Exeter College, Oxford

Another sunny day here in Oxfordshire :-) Long may it last.

This is one of the entrances to one of the Oxford Colleges that make up the University as a whole, in this case - Exeter College on Turl Street.

The Oxford system is a bit different to most other Universities ( Cambridge, and strictly speaking London, being the other exceptions )  in-so-much as it is a single University made up of a "federation" of Colleges, each of which has a very significant degree of autonomy. This is something that I understand makes for an interesting environment if you happen to be involved in IT systems that are University wide ...

The oldest, University College, has been in Oxford since 1249. The University as a whole though has been here since 1096, making it the second oldest University in the world. ( Beaten by Bologna in Italy by 8 years ;-) ) The consolidated wealth of the Colleges is estimates at £4.75 billion ( nearly US$6.5 billion at today's exchange rate ) and it is said that you can walk from Trinity College in Oxford, to its sister Trinity College in Cambridge without leaving land owned by the University ...*

If you are ever in Oxford, you will discover that student academic ability and the ability to cross roads safely are sadly not linked in any way what-so-ever... [ not generally that the tourists are much better - partially hampered as they are by the fact that we drive on the correct side of the road, and they keep looking the wrong way :-P ]**

To tie in - ever so badly - with today's Mono Monday theme of "impromptu" in the musical sense, I would point to the organ recitals that you can attend at the College ( and indeed, many colleges ), which are far from "impromptu" and are, in fact, very well planned ...

*sadly apparently not true but I think you could get damn close !
** Ok, so "correct" is open to debate ... but just look both ways please...