University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a famous university in Cambridge, England. It was founded in 1209, which makes it the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. Along with Oxford, it is often called part of Oxbridge.

Cambridge is made of 31 semi-independent colleges and more than 150 departments. Its alumni include Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking and Alan Turing, and people linked to it have won 126 Nobel Prizes. On the globe you see King's College Chapel, a landmark of the city. Its colleges run themselves, and teaching centres on weekly small-group sessions called supervisions, where students talk through ideas with an expert.

How did it begin?

Cambridge began when scholars left the University of Oxford after a quarrel with local townspeople and settled in Cambridge. In 1231 King Henry III gave the university a royal charter.

Cambridge University Press and Assessment, a department of the university, contains the oldest university press in the world. The university also runs eight museums, including the Fitzwilliam Museum, and 116 libraries.

King's College Chapel

King's College Chapel is one of the finest examples of Perpendicular Gothic building and has the world's largest fan vault, a ceiling of stone ribs that spread like the bones of a fan.

It was built in stages by several kings of England between 1448 and 1515, and its large stained-glass windows were finished by 1531. It is still a working chapel and home to the King's College Choir.

On the globe

The model shows King's College Chapel, famous for the world's largest fan vault. Look for the long chapel shape and its tall windows.