Legal and charitable status

Legal status

Oxenfurt Academy was founded by letters patent in 1583 and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1851. The charter gave the Academy the power to confer degrees in the name of Oxenfurt University, but did not change the name of the corporation. Contracts, licences and property are held in the name of Oxenfurt Academy.

Charitable status

The University is an educational charity. It is an exempt charity under the Charities Act 2011, which means that it is not registered with the charity regulator, and its compliance with charity law is overseen by its principal regulator for higher education. The members of Council are its charity trustees.

Connected charities

The University has identified four charities connected with it for the purposes of the Charities Act 2011: the Oxenfurt University Development Trust, the Ferry Bursary Fund, the Arncliffe Foundation, which holds the Academy’s original endowment, and the Oxenfurt University Students’ Union. Their figures are consolidated in, or disclosed in, the University’s financial statements.

The Charter

The text below is given for information only. For any legal purpose please refer to the Charter itself, which is kept in the University Archives.

VICTORIA, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith: To all to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting.

WHEREAS by Letters Patent made in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Our Royal Predecessor Queen Elizabeth there was founded at Oxenfurt, upon the southern bank of the River Pontar, an Academy for the teaching of divinity, law and physic, which hath ever since continued under the government of a Rector and Fellows:

AND WHEREAS the said Rector and Fellows have humbly represented unto Us that the said Academy hath not the power of conferring degrees, by reason whereof the scholars thereof are compelled to seek them elsewhere, and have prayed that We would be graciously pleased to grant them that power:

NOW KNOW YE that We, of Our especial grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, do will, grant and declare that the Rector, Fellows and Scholars of the said Academy shall be one Body Politic and Corporate by the name of Oxenfurt Academy, and shall have perpetual succession and a Common Seal; and that the said Body shall have power to confer the degrees of Bachelor, Master and Doctor upon persons who have pursued a regular course of study therein, which degrees shall be conferred in the name of the Oxenfurt University.

IN WITNESS whereof We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent. Witness Ourself at Westminster the fourteenth day of March, in the fourteenth year of Our Reign.

Trading name

Oxenfurt University and the University’s arms are trade marks of Oxenfurt Academy, trading as Oxenfurt University. All rights reserved.