Abelia

The Council of Keble College, Oxford ran the college (in conjunction with the Warden) from its foundation in 1868 until 1952. The council – a group of between nine and twelve men – has been described as "an external Council of ecclesiastical worthies", as most of the members came from outside the college, and many were not otherwise linked to the university. Keble was established by public subscription as a memorial to the clergyman John Keble. The first council members were drawn from the committee whose work had raised the money to build the college. By keeping matters relating to religion and the college's internal affairs in the hands of the council, the founders hoped to maintain Keble's religious position as "a bastion of 'orthodox' Anglican teaching" against the opponents of Tractarianism. In total, 54 men served on the Council, 11 of whom were college alumni; in 1903, Arthur Winnington-Ingram (Bishop of London) became the first former Keble student to join the council. It ceased to exist after 9 April 1952, when new statutes of the college placed full management in the hands of the Warden and Fellows. (Full article...)

Brian Twyne (1581–1644) was an antiquarian and an academic at Oxford. After being educated at Corpus Christi College, and becoming a Fellow of the college in 1606, he published his one main work, a history of the university, in 1608. This was designed to prove that Oxford was older than Cambridge University, and has been described by a modern writer as a "remarkable achievement for a young scholar of twenty-eight." His main accomplishment was to play a leading role in the revision of the university statutes under William Laud (Chancellor of the University of Oxford and Archbishop of Canterbury). He was rewarded by appointment in 1634 to the new position of Keeper of the Archives. In this role, he obtained a new royal charter for Oxford University to confirm its rights and privileges, and helped the university in its disputes with the city authorities. He also moved the archives into the Tower of the Five Orders (pictured) at the Bodleian Library, where they are still kept. (more...)

Green Templeton College is the newest college of the university, having been formed in 2008 from the merger of Green College and Templeton College (the first merger of two colleges in the modern history of Oxford). It is located on Woodstock Road to the north of the city centre, on the former site of Green College, and its buildings include the 18th-century Radcliffe Observatory. The college is for postgraduate studies only, with about 500 students; the Principal is the historian Colin Bundy. Green College, established in 1979 and named after the benefactor Cecil H. Green, had a focus on medicine, education, the environment and social sciences. Templeton College, founded in 1965 as the Oxford Centre for Management Studies and renamed in 1983 as a result of a donation from Sir John Templeton, concentrated on management and business studies. The college's coat of arms combines elements from its two predecessors – the Rod of Aesculapius (medicine) for Green and the Nautilus shell (evolution and renewal) for Templeton. The crest on the coat of arms displays a representation of the transit of Venus across the sun, since the 1769 transit led to the construction of the Observatory. (Full article...)