University Names

Zhichao in the UK asks:
What is the difference between "the University of Oxford" and "Oxford University"?
And, where and when should we put "the" before the name?
Is there any difference between with or without a "the" in front of the name?
Are there any grammatical rules for a university's name?

This is another usage I'd never thought about, so thank you for making me think about it.

The general practice seems to be this: if the name of the university comes before the word "university," don't use "the": Oxford University, Columbia University, Simon Fraser University.

If the name follows "university of," it will usually need "the":
He attended the University of Southern California.
She teaches at the University of British Columbia.
(If anyone can think of a similar name where we wouldn't use "the," please let me know!)

But if we use only the university's initials, we drop the "the":
He attended USC.
She teaches at UBC.

These abbreviations are acceptable if the audience is likely to know what the initials stand for. Otherwise, it's preferable to write out the name in full—at least the first time you mention it.

Note that "university" is a proper name only if the word is linked to a proper name. Otherwise it doesn't take a capital U: Oxford is a great university. So is Cambridge University.

Comments

[Brett]

A timely post by Arnold Zwicky at Language Log takes this a bit further.
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003533.html

BTW, the prepositional form often exists without 'the' in addresses, as in, "Available from the Publications Secretary, Centre of Health Economics, University of York, York YO1 5DD."

[michael murphy]

The official title of OSU is "THE Ohio State University."

[Dyanhale]

I like this