Green Templeton College, Oxford
Green Templeton College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. The college is located on the former Green College site on Woodstock Road next to the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter in North Oxford and is centred on the architecturally important Radcliffe Observatory, an 18th-century building, modelled on the ancient Tower of the Winds in Athens. The Radcliffe Observatory, completed in 1773, was among the earliest purpose-built observatories in Britain and remains a prominent example of Georgian scientific architecture. It is the university's second newest graduate college, after Reuben College, having been founded by the historic merger of Green College and Templeton College in 2008.
The college has a distinctive academic profile, specialising in subjects relating to human welfare and social, economic, and environmental well-being, including medical and health sciences, management and business, and most social sciences. The college is a registered charity. As of 31 July 2024, the College reported total assets of about £103.5 million and total funds of £101.8 million, including an endowment of approximately £1.39 million.
Green Templeton's sister college at the University of Cambridge is St Edmund's College.
History
Green Templeton College was established in 2008 through the merger of Green College and Templeton College, creating Oxford’s newest graduate college.The merger between Green College and Templeton College was the first of its kind in the university's modern history. It was announced formally in July 2007 following its approval by the University Council and the Governing Bodies of both colleges. Green Templeton College has always accepted both female and male students, as did both of its predecessors.
Although both Green College and Templeton College were founded in the late twentieth century, they represented different academic traditions within the university: Green College specialised in medicine and the social sciences, while Templeton College focused on management and business leadership.
Green College
Green College was founded in 1979 to bring together graduate students of medicine and related disciplines, and especially to encourage academic programmes in industry. It was named after its main benefactors: Cecil H. Green, founder of Texas Instruments, and his wife, Ida Green. It was one of three colleges established through Green’s financial contributions, the others being Green College, University of British Columbia and The University of Texas at Dallas.Of its student population, around 30 % studied in the field of medicine, around 20 % were engaged in postgraduate medical research, and other focuses included social work, environmental change and education studies. Sir Richard Doll, the first Warden of Green College, was one of the most influential medical researchers of the twentieth century. His pioneering epidemiological studies established the causal link between smoking and lung cancer in 1950, a discovery that transformed public health policy. Reflecting this legacy, Green Templeton College maintains a smoke-free policy across its main site and all annexes.
A proposal to establish the college was first submitted to the University Council in 1975 by the Board of the Faculty of Clinical Medicine. After approval in 1977, the University allocated the Radcliffe Observatory and its surrounding buildings for the new graduate college’s use. Restoration and construction work were funded through the benefaction of Cecil and Ida Green, and the college opened formally on 1 September 1979.
Green College was designed to foster collaboration between medicine, the social sciences, and industry, bringing together graduates working on issues related to human health and well-being. Its early facilities included the restored Radcliffe Observatory, which housed the dining and common rooms, the E. P. Abraham Lecture Room, and residential accommodation surrounding the Lankester and McAlpine quadrangles.
In the same year, the college purchased William Osler House in the grounds of the John Radcliffe Hospital for use by the Osler House Club, the social and sporting organisation for clinical medical students. An extension opened in early 1986, and Green College students automatically became members, participating in Osler House’s wide range of sporting and social activities, including rugby, cricket, hockey, rowing and badminton.
Templeton College
Templeton College was founded in 1965 as the Oxford Centre for Management Studies under the chairmanship of Sir Norman Chester, Warden of Nuffield College, supported by Brasenose Bursar Norman Leyland and an initial benefaction from Clifford Barclay.
In 1983, Sir John Templeton made a major endowment to the Centre—one of the largest gifts to a British educational institution at the time—and it was renamed Templeton College in his honour. The College began admitting its own graduate students in 1984 and was granted a Royal Charter in 1995, becoming a full graduate college of the University.
The College’s main site, Egrove Park in Kennington village near Oxford, was opened in 1969. Designed by architect Richard Burton of Ahrends Burton and Koralek, the Grade II-listed modernist building combined openness and symmetry with a traditional quadrangle layout. Its 37-acre grounds were landscaped by arboriculturalist Alan Mitchell and include the William Polk Carey Meadows, a designated District Wildlife Site, and the Richard Marshall Woodland Walk, commemorating a Templeton Associate Fellow.
Templeton developed as Oxford’s specialist graduate college in management studies and executive education, complementing the later Saïd Business School. Under the direction of Uwe Kitzinger, it built a global network connecting academia, business, and government. The College hosted initiatives such as the *Emerging Markets Forum*, *Oxford Futures Forum*, *Oxford Chairs & CEOs Dinner Discussions*, *NHS Chairs Group*, and *The Tomorrow Project*. Major research programmes included the *Strategic Renewal Research Project* with the European Patent Office and Shell International, the *METOKIS Project* on automated information searching, and an EC-funded study of European business logistics.
Templeton played a significant role in bridging management, government, and the public sector. It hosted pre-office training for the Labour Shadow Cabinet in 1996 and organised workshops on change management, public-sector reform, and IT-enabled policy delivery. Fellows including Keith Ruddle, Chris Sauer, Roger Undy, Ian Kessler, and Sue Dopson contributed to this work.
The College’s coat of arms features a stylised nautilus shell, introduced under Uwe Kitzinger’s direction in 1984 to symbolise organic intellectual growth and independent development. The shell’s spiral form also represents the “horn of plenty,” reflecting Sir John Templeton’s view of management as a means of fostering prosperity and human potential.
Coat of arms
Green Templeton College's armorial bearings combine elements from the original coats of arms of both Green College and Templeton College, capturing the spirit of the history and character of each.Its shield comprises two primary symbols: the rod of Aesculapius and the Nautilus shell. The former was the principal charge of Green College's coat of arms. The Nautilus shell was chosen by Sir John Templeton, as symbolising evolution and renewal, and was adopted by Templeton College in 1984.
Green Templeton College's crest depicts a heraldic representation of the Sun behind the astronomical device for Venus, acknowledging the historic transit of Venus across the Sun in 1761, which astronomical event prompted the foundation of the Radcliffe Observatory. The crest is blazoned:
Buildings and grounds
The Radcliffe Observatory
The college is located on the three-acre site on Woodstock Road in North Oxford that previously housed Green College. It is centred on the architecturally important Radcliffe Observatory, an 18th-century, Grade I listed building, modelled on the ancient Tower of the Winds in Athens.The observatory was built at the suggestion of Thomas Hornsby, the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the university, after he had used his room in the Bodleian Tower to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun's disc in 1769. The transit was a notable event which helped to produce greatly improved measurements for nautical navigation. The observatory was built with funds from the trust of John Radcliffe, whose considerable estate had already financed a new quadrangle for his old college as well as the Radcliffe Library and the Radcliffe Infirmary. Building began in 1772 to plans by the architect Henry Keene, but only Observer's House is his design. Upon Keene's death in 1776, the observatory was completed to a different design by James Wyatt. Wyatt based his design on an illustration of the Tower of the Winds in Athens that had appeared in Stuart and Revett's Antiquities of Athens, published in 1762.
Atop the observatory rests the Tower of Winds. Beneath the tower are three levels, with rooms on each level. Since 2008 the Observatory has served as the college’s main building: the ground floor functions as the Dining Hall, the first floor as the Graduate Common Room, and the upper floors house seminar and administration rooms including the Principal’s office. The observatory was a functioning observatory from 1773 until its owners, the Radcliffe Trustees, sold it in 1934 to Lord Nuffield, who then presented it to the Radcliffe Hospital. In 1936, Lord Nuffield established the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research there. In 1979, the Nuffield Institute relocated to the John Radcliffe Hospital and the observatory was taken over by Green College.