[paneity]

I visited Oxford recently and was just wondering about All Souls college? I mean, it seems pretty large, and certainly a lot bigger than many other colleges, yet according to wikipedia it has about 6 grad students only.

It just seems a bit like a massive waste of space, what is it used for, does it have a lot of fellows? How is it funded, I can't imagine it has a massive endowment when its alumni number in the dozens.

It just completely confuses me....

[Teebs]

Almost all of your questions can be answered by a skim reading of the college's website and its wikipedia page.

Grad students are not its only members.

The point of the college is to provide top academics with a very free research environment to pursue whatever they want.

As wikipedia clearly says, it has one of the largest endowments in Oxford. Endowments have little to do with alumni and I can assure you it has more than a few dozen of them.

[generalebriety]

I think one thing that needs remembering is that fellows are students too, just in a very different way. The university certainly isn't there for undergraduates; they're a necessary source of income and new researchers, but ultimately they're not the main point of the university, the main point is research.

[Huw Davies]

Originally Posted by generalebriety

the main point is research.

= big dinners, surely?