Positions within Oxford – whether fellowships in the colleges or professorships within the University – also required similar forms of assent. The Universities Tests Act was intended to ensure that ‘the benefits’ of university education ‘should be rendered freely accessible to the nation’. The Act was vital in opening Oxford to people of all religions and none, vastly widening the breadth of diverse ethnicities, races, and nationalities attending. That today, the Oxford Chancellor, Lord Patten, and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, are both Roman Catholic would have been unthinkable a century ago. The University will be marking the 150th anniversary of the Tests Act through the coming year, and more information will be made available on the Opening Oxford website.
