This article for the Foundation Newsletter has turned out to be far harder to write than I initially thought. The reason is so very much that has happened since graduating from Humboldt High in 1982; I'm just not sure what to write about! But probably the most unusual thing that has occurred, and one that I would have never believed possible, is becoming a professor of Physics at Oxford University in England. So I think I'll explain a bit about this very unique place and they way students are taught here.

You can ask anyone on the street in Oxford "Where is the University?". If you happened to have asked an American Tourist by accident (of which there are many...in the summer it is difficult to find an English accent in downtown Oxford) they will say "I don't know, I was going to ask you!". But if you manage to find a native they will just look at you blankly as if you had just asked them a question in an obscure Mongolian dialect.

The reason is that there is NO campus. The only building that you can point to and say 'Here is a University building' is...you guessed it, the Administration building. But that building isn't really anywhere near where the business of the University takes place.

An American University is typically made up of 'colleges' that are related to subjects. So at the University of Nebraska you've got the College of Arts and Sciences or the College of Journalism. Oxford is also centered around colleges, but these are actual, walled-in communities of their own within the city. This is where the students live and do most of their learning. In some cases (though not in the science subjects) a student could spend their entire time at the University inside their college and never leave.

The colleges teach all subjects, from English and History to Medicine to Physics. They are often named after various Saints or benefactors. My college is Lady Margaret Hall. This college was named after Lady Margaret Beaufort...who had nothing to do with the college directly because she lived in the 1500's and my college didn't exist before 1879. To name a couple of the others, there is for example St. John's College which was established in 1540 by an alderman of London. And there is The Queen's College which which was established by a chaplain in the household of Queen Phillippa in 1341, a bit before the birth of the current monarch. There are 39 of these colleges in Oxford and all the students are housed, fed, and taught in them. They are sometimes open for viewing by the public, but in general you have to be invited in by one of the residents.

The oldest of these colleges is under debate, but University college and Merton college were well established by 1290. New College came around rather late in the game, it being established in 1310, so it got its name because it was the 'New' college.

Teaching at Oxford is unlike anything that exists in the United States because it centers around the tutorial. I see every student every week for one hour, at least. Usually I see them in groups of two or three. This is where we go over the homework that I've given them and where the physics teaching takes place. Students often ask for, and receive, additional tutorials if they want, and sometimes we will take them individually if they are either particularly advanced or having problems. The students also have large lectures more like the way they do it in America. The only other institution in the UK that teaches students in this way is Cambridge University.

The very small group teaching is a very fast way to learn a subject. There are three 8-week terms in the academic year and it only takes 3 years to get an undergraduate degree. I have become a strong advocate of this method of teaching for many reasons, but one of the best is that it does not allow ANY student to vanish into the crowd. Since I have to meet with them every week in pairs, I know precisely what each student does and does not seem to grasp from the course. So I don't have to waste time going over anything that they already know.

For my own benefit it has increased my basic physics knowlege substantially. I have to teach Calculus and Vector Calculus, Optics, Electromagnetism, Electronics, Quantum Mechanics, and Particle Physics. Sometimes I get to teach Special Relativity too if I've been particularly good.....and no, I didn't really understand all of that before I started teaching it....and no, I don't think I really understand any of it now either. But I do now understand that I actually understand far less than I thought I understood when I started.

However, there are downsides to this type of teaching. Though the students learn a great deal quickly, it is an expensive way to teach them. At Oxford the student to teacher ratio is between 2 to 1 and 3 to 1. This cost is so high that the UK periodically considers eliminating the tutorial system completely.

Another downside is that tutorial teaching requires a lot of work on the part of the teacher. The main reason that my colleagues and I managed to land jobs at a place like Oxford is because of the research that we do. In my particular case that research takes place at a machine which collides subatomic particles at the highest energy ever achieved by mankind. But during term it is nearly impossible to take part in that research because of the demands of the tutorial system. In general, we not only have the standard load of lectures that an American professor would have, but we have to prepare materials for the tutorials as well. However, because the students work so hard and are generally very interested in the subject, I consider this burden well worth it.

The students do not have exams throughout the year. They get one set of exams at the end of each year which cover the material for the whole year. The exams are several 2-1/2 hour long tests for about one whole week. They make finals week in an American University look like a frolic in the park. I do not make up the exams and I am not even allowed near the exam questions...so I'm as much in the dark about what will appear on this year's exam as my students. I am very thankful that I do not have to take these exams; you should be too.

I've only managed to scratch the surface really, and I have probably already exceeded the length limit for this article. But for those who have Internet access you can take a look at my web site:
http://www-pnp.physics.ox.ac.uk/~huffman/
The top of the web site is mostly information for the students on lectures I give. But if you scroll down to the bottom of the screen you will find several stories that explain what it's like to live and work in England.

The last thing I would like to do is collectively thank all of the teachers that I had at Humboldt. The teachers that I had were first-rate, both in their subjects and in their dedication to learning. I am very grateful for the effort they put in to my education, expressing the value of their hard work far exceeds my literary talent.