Which university did J.R.R. Tolkien attend as an undergraduate?

J.R.R. Tolkien attended the University of Oxford as an undergraduate.

He studied at Exeter College, Oxford, beginning in 1911. His course initially included Classics, but he changed direction toward English language and literature. He graduated in 1915 with first-class honours in English Language and Literature.

Oxford became central to Tolkien’s life. He later taught at the university, held two distinguished professorships, and participated in intellectual communities that included writers such as C. S. Lewis. The city and its surrounding countryside also became associated with the setting in which he developed and revised much of his fiction.

Tolkien’s Oxford education was particularly important because his scholarly interests in Old English, medieval texts, and historical linguistics became foundations for his creative work. He treated invented languages and legends with the care of a philologist, rather than designing them only as decorative fantasy elements.