Doxbridge is a portmanteau of Durham, Oxford, and Cambridge, referring to the universities of those cities. It is an expansion of the more popular portmanteau Oxbridge, referring to Oxford and Cambridge universities and similar to the portmanteau Loxbridge, referring to London, Oxford and Cambridge. The term describes the similarities that the University of Durham shares with those of Oxford and Cambridge. The Doxbridge portmanteau has failed to gain widespread recognition, and is usually used tongue-in-cheek to jokingly highlight the characteristics Durham shares with Oxbridge. Nonetheless, many of the characteristics used to identify Oxford and Cambridge as distinct from other British universities are also identifiable to varying extents in Durham, and the term has been used seriously in analysis of the legal jobs market.
Origin and use of the term
Durham University was founded in 1832, ending a period of over 600 years in which Oxford and Cambridge were England's only recognised universities. It was intended to serve as a northern complement to them, offering "that system of domestic discipline and instruction which has been found to be so efficacious in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge". The early university followed a model similar to the two older universities in its links to the Anglican church, in its collegiate structure and in its BA course. Examiners were brought in from Oxford University to help with setting and marking exams and to ensure that comparable standards were maintained – the origin of the external examiner system which is now standard across all UK universities. However, it broke from Oxbridge in having professorial teaching by university professors rather than tutorials given by college tutors, in pioneering the university teaching of theology and of engineering, and in the use of university matriculation examinations. Durham was rebuffed in its attempts in the first couple of decades of its existence to have its degrees recognised in the mutual ad eundem system which existed between Oxford, Cambridge and Trinity College Dublin, whereby holders of a degree in one institution could be admitted to the same degree in the others. The three institutions share, or are claimed to share, various characteristics used to justify the addition of Durham to Oxbridge to form Doxbridge: , now the Durham Quadrangle of Trinity College|thumb
They are the three oldest universities in England. – Durham University was founded in 1832, following two earlier attempts under Henry VIII in 1541 and Oliver Cromwell in 1657, and three Oxford colleges were founded from Durham: University College, Balliol College and Durham College. The last of these was run directly from Durham Cathedral and was suppressed at the reformation, its revenues being passed to the cathedral, leading to claims that Durham University was the legitimate successor to the college.
All three are collegiate universities, where the collegiate system is a key aspect of the university experience. – Ted Tapper and David Palfreyman of the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies write that "Oxford and Cambridge continue to be the two English universities that offer the best examples of the collegiate model of the university but there is some substance in Durham's claim that it also belongs to that club".
All three are academically excellent, with a "proud and distinguished history of high achieving and high performing". – In the 2020 Complete University Guide subject rankings, Durham, Oxford, and Cambridge collectively represent three of the four universities to have over 90 per cent of their subjects ranked in the top 10 in this ranking.
All three have distinguished alumni, including being the only English universities with graduates on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
They are the three most represented universities in trainee cohorts for the "Magic Circle" and other large law firms.
All three have high fractions of their student body drawn from private schools.
Against this it has been argued that:
Durham has its own identity and is different in character to Oxbridge.
Durham is not as academically intense as Oxbridge, leaving time for clubs and societies and other non-academic activities.
The Doxbridge Tournament is the name of an unofficial inter-collegiate sports competition, held annually in Dublin. This was founded in 1998 and was originally contested by colleges from Oxford, Cambridge and Durham, later expanding to include colleges of the University of York. The Doxbridge Cup is a golf tournament held between teams from Oxford, Cambridge and Durham since 2008 as a prelude to the Varsity Match.
