Linacre College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, currently offering graduate entry only. It is located on St Cross Road at the corner of St Cross Road and South Parks Road, next to the University Parks and opposite the Tinbergen Building, which is shared by the Departments of Zoology and Experimental Psychology.
The college is named after Thomas Linacre (1460–1524), a distinguished Oxford humanist. Linacre was also a medical scientist and a classicist. His ideals were multi-disciplinary, and the college aims to reflect this multi-disciplinary approach.
It currently has about 400 graduate students studying a broad range of subjects. The college was the first of Oxford's colleges to admit female and male students on an equal basis. It is proud of its international students. Over fifty countries are represented in the college's membership.
Linacre College was founded in 1962. It was originally situated on St Aldate's, in what is now the Music Department of the university. In 1977, the college moved to its present site at Cherwell edge, which was formerly a private house, a convent, and a property occupied by students from St Anne's College.
In addition to the Main Building (OC Tanner building), there are three accommodation buildings on the main site that house students. The Bamborough, Abraham and Griffiths Buildings were completed in 1986, 1995 and 2008 respectively; raising the total number of student rooms to 91 on the main college site. Linacre also owns and operates a number of buildings off the main site, including properties on Banbury Road, Bradmore Road, Divinity Road, Iffley Road, and Walton Street, which provide a further 79 rooms (including rooms for couples). The college generally offers accommodation to all first-year students (freshers) and the percentage of graduate students housed within college accommodation exceeds the university average. Students typically move into private shared housing in and around Oxford after their first year.
Linacre has a substantial social calendar with numerous social events throughout term time. Particular highlights include the termly bop, which is among – if not the – biggest bop in Oxford. Operating across two floors, the bops are themed parties open to members of other colleges and regularly attract well in excess of 500 people. The biggest bop of the year is usually the matriculation bop (“sexy sub-fusc” theme) and regularly fills capacity.
Other social events include smaller college parties, movie nights, cake baking, cheese and wine tasting and lectures. Like all colleges, Linacre has many active sports teams and its members also represent the university in various sports - recently, many of the 'Blues' Rugby players have studied at Linacre.