36 HOURS AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY

Today's Ben Grafton Joins students at Britain's elite university fo a formal dinner, water sports and a game of croquet... how very British! First a word of advice: shen visiting Oxford don't ask anyone where Oxford Universtity is. No, really. Although it is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious universities, with some 20,000 students, in a sense, "Oxford University" doesn't exist. It is in fact a collection of 38 independent colleges, the oldest of which date back to the 13th century. The colleges are situated all over the city - so when you visit Oxford, the university is all around you. Each college has its own character, style traditions. The most famous is Christ Church. Founded in 1525, it has produced 13 British prime ministers, but is now more familiar to people around the world for providing some of the key locations for the Harry Potter films. A CHARMING COLLEGE I, however, have a date with Worcester College, a pretty college founded in 1714 and one of Oxford's "best-kep secrets". Media mogul Rupert Murdoch studied here in 1970's, so it is a nice irony that I'd read about Worcester's most famous current student in one of his newspapers, The Sun. Yes, for the next 36 hours, I will be staying at the same college where atress Emma Watson is now studying. I'm greeted at the entrance to Worcester College, not by Emma, but by Worcester student president Sam Barker (right), who shows me around its beautiful gardens. Author Lewis Carroll, a former Christ Church student, was a frequent visitor here, Indeed the gardens inspired some of the most famous scenes in his cult book Alice in Wonderland. Sadly, Emma Watson is nowhere to be seen; she's filming her laster movie. SUMMER SPORT Sam takes me to the river to watch the annual boat racer between Oxford and Cambridge. Today, however, is the Summer Eights regatta: a four-day series of races involving 158 boats and 1,400 rowers. They row on the River Thames, or "Isis" as the river is known locally. Walking along its banks, dodging Oxford's many cyclists, I'm impressed to see that each college has its own boathouse. With some oxford colleges earning 300 million pounds in endowments, investment in sports facilities is expected. But his seems too good to be true! On the balcony of the Worcester College boathouse, I meet members of the boat club. Will, a third-year English student who has just finished his exams, is in particularly high spirits. What's the best thing about Oxford, I ask him? " Being at the river with nothing to do, in 25 degrees (Celsius). But I'm going to have to join the real world soon."