Which university awarded J.R.R. Tolkien an English degree in 1915?

The University of Oxford awarded J.R.R. Tolkien his English degree in 1915.

Tolkien studied at Exeter College, Oxford, where he first read Classics before changing to the English Language and Literature course. He completed his degree with first-class honours in 1915. His Oxford education deepened interests that became central to his later writing, including Old English, Middle English, philology, and medieval literature.

Tolkien had already shown a strong interest in languages before university. At Oxford, he continued studying historical languages and developed invented languages of his own. His academic training later supported both his scholarship and the linguistic texture of Middle-earth.

Oxford remained important throughout his career. He returned there as a tutor and professor, teaching at Pembroke College and later serving as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon. His university degree therefore marked the beginning of a long connection with Oxford, not a brief student episode.