Rewley House, located on the corner of

Wellington Square Wellington Square may refer to: * A neighbourhood in Burlington, Ontario, Canada * Wellington Square, Chelsea, a garden square in Chelsea, London * A square in Hastings, on the south coast of England * A square in Kolkata, India, renamed Subodh ...

and St John Street in the city of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, is the primary base of

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

's Department for Continuing Education (previously the Department of External Studies).

History

The building known as Rewley House was originally built in 1873 as a convent school, St Anne's Rewley. By 1903, the school had ceased operation, and the building stood dormant until 1927, when it was purchased by the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

as a headquarters for its adult education activities.Lawrence Goldman, ''Dons and Workers, Oxford and Adult Education Since 1850'',

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, Oxford, 1995. Oxford University was one of the founders of the

adult education Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralp ...

movement in the

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in the late 19th century. By the 20th century the University's outreach efforts had grown to such a level as to make a base in Oxford necessary. A report of 1919 recommended "''the establishment of a Centre or House for Extra-Mural Students''". The old St Anne's became Rewley House, and was the ideal base of operations — particularly since the small hotels in Wellington Square had long been used as accommodation by the University's external students coming to Oxford for residential portions of their courses. Rewley House in the 1920s included a library, a common room and lecture halls. Further expansion in the 1960s and 1980s added accommodation and dining facilities for students, in addition to more teaching classrooms and a

lecture theatre A lecture hall (or lecture theatre) is a large room used for instruction, typically at a college or university. Unlike a traditional classroom with a capacity normally between one and fifty, the capacity of lecture halls is usually measured in ...

Kellogg College Kellogg College is a graduate-only constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1990 as Rewley House, Kellogg is the university's 36th college and the largest by number of students. It hosts research centres including ...

, the University's only college dedicated to the needs of part-time adult students, was based in Rewley House until the late 1990s, when it moved to its own grounds nearby on

Banbury Road Banbury Road is a major arterial road in Oxford, England, running from St Giles' Street, Oxford, St Giles' at the south end, north towards Banbury through the leafy suburb of North Oxford and Summertown, Oxford, Summertown, with its local shoppi ...

in Oxford. The name "Rewley" is taken from

Rewley Abbey The Cistercian Abbey of Rewley was an abbey in Oxford, England. It was founded in the 13th century by Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall. Edmund's father, Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, founder of Hailes Abbey, had intended to establish a college or ...

, a 13th-century

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

monastery which stood nearby. The

Oxford University Department for Continuing Education Oxford University Department for Continuing Education (OUDCE) is a department within the University of Oxford that provides continuing education mainly for part-time and mature students. It is located at Rewley House, Wellington Square, and at ...

offers over 700 courses annually to over 15,000 students, making it one of the largest departments at the University, and a leading provider of part-time adult education worldwide.

References

{{Libraries of the University of Oxford School buildings completed in 1873 Buildings and structures in Oxford Buildings and structures of the University of Oxford Kellogg College, Oxford