University facilities

Staff can enjoy a range of benefits including free or discounted visitor access to the University’s colleges, gardens, libraries and museums, and events

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There are 45 colleges, with beautiful gardens and grounds, along with award winning architecture. University employees may visit them free on production of their university card. Contact the individual colleges directly about details of visiting times.

Encaenia is the annual degree ceremony for the conferment of honorary degrees by the University. Some (free) tickets are available to university employees, subject to availability.

Further information

Contact: University Card Office, Telephone: (01865) (2) 70576 (for ticket enquiries)

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University employees can attend some university and college lectures on a wide range of subjects, when space permits. Details on these lectures can be found in the Gazette, the Blueprint publication and the Oxford Magazine, and on the web.

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University employees can use their University Cards for access to the Bodleian Library and the other libraries in Oxford University Library Services.

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The University has various restaurants that are available to staff, for example, in the University Offices and University Club. These restaurants offer competitively priced meals, including vegetarian options, and are open over the lunchtime period and for morning coffee and afternoon tea.

Most hospital sites offer cafeteria facilities, which may be used by University staff employed in clinical departments. Facilities vary between hospital trust sites. Further details regarding locations and hours of operation are available from your Departmental Administrator.

Further information 

Contact: The Cafe (01865) (2) 70198, or The Club (01865) (2) 71044.

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The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in Britain. The garden contains botanical family beds, a range of glasshouses, including a Tropical Lily House, Palm House and Arid House as well as herbaceous borders, a newly restored bog garden and a rock garden. University employees are able to visit this oasis of tranquillity, free of charge, on production of a University staff card. People with a particular interest in gardening may like to join the Friends of the Botanic Garden, and receive benefits such as guided tours, workshops and newsletters.

Further information

Tel: (01865) (2) 86690

Email: postmaster@obg.ox.ac.uk

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The eighty-acre Harcourt Arboretum at Nuneham Courtenay contains one of the finest collections of mature trees in the country. It is open daily between April and November and on weekdays from December to March. University employees can visit the Arboretum, free of charge, on production of a University staff card.

Further information

Tel: (01865) (2) 86690

Email: postmaster@obg.ox.ac.uk

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Wytham Woods covers 415 ha and consists of a mixture of woodland and grasslands with over 30 km of rides. The woods are open from 10.00 am to dusk from Monday to Friday and from dawn to dusk at weekends throughout the year, and only close when essential management is being undertaken.

Further information 

Permits are available from the Wytham Woods website.

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The four University museums house some of the world's most significant collections and are home to over 8.5 million objects and specimens representing the natural world, global art and artefacts:

  • The Ashmolean is the first public museum in Britain and its collections include the most important group of Raphael drawings in the world.
  • The History of Science Museum - housed in the world’s oldest surviving purpose-built museum building - contains the world’s finest collection of historic scientific instruments.
  • The Museum of Natural History holds the University’s internationally significant collections of 7 million geological and zoological specimens, including the fossil bones of the first dinosaur ever to be described scientifically.
  • The Pitt Rivers Museum houses one of the world’s finest collections of anthropology and archaeology, with objects from every continent and from throughout human history.