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Who We Are

The primary organizers of the symposium have attachments to Oxford and Cambridge Universities. However, the symposium is freestanding and governed by its own Advisory Council. The idea of the conference is to have a smaller group of educators from several disciplines, meeting in a congenial environment, to discuss important issues in the realm of public education. 

The facilitators of our conferences have included numerous influential people from around the world in various diverse backgrounds.

Since 1989, we have had numerous dedicated facilitators that have contributed their expertise to ensure the success of each session

The University of Oxford and Our Relation to It

The University of Oxford is a confederation of thirty-eight (38) colleges. The colleges themselves are not degree-granting or programmatic units of the University. The University is an academic umbrella over all the colleges. The colleges have fellows, readers, and other academics, who make up the faculties of the academic disciplines of the umbrella University.  

The 38 colleges in the University of Oxford are all independent corporations, the first established in the year of 1204. A major aspect of the fiscal affairs of the 38 colleges in the University of Oxford is the “Development” function. An important component of the revenues of each college is derived from conferences that are held between academic terms during vacation periods. 

To assist the colleges in raising revenues, the University of Oxford several years ago created Conference Oxford to coordinate conferences, symposia, and colloquia. Conference Oxford is, thus, a component of the administration of the University of Oxford. You are invited to attend one of these entities at a venue recommended by Conference Oxford.  

The Symposium is, thus, not an academic programme conducted by the umbrella University. The Symposium has published several books and journals, online and in hard copy, compiled from externally reviewed, approved, and edited papers presented at the meetings.

The colleges, themselves, in their private corporate capacity, traditionally host an array of academic conferences assisted by Conference Oxford.  The Symposia is one such conference. As an independent educational and not-for-profit organization, Oxford Symposia is not under the control of the hosting Oxford colleges. Rather, Oxford Symposia is free-standing, apolitical and non-denominational. Papers presented at Oxford Symposia are evaluated solely on their academic merit, and publications emanating therefrom are approved only after peer review by external evaluators.

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