History
Oxford Brookes has roots in Oxford that go back to 1865, when it started as the Oxford School of Art. The Oxford School of Art was located in a single room on the ground floor of the Taylor Institution, St. Giles. In 1870 the School of Science was incorporated into the School of Art. In 1891, under the administration of the City Council's Technical Instruction Committee, it was renamed the Oxford City Technical School, incorporating the School of Art, and plans were made to relocate to the former Blue Coat School for Boys on St. Ebbes. In 1934 the School of Art and the Technical School were merged, and John Henry Brookes, Head of the School of Art and Vice Principal of the Technical School, was appointed the first principal of the merged institution. By 1950 the college had 4000 students. A new site was offered by the local Morrell brewing family and a new campus built. Renamed "Oxford College of Technology", it opened on the new site in 1956. Its first residence hall was established in 1960 and the college relocated to Headington in 1963. In 1970, it became Oxford Polytechnic, and in 1992, following enactment of the Further and Higher Education Act it became Oxford Brookes University. In so doing it became the only one of the new universities to be named after its founder. In October 2003 Oxford Brookes university became the first university in the world to be awarded Fairtrade status.
Also in 2007 Professor Graham Upton retired as Vice-Chancellor and his successor, Professor Janet Beer, was inaugurated in September. In July 2008 Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty replaced Jon Snow as Chancellor of the university.
Although not a part of Oxford University, it is among the eight external institutions whose members are eligible for long-term temporary membership in the Oxford Union. Eligibility for Oxford Union membership pre-dates the establishment of the university, with a number of Oxford Polytechnic students becoming members in the mid-1980s.
Oxford Brookes is the sixth largest employer in Oxfordshire, providing over 2,800 jobs across the university.
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“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“There is a history in all men’s lives,
Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)