Oxford V. Cambridge – On iTunes

The universities of Oxford and Cambridge have been rivals for centuries, and now they're taking the competition to iTunes.

25 British Prime Ministers have gone to Oxford. But when it comes to Nobel laureates, Cambridge has the edge on its rival. Yes, the competition between the two venerable British universities is strong. But this is the 21st century, so the Guardian reports that the pair are competing on a new battlefield – iTunes.

Between them, Oxford and Cambridge are putting around 450 hours of free podcasts, lectures, films and admissions guides up on the iTunesu academic portal, available to anyone who wants to download them. So you can get lectures from people like former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz, or climate change expert Sir Nicholas Stern. Or possibly Monty Python’s Michael Palin reporting on Oxford’s fundraising drive and historian David Starkey offering a history of Cambridge.

Oxford’s vice-chancellor, John Hood, said:

"We hope that this service will make Oxford’s diverse range of audio and video material more widely accessible to applicants, alumni, supporters of the university, and the intellectually curious."