80 Years of City Partnership between Leiden and Oxford (1946)

In 2026, the city twinning between Leiden and Oxford will celebrate its 80th anniversary. Since 1946, the Leiden-Oxford Committee has organized cultural and sporting exchanges between the cities of Leiden and Oxford. This committee strengthens the city twinning – one of the oldest in the world – through direct contact between associations and residents, with annual exchanges around commemorative days. Have you ever been to Oxford? What do you know about the university city of Oxford? What do you know about Oxford's attractions?

Leiden-Oxford Link

Since 1946, the Leiden-Oxford Committee has been organizing various sports exchanges with great enthusiasm. In the post-war years, these sports exchanges offered the exceptional opportunity to spend some time abroad. The setup of the exchanges has not changed over the years: from organization to organization, from club to club, from person to person. And even though going abroad has become more commonplace these days, this formula still proves to be very valuable.

Therefore, the exchanges are no longer limited to athletes only; but range from beekeepers to music, from businesses to stamp collectorsAnything is possible. Dozens of friendships and even marriages have resulted from the exchanges.

The Leiden-Oxford Committee aims to build and organize cultural exchange between the two cities. The Municipality of Leiden also assists in the development of the city partnership; regular contacts are established between the local authorities of both cities, and officials are encouraged to exchange their knowledge and experiences.

Key aspects of the Leiden-Oxford city partnership:

Goal: To promote international friendship, knowledge exchange, and culture.
Activities: Organization of exchanges for sports clubs, choirs, and cultural groups, often with a focus on commemorations (May celebration in Leiden, Remembrance Day in Oxford).
History: Founded in 1946 in the aftermath of the Second World War to strengthen ties between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Anniversary: In 2026, the city partnership celebrates its 80th anniversary with special concerts.

The collaboration is supported by the municipalities of Leiden and Oxford and has grown into a close bond between the two university cities.

Oxford

Oxford is a university city and a district with the official title of city, in the English shire county of Oxfordshire, with approximately 165.000 inhabitants (mid-2023). Unlike its rival, Cambridge, Oxford is a city with significant industry, particularly car production in the suburb of Cowley. The city is home to the University of Oxford and the newer Oxford Brookes University.

Oxford is often called the 'city of dreamy spirescalled ', a term coined by Matthew Arnold for the harmonious architecture of the university buildings.

The name Oxford means the same as Coevorden, Ochsenfurt, and Bosporus: a ford (“ford”), a place where farmers cross their oxen ('oxen') could let cross.

Engeland (2020): Lunar New Year – Year of the Ox.

Highlights of Oxford:

Distance from Leiden 400 km
Located 60 km west of London in a beautiful cultural landscape: the Cotswolds

University founded in 1096, consists of 39 'Colleges'
Employment automotive industry (Morris factory since 1912), tourism, university
Famous resident Winston Churchill was born in 1874 at Blenheim Palace, 13 km away

England (2024): 150 years of Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university in the English city of Oxford and, along with Cambridge, is one of the two most famous and oldest universities in the United Kingdom. The two universities together are referred to as Oxbridge. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021 ranked the University of Oxford as the best university in the world for the fifth consecutive year. The university, founded in the 11th century, is the oldest in the world after the University of Bologna and has an impressive list of alumni.

The Queen's College is one of 39 colleges of the University of Oxford. A college is an independent part of some British universities, such as the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and Durham University. The Queen's College was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield (c. 1295–1349), chaplain to Queen Philippa of Hainaut, the wife of King Edward III of England. Hence the name of this college.

The Queen's College Oxford. Photo: Odicalmuse / Wikipedia

The neoclassical buildings were designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor. The latter worked on the street facade with the imposing gateway at the end of his life, from 1733 to 1736.

Famous alumni include the British theologian John Wycliffe (c. 1320-1384), the philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), the founder of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee (1955), the actor Rowan Atkinson (1956) and the former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott (1957) The admission requirements for a top university like Oxford are very strict; only the best are accepted from many candidates. This is reflected in the quality of education and research and in Oxford's consistent ranking within the top 5 best universities in the world. There have been 72 Nobel Prize winners, 12 winners (20%) of the Booker Prize, 6 winners of the A.M. Turing Award and 4 winners of the Fields Medal studied or worked at the university.

In addition, 31 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and more than 50 other presidents and prime ministers have studied here. Furthermore, countless world-famous scientists, academics, authors, philosophers, entrepreneurs, clergy, judges, artists, athletes, and actors have gone on to study at Oxford. Many members of the nobility and royal families also studied at Oxford. The majority of top British civil servants, diplomats, ministers, and secretaries of state still come from Oxford. For instance, there are approximately 100 'Oxonians' in the House of Commons and more than 140 in the House of Lords. Additionally, Oxford alumni have won a total of 160 Olympic medals.

The university houses, among other things, the largest university publishing house in the world (where the Oxford English Dictionary is published), the oldest university museum in the world, the oldest botanical garden in the United Kingdom, and the Rhodes Scholarship, a prestigious international study grant. The academic library system, the largest in the country with more than 100 libraries, includes the Bodleian Library, one of the oldest libraries in the world and the second largest in the United Kingdom.

Stamps of the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge

From 1871 to 1886, certain colleges in Oxford and Cambridge issued their own stamps, which were sold to college members so that they could pay in advance for the cost of a college messenger for the delivery of their mail. This practice was discontinued by the General Post Office in 1886, as it was believed to be in violation of their monopoly.