I often feel I spend an inordinate amount of time strategizing how I can see as much of Europe as possible while abroad. However, as I was recently reminded, with this mindset it is sometimes easy to forget how many great places are only a short train or bus ride away from London.
So, after many failed attempts to visit since coming abroad in September, I left the hustle and bustle of London and spent a Saturday in the quaint, scholarly and beautiful town of Oxford.
A friend and I took a train from Paddington Station in London and an hour later arrived in Oxford. The train ride proved to be a lovely way to get a glimpse of the surrounding countryside as well as get an idea of what some of the London suburbs look like.
Despite the steady rain (I mean, I was still in the UK after all) I was immediately taken by how picturesque Oxford was. Oxford is the oldest city in England, established in the 12th century, and most known for its world-famous academic institution, University of Oxford.
University of Oxford is unique in that it is made up of 40 colleges and associated buildings instead of just one main university. Each college has its own character, reputation and academic concentrations. One of the most famous is Christ Church, which even has a small scale cathedral, an art gallery and, perhaps most importantly, was the setting for many scenes in the Harry Potter movies.
Beyond the grandeur of the physical landscape of Oxford, what is especially notable is their tutorial system. The idea of the tutorial system is unique in the sense that undergraduate students meet frequently with their assigned tutor throughout the week, in either a one-to-one setting, or with a few other students.
This teaching style is strikingly different than the one in the London School of Economics, which takes the exact opposite approach. For each of my classes at the LSE I have one lecture, with a class size ranging anywhere from 40 to 400 students. Though I do have a weekly small group discussion class, these classes average around 12 students so certainly not the one-on-one setting like at Oxford.
Also, while Oxford focuses assessment around weekly essays, the LSE has few regular assessment and instead one final exam for each of four classes at the end of the year.
Visiting Oxford prompted me to reflect about aspects of the LSE I really appreciated and those I wished could be more similar to Oxford. Immediately Oxford’s greenery was appealing coming from the LSE “campus” which consists of many buildings, offices and pubs jammed into four blocks in central London. While I do love the city atmosphere of LSE, Oxford’s abundant parks, ponds and blooming gardens were appealing.
As compared to the sole LSE library where a strategized approach is necessary to secure a “good” study spot and students deliberately hide books so they won’t be checked out by others, Oxford has smaller, quiet libraries at each of its colleges. Everyone has plenty of room and even leaves their belongings overnight. In the LSE library I usually spend 10 minutes contemplating how trustworthy the person next to me looks or how badly I actually need to leave before going to the bathroom.
Though I had a few moments where I thought I might have picked the wrong school, despite how impressive Oxford was, my visit made me even more confident that I had made the right decision in attending the LSE for the year.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
