Green Templeton College (GTC) is a

constituent college A collegiate university is a university in which functions are divided between a central administration and a number of constituent colleges. Historically, the first collegiate university was the University of Paris and its first college was the C ...

of 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 ...

in the United Kingdom. The college is located on the previous Green College site on Woodstock Road next to the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter in

North Oxford North Oxford is a suburban part of the city of Oxford in England. It was owned for many centuries largely by St John's College, Oxford and many of the area's Victorian houses were initially sold on leasehold by the College. Overview The le ...

and is centred on the architecturally important

Radcliffe Observatory Radcliffe Observatory was the astronomical observatory of the University of Oxford from 1773 until 1934, when the Radcliffe Trustees sold it and built a new observatory in Pretoria, South Africa. It is a Grade I listed building. Today, the ...

, an 18th-century building, modelled on the ancient

Tower of the Winds The Tower of the Winds or the Horologion of Andronikos Kyrrhestes is an octagonal Pentelic marble clocktower in the Roman Agora in Athens that functioned as a ''horologion'' or "timepiece". It is considered the world's first meteorological stat ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. It is the university's second newest graduate college, after Reuben College, having been founded by the historic merger of Green College and Templeton College in 2008. The college has a distinctive academic profile, specialising in subjects relating to human welfare and social, economic and environmental well-being, including medical and health sciences, management and business, and most social sciences. Green Templeton's sister college at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

is St Edmund's College.

History

The merger between Green College and Templeton College was the first of its kind in the university's modern history. It was announced formally in July 2007 following its approval by the University Council and the Governing Bodies of both colleges. Green Templeton College has always accepted both female and male students, as did both of its predecessors. Although both Green College and Templeton College were young colleges by Oxford standards, they each had their own individual history and established culture.

Green College

Green College was founded in 1979 to bring together graduate students of medicine and related disciplines, and especially to encourage academic programmes in industry. It was named after its main benefactors: Cecil H. Green, founder of

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...

, and his wife, Ida Green. It was one of three colleges established due to his generosity, the others being

Green College, University of British Columbia Green College is a centre for interdisciplinary scholarship and a community of scholars at the University of British Columbia founded by Cecil Howard Green and Ida Green. The college consists of a residential community of nearly 100 graduate stu ...

, and

The University of Texas at Dallas The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD or UT Dallas) is a public research university in Richardson, Texas. It is one of the largest public universities in the Dallas area and the northernmost institution of the University of Texas system. It wa ...

). Of its student population, around 30% studied in the field of medicine, around 20% were engaged in postgraduate medical research, and other focuses included social work, environmental change and education studies.

Templeton College

Templeton College was founded in 1965 as the Oxford Centre for Management Studies under the chairmanship of Sir Norman Chester, Warden of

Nuffield College, Oxford Nuffield College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college and specialises in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. Nuffield is one of Oxford's newer co ...

Sir John Templeton Sir John Marks Templeton (29 November 1912 – 8 July 2008) was an American-born British investor, banker, fund manager, and philanthropist. In 1954, he entered the mutual fund market and created the Templeton Growth Fund, which averaged gro ...

provided an endowment to the centre in 1983 to raise professional standards in British management. This was one of the largest endowments ever made to a British educational establishment. The centre was later renamed Templeton College in his honour. The college emphasised a commitment to lifelong individual development and aimed to bring together leaders in various fields to explore key issues in management and related policy areas. Its buildings at Egrove Park, in Kennington village near Oxford, were opened in 1969 and granted listed status in 1999. It was granted a

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...

and full college status in 1999.

Coat of arms

Green Templeton College's

armorial bearings A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...

combine elements from the original coats of arms of both Green College and Templeton College, capturing the spirit of the history and character of each. Its

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of a ...

comprises two primary symbols: the

rod of Aesculapius In Greek mythology, the Rod of Asclepius (⚕; grc, Ράβδος του Ασκληπιού, , sometimes also spelled Asklepios), also known as the Staff of Aesculapius and as the asklepian, is a serpent-entwined rod wielded by the Greek god A ...

and the

Nautilus The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in ...

shell. The former was the principal

charge Charge or charged may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * '' Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary Music * ''Charge'' (David Ford album) * ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album) * ''Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...

of Green College's coat of arms. (In Greek mythology, Aesculapius, the son of

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

, was a medical practitioner. The serpent coiled around his staff symbolises the healing arts.) The Nautilus shell was chosen by Sir John Templeton, as symbolising evolution and renewal, and was adopted by Templeton College in 1984. Green Templeton College's

crest Crest or CREST may refer to: Buildings *The Crest (Huntington, New York), a historic house in Suffolk County, New York *"The Crest", an alternate name for 63 Wall Street, in Manhattan, New York *Crest Castle (Château Du Crest), Jussy, Switzerla ...

depicts a heraldic representation of the Sun behind the astronomical device for

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

(♀), acknowledging the historic

transit of Venus frameless, upright=0.5 A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a trans ...

across the Sun in 1761, which astronomical event prompted the foundation of the Radcliffe Observatory. The crest is blazoned: :(''On a Helm with a Wreath Or and Vert'') ''In front of a Sun in splendour the rays voided Or the Astrological Symbol for Venus Vert''.

Buildings and grounds

The Radcliffe Observatory

The college is located on the three-acre (1.2 ha) site on Woodstock Road in North Oxford that previously housed Green College. It is centred on the architecturally important

, an 18th-century, Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, modelled on the ancient

. The observatory was built at the suggestion of

Thomas Hornsby Thomas Hornsby (1733 in Durham – 11 April 1810 in Oxford) was a British astronomer and mathematician. Life Hornsby became a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1760. He occupied the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at Oxford University fr ...

, the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the university, after he had used his room in the Bodleian Tower to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun's disc in 1769. The transit was a notable event which helped to produce greatly improved measurements for nautical navigation. The observatory was built with funds from the

trust Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust law, a body of law under which one person holds property for the benefit of another * Trust (bus ...

of John Radcliffe, whose considerable estate had already financed a new quadrangle for his old college (

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

) as well as the Radcliffe Library (now the

Radcliffe Camera The Radcliffe Camera (colloquially known as the "Rad Cam" or "The Camera"; from Latin , meaning 'room') is a building of the University of Oxford, England, designed by James Gibbs in neo-classical style and built in 1737–49 to house the Radcl ...

) and the

Radcliffe Infirmary The Radcliffe Infirmary was a hospital in central north Oxford, England, located at the southern end of Woodstock Road on the western side, backing onto Walton Street. History The initial proposals to build a hospital in Oxford were put forw ...

. Building began in 1772 to plans by the architect Henry Keene, but only Observer's House is his design. Upon Keene's death in 1776, the observatory was completed to a different design by

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

. Wyatt based his design on an illustration of the Tower of the Winds in Athens that had appeared in Stuart and Revett's Antiquities of Athens, published in 1762. Atop the observatory rests the Tower of Winds. Beneath the tower are three levels, with rooms on each level. The ground floor is today used as the college dining room. The first floor was originally the library, but is now the Graduate Common Room. The third floor is an octagonal observation room, which is now empty except for some of the original furniture. The observatory was a functioning observatory from 1773 until its owners, the Radcliffe Trustees, sold it in 1934 to

Lord Nuffield William Richard Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, (10 October 1877 – 22 August 1963) was an English motor manufacturer and philanthropist. He was the founder of Morris Motors Limited and is remembered as the founder of the Nuffield Foundation, ...

, who then presented it to the Radcliffe Hospital. In 1936, Lord Nuffield established the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research there. In 1979, the Nuffield Institute relocated to the

John Radcliffe Hospital The John Radcliffe Hospital (informally known as the JR) is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, England. It forms part of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is named after John Radcliffe, an 18th-century physici ...

and the observatory was taken over by Green College.

The Norham Gardens site

A short walk from Green Templeton's main buildings is 13 Norham Gardens. In 1905

Sir William Osler Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet, (; July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919) was a Canadian physician and one of the "Big Four" founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created the first residency program for specialty training of phys ...

was appointed to the Regius Professorship of Medicine at Oxford. In 1907, Sir William acquired 13 Norham Gardens, one of the finest houses in Oxford at the time. During the fourteen years of his Regius Professorship, Osler made Norham Gardens a meeting place for academics from all over the world. It became a favourite of medical students, physicians, and scientists, even receiving the label of 'The Open Arms' for the warmth it exuded. After Osler, 13 Norham Gardens was occupied by another Regius Professor,

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

George White Pickering, and after him the Regius Professor Sir Richard Doll, who was the last Regius Professor to live there. The property of 13 Norham Gardens was then acquired by Green College. Today, Norham Gardens houses the Osler-McGovern Centre. The Centre promotes the art and science of medicine through its workshops, conferences, visiting scholars and post-doctoral Fellows. It follows in Sir William Osler's footsteps by uniting scholars, lecturers and academics. It is also home to the

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) is a UK-based research centre and think tank founded in 2006, which operates Thomson Reuters Journalism Fellowship Programme, also known as the Reuters Fellowship. History The institute ...

(RISJ), established in 2006.

Housing

Green Templeton College has housing on the main site and various annexes. On-site housing includes the Doll Building (built in 1981) with 30 student rooms, Walton Building with 3 student rooms, Observer's House with 13 student rooms and New Block with 4 student rooms. Furthermore, the college has various student rooms in the Lord Napier House (Observatory Street), 2- and 3-bedroomed terraced houses in Observatory Street, various student rooms on St Margaret's Road, 1- and 2-bedroom flats in Rewley Abbey Court and 1- and 2-bedroom flats in Norham Gardens.

Facilities

Green Templeton also provides laundry facilities, a lecture theatre (the Abraham Lecture Theatre), a seminar/presentation room (the Barclay Room), and a computing room with 6 Windows computers. There are two 24-hour-access libraries on-campus: a management library (Management Studies Library) and a medical/social science library (Medical Library). The Management Studies Library is adjacent to the Observer's House, and the Medical Library is adjacent to the Radcliffe Observatory. Since August 2014, Green Templeton has an on-site 171 square meter gym with rowing machines, spinning bikes, threadmills and weights located between the main site and Observatory street.

Future developments

In the next phase of development, the area to the north-east of the college is to be developed, allowing for the extension of the college's academic departments and residential accommodation.

Student life

As a graduate college, it has a single common room, known as the Graduate Common Room ("GCR") – equivalent to the Middle Common Room ("MCR") in other colleges – to encourage interaction between students and fellows. Green Templeton offers a wide variety of activities to its students. The various Green Templeton College clubs and societies include the Boat Club, the Book Club, Choir, Golf Society, LGBT Society, Medical Anthropology Society, Richard Doll Society, and Music Society. College events include the annual college Garden Party, the Summer Ball, the Human Welfare Conference, "Welfare and Wine", formals, and themed "bops" (discos or college parties), held throughout the year. Lecture series are routinely held for those interested, including the Green Templeton Lectures and those held by the Reuter's Institute. The college is also active in various sports, especially rowing. It co-owns a boathouse on the

River Isis "The Isis" () is an alternative name for the River Thames, used from its source in the Cotswolds until it is joined by the Thame at Dorchester in Oxfordshire. It derives from the ancient name for the Thames, ''Tamesis'', which in the Midd ...

with a sizeable fleet, and Green Templeton Boat Club has been competing successfully since its establishment in 2008. Other sports at Green Templeton College include badminton, basketball, cricket, croquet, football, golf, netball, rugby, running, squash and tennis. The college also has on-site tennis and squash courts. In addition to this, all students of the college are entitled to free membership at the Iffley Road Sports Centre. The college bar, known as the Stables Bar, is open for drinks in the evenings, and serves as a meeting place during the day. Green Templeton is actively involved in charity work, supporting a local and an overseas charity every year. Both the Graduate Common Room and the College Charity Committee organise numerous events throughout the year, both at Green Templeton College and in Oxford. Green Templeton College's strong ties with the clinical medicine community are fostered through its affiliation with Osler House. Osler House is Oxford University's club for medical students and is open to students and Fellows involved in research in a range of topics related to human health and welfare. The friendly and comfortable ambience of Osler House is focused around a games room which has

pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rocky pool ...

and table football facilities. The college publishes a newsletter every term, called ''In Transit'', as well as an annual Green Templeton College alumni magazine, called ''The GTC Magazine'' (formerly, albeit for Templeton College only, ''Templeton Views''), and the college Graduate Common Room circulates a weekly electronic newsletter.

People associated with Green Templeton College

Principals

Colin Bundy Colin James Bundy (born 4 October 1944) is a South African historian, former principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford and former director of SOAS University of London. Bundy was an influential member of a generation of historians who substantia ...

, First Principal of Green Templeton College * Sir Richard Doll, epidemiologist, first Warden of Green College * Michael Earl, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford * Sir Crispin Tickell, diplomat and environmentalist, third Warden of Green College * Michael von Clemm, American businessman, restaurateur, anthropologist, former President of Templeton College * Lord Walton of Detchant, politician (life peer), second Warden of Green College

Fellows

Kunal Basu ''Kunal Basu'' ('' Bengali:'' কুনাল বসু) is an Indian author of English fiction who has written five novels – ''The Opium Clerk'' (2001), ''The Miniaturist'' (2003), '' Racists'' (2006), ''The Yellow Emperor's Cure'' (2011) '' ...

, Indian-born British fiction author * Dame Valerie Beral, Australian-born British epidemiologist *

Rory Collins Sir Rory Edwards Collins FMedSci FRS (born 3 January 1955) is a British physician who is Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Clinical Trial Service Unit within the University of Oxford, the head of the Nuffield Department of Populati ...

, epidemiologist * E. David Cook, theologian * Sarah Darby, epidemiologist * Sir Vernon Ellis, Barclay Fellow (2002–06) and Chair of the British Council * Peter Friend, surgeon, Professor of Transplantation and Director of the Oxford Transplant Centre * Anna Gloyn, geneticist & endocrinologist (2004-2022) *

Sanjaya Lall Sanjaya Lall (13 December 1940 – 18 June 2005) was a development economist and Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford. Lall's research interests included the impact of foreign direct investment in developing countries, the economic ...

, World Bank economist, Professor of Economics and Fellow of Green College *

John Lennox John Carson Lennox (born 7 November 1943) is a Northern Irish mathematician, bioethicist and Christian apologist. He has written many books on religion, ethics, the relationship between science and faith (like his books, ''Has Science Buried Go ...

, Irish mathematician * Sir Richard Peto, epidemiologist * Stein Ringen, Norwegian sociologist and political scientist * Rosemary Stewart, business theorist * Steve Woolgar, sociologist

Notable alumni

* Ron Emerson, founding Chairman of the

British Business Bank British Business Bank plc (BBB) is a state-owned economic development bank established by the UK Government. Its aim is to increase the supply of credit to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as providing business advice services. It is ...

Derrick Gosselin Derrick-Philippe B. J., Baron Gosselin (1956) is a Belgian engineer and economist. He is chairman of the Belgian Nuclear Sciences Research Center SCK CEN, vice-chairman of Belgonucleaire and vice-chairman of the Royal Higher Institute for Def ...

, Belgian/Flemish engineer and economist *

Nancy Hubbard Nancy Anne Hubbard (born January 9, 1963) is an American author, public relations consultant. She is the dean of the College of Business at University of Lynchburg. Hubbard was previously the director of the Goucher College Center for Education, ...

, American professor of business, former Associate Fellow of Templeton College * Beverly Leon, former midfielder of Sunderland A.F.C. Ladies and CEO of Local Civics * Stephen Robert Morse, journalist and film director/producer * Baron von Pfetten, French Professor, Chairman of the Institute for East West Strategic Studies, former Ambassador and Senator *

Notis Mitarachi Panagiotis A. Mitarachi ( el, Παναγιώτης (Νότης) Μηταράκης), known as Notis Mitarachi, is a Greek politician who served as Minister of Migration and Asylum from 2020 to 2023. He is a member of the Hellenic Parliament fo ...

, EL

Politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

, Minister of Migration & Asylum (2020) of the

Hellenic Republic Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, MP of the

Hellenic Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule (ancient Greece), Boule of the Greeks, Hellenes, label=none), also kno ...

, ex President of the

Council of the European Union The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as ...

(

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...

- Trade) during the Hellenic Presidency, ex Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Competitiveness.

Gallery

Top of Radcliffe Observatory, Green Templeton College, Oxford.JPG, Top of Radcliffe Observatory, Green Templeton College, Oxford. Observer's House GTC Oxford 01.JPG, Observers House, Green Templeton College, Oxford. Gardens GTC Oxford 01.JPG, A view of the gardens, Green Templeton College, Oxford. Lankester Quad GTC Oxford 02.JPG, Lankester Quad, Green Templeton College, Oxford. Green_Templeton_College_in_Snow_2009.JPG, Green Templeton College in the snow, Oxford.

References

External links

Green Templeton College website

Green Templeton Boat Club Website
{{Authority control Colleges of the University of Oxford Educational institutions established in 2008 2008 establishments in England Buildings and structures of the University of Oxford Buildings and structures in Oxford Postgraduate schools in the United Kingdom