Portal:University of Oxford/Selected college/43

St Benet's Hall is one of the Permanent Private Halls (PPHs) of the University of Oxford. Unlike the colleges, which are run by their Fellows, PPHs are run by an outside institution – in the case of St Benet's, Ampleforth Abbey. Established in 1897, it was the first Benedictine foundation in Oxford since the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid-16th century. Historically its principal function was to allow Benedictine monks to study at Oxford, but nowadays most members are lay undergraduates and there is no requirement that students should be Catholics. It became a PPH in 1918, when it was named after Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the Benedictine order. It is the last Oxford institution to admit only men for undergraduate degrees: women are admitted for postgraduate study, and will be admitted as undergraduates when new housing facilities are obtained. Until 2012, the Master of St Benet's had always been a Benedictine monk; the current Master is Werner Jeanrond, a lay Catholic theologian. Alumni include Cardinal Basil Hume, the philosopher Sir Anthony Kenny, the politician Damian Collins and the England rugby international Simon Halliday. (Full article...)