnight. There is also the Carfax Chippy for late-night chips. (To Americans: what we call "chips" you'd call "fries".)

12. What did he study?
    • Courses in general

      An undergraduate in Oxford doesn't "major" in a subject. Whatever subject (or, occasionally, subjects) your degree is in is all you ever study. There is no opportunity to study other subjects even if you wanted to.

      An Oxford degree is not a heavily taught degree. The emphasis is strongly on private research, especially with arts subjects. Studying history, I had one hour's tuition a week. This took the form of a one-to-one, or two-to- one, tutorial, at the end of which my tutor would give me a book list and an essay question and give me a week to research it. A few papers also had a weekly seminar, and a few had a couple of compulsary lectures, but apart from that everything else was optional, and not all that central to the course.

      A science degree is much more structured, with a lot more teaching, though still less than most universities would offer. Psychology is somewhere between the two extremes.

      A doctorate is even more strongly based on private research. The years are spent solely on researching your thesis, with occasional guidance from a supervisor. Your supervisor may suggest lectures and seminars you may find useful, but that depends on your individual needs.

    • The Pychology course

      The Syllabus Psychology is not psychiatry. Mulder would not have done any practical work with disturbed people, even if he had done a doctorate. In fact, the Oxford course offers little directly of use to him in psychological profiling. He says, in the Pilot episode, that he had a natural skill at applying behavioural models to criminal behaviour. Maybe, but it wasn't something he was taught at Oxford. Not that it really matters, of course. Anyway, for those sticklers for accuracy amongt you, here's the syllabus.

      Three papers are studied in the first term. They are an Introduction to Psychology, an Introduction to Probability Theory and Statistics, and one other. For the third paper the choice is from Physiology, an Introduction to Philosophy, or Neuropsychology.

      The bulk of the course consists of 8 papers chosen from the following 14:

      Brain and behaviour - neurobiology, neural mechanisms etc

      The Biology of learning and memory

      Perception

      Human information processing - cognitive processes

      Social behaviour - communication, social relationships etc

      Individual differences - theories of personality, nature v nurture, psychometry etc

      Psychological disorders - definitions and types, origins, theoretical basis of treatments etc

      Language and communication - speech perception, language acquisition etc

      Artificial intelligence and psychological processes

      Mathematical psychology - mathematical models

      Animal behaviour

      Linguistics

      Teaching As with all Oxford courses, the heart of the teaching in through one-to one tutorials, of which there are normally 12 per term. Psychology also has a good few practical sessions, experiments and lectures, covering research techniques as well as psychology itself.

      The Department As well as being members of a College and the University, psychology students are also members of the Psychology Department. The Psychology and Zoology Building is a modern grey conrete thing, right next to the University Parks. It contains offices, lecture rooms, labs etc, and much of the teaching takes place there.

      To find out more, visit the Department of Experimental Psychology's home page.

13. What about exams?

    An undergraduate psychology degree has Preliminary Exams ("Prelims") after two terms, and final exams (properly called "Honour Schools" but usually just called "Finals") after three years. Prelims are graded Distinction, Pass or Fail. Finals are graded First, Upper Second, Lower Second and Third, all of which are Honours degrees. Below that comes a simple Pass (without Honours) then a Fail.

    If Mulder got a distinction in Prelims he'd probably have been given a scholarship by his College. These vary from College to College but usually involve a book prize, a not-too-large annual sum of money, a longer and more flowing black gown to wear, and some weird historical right. For example, I am the proud owner of the perpetual right to pasture one cow on Christ Church Meadow. What fun.

    Talking of gowns, exams are one of the few occasions when cap and gown have to be worn. Men have to wear a suit and a white bow-tie, and the whole outfit is called "sub fusc". Exams take place in a big building called "Schools".

    There are no exams for a doctorate. It is judged purely on the thesis, and is a simple pass or or fail degree.

14. How long are the terms?

    The Oxford academic year is divided into three eight-week terms. Michaelmas term starts in early October, Hilary in January and Trinity in late April. Because the terms are so short, most students stay in Oxford for the week before term starts (called "Noughth week") and for at least some of the week after the end of "Eighth week". Graduate students tend to ignore terms and stay around most of the year.

15. What did he call his teachers?

    Well, not "Professor" at any rate. There are Professors at Oxford but it is a very elevated position, and there are only a few in each subject. Most teachers are called "Fellows", as in "Fellow of Merton College". They are employed by the College (not the University) first and foremost as researchers. Any teaching they do is a side-line to their own research. Graduate students sometimes end up doing some teaching themselves.

    All Fellows have a room in College, which is where they usually do their teaching. Unmarried Fellows sometimes chose to live in College, in which case they have a superior quality set (bedroom, study and probably own bathroom.) Married Fellows usually have a family home in Oxford and only have study in College.

    If Mulder was referring to one of his teachers, he'd probably say "my tutor", or, if he was doing a doctorate, "my supervisor". He would generally meet them in their own room in College on a one-to- one basis. He would address them as "Dr Smith" or "John", depending on the said Dr John Smith's stated preference.

16. What sports did he play?

    There are no compulsory sports, but plenty of opportunity to play them if you are that way inclined. There are University teams for most sports you could think of, and also College teams for the more popular sports. Colleges compete against each other in fiercely contested competitions called "Cuppers", and the Univeristy teams play against other Universities. Cambridge is the traditional main rival, and an Oxford-Cambridge contest is called a "Varsity Match." If you represent the University in your chosen sport you may be awarded a "Blue".

    The classic Oxford sport is eight-person rowing. A lot of people do this. A larger College can often field up to ten "Eights". To be in the College "First Eight" is probably the most prestiguous sporting acheivement you can get. Rowers tend to get up early every morning and go for long runs (sounds familiar?), and wander around looking lost and heart-broken when the river is closed due to floods. The termly regattas are big social events, with parties, dinners, balls etc in the evenings.

    Many of the sports' teams have their own home pages. Click here to be taken to a page of links for Oxford clubs and societies.

17. Where did he socialise?

    Many students socialise simply by inviting a group of friends to their room for coffee, or for something stronger. In Britain you can buy alcohol at 18, so all students can (and do) make heavy use of the off-licence to buy cheap alcohol and take it to their rooms. (An off-licence is a shop that sells nothing but alcohol, to be consumed off the premises.) Others can be found every night in the College bar. Town pubs are more expensive but at least you can find people from outside your own College. Popular ones include the "King's Arms", reputedly always full of people talking revolution and radical politics, the "Turf Tavern" with low beams, blazing fires and twisty passages, and "The Eagle and Child", where Tolkien and CS Lewis used to hang out.

    There are also University societies for any interest group you can think of. Like newsgroups, new ones spring up all the time, and many are very small and short-lived. I'm sure Mulder could have tracked down a UFO society, if he was that way inclined.

    In the summer the big thing is punting, when you hire a low flat boat and some foolish soul is volunteered to stand up in it and propel the boat along the dirty river Cherwell by pushing against the river bed with a long pole. People go for punt parties and take food and drink, but the main fun comes from watching the person with the pole get it stuck on the bottom of the river, hold on to it too long as the boat gently slips away from beneath them, then fall in.

18. What amusing anecdotes could he tell?

    Well, students are students the world over, so I'm sure you can all come up with lots of ideas. Particularly Oxford ones could include getting caught by the scout in flagrante, or being found by the omniscient porters in some compromising position in the flower bed in Front Quad, or wherever. (College porters, who man the front gate, famously know everything, and never forget. If Mulder returned twenty years later the porter would not only remember him, but remember all the embarrassing incidents Mulder would rather forget.)

    Parson's Pleasure is another fun one. This closed on 1991, but was an area of the river Cherwell set aside for naked male bathing. Unfortunately it was on the main punting route, so boat-loads of women were liable to pass at any moment. I say "unfortunately" because it was generally only used by fat elderly men, but maybe Mulder was an exception. Maybe that's how he met Phoebe.

19. Could he have pursued any paranormal interests?

    I'm sure there would have been societies catering for these interests. Even if not, there's no harm in inventing one. The University library, the Bodleian, or "Bod", has a copy of every book published in Britain so is good for researching anything you like. And of course all the older Colleges have their own ghost stories. Merton allegedly had the ghost of the mediæval scholar Duns Scotus gliding around the old chained library minus his feet, which he'd mislaid when the library floor was raised. I have a friend who used to lead an Oxford ghost tour, so I can find out any "true" stories should people want them.

20. Anything else?

    Hmm, let me see.... Miscellaneous facts:

    The main bookshop is called Blackwell's. The hospital (and could Mulder really be several years in a city without needing one?) is called the John Radcliffe. The Bodleian Library doesn't let you borrow books, but each department and College has its own library, which usually do.

    Some jargon: At the start of each term, you pay the College for your accommodation and food. What you pay is called "battels." The more formal evening dinner is "hall": you talk about "I'll come and see you after hall". You go up to Oxford, and down from it. "When are you going down?" means "when are you going home at the end of term?" Being "sent down" means, therefore, being expelled.

21. How can I find out more?

    The Oxford University Networked Information System is a massive network of informtation, including home pages for all the Colleges and Departments, as well as the sports teams, general Oxford information etc.

    There are various maps hidden amongst the above sites, but here is a direct link to one City Centre Map (350k)

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