Many books and other works of fiction are set in, or refer to, fictional universities.[1][2] These have been said to "feature abundantly, persistently, and increasingly in popular culture texts"[3] and in an "array of media including novels, television, film, comic books, and video games".[4] This list includes identifiable fictional universities or other institutions appearing to offer degree-level qualifications. Individual Oxbridge colleges (i.e. parts of the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge) are not included as there are separate lists of these.
Appears in Ozma of Oz and other books in the Oz series, sometimes with variations on the name (e.g., "Royal Athletic College"). It was founded by Professor Woggle-Bug.
Name used to disguise a university which was the subject of Angela Thody's 2012 study of emeritus professors.[8][9][10] The University is also used as an example in a variety of teaching materials for language learning.[11][12]Borchester is the fictional county town of fictional Borsetshire, in the English Midlands, scene of the long-running BBC Radio series The Archers.
The University of Bums on Seats
Cynicalbastards.com
Internet
UK: England
"Formerly PeckhamPolytechnic". A satirical invention reflecting the changing UK Higher Education system, online since at least 2001.[13][14]
Burston Central University
Chris Cooper (pseudonym)
Internet
UK: England
Also the associated "University College of North Burston". Not to be confused with "The University of Burston" (established 1863) in the same town. Setting of The Unknown Tutor, published in December 2012 in the "Wading Through Treacle" blog and later republished. Burston is 4 hours' drive from Prestatyn in north Wales, but otherwise unlocated.[15][16]
University of Burston
Chris Cooper (pseudonym)
Internet
UK: England
Established 1863 and not to be confused with Burston Central University in the same town. Featured in The Unknown Tutor, published in December 2012 in the "Wading Through Treacle" blog and later republished.[15]
Carrbridge is a village in the Scottish Highlands. The university and its Porterhouse College featured in statistics questions in CambridgeNatural Sciences Tripos examination papers at least from 2008 to 2011.[17]
The Clyde is Glasgow's river. Clyde's Department of Parapsychology is the setting for this BBC TV series written by David Kane. Jordanhill College, Glasgow, was used to represent the university in exterior shots.[20][21]
In the novel That Hideous Strength; had four colleges: Bracton College, Northumberland College, Dukes College, St. Elizabeth's College.[22] Lewis described the fictional Edgestow as a small university town more beautiful than either Cambridge or Oxford.[23]
Located in the fictional town of Plotinus in the fictional state of Euphoria, the employer of Morris Zapp who makes an academic exchange with Philip Swallow of Rummidge, England, in Changing Places.[24]
University in the fictional cathedral city of Felpersham in Borsetshire, attended by several characters from the long-running BBC radio series The Archers.[25][26]
A parody of online universities and the "commodifying (of) college."[29] For example, students purchase facts from a digital marketplace instead of being taught them in classes.
Located on fictional planet Gallifrey, source of the Thirteenth Doctor's doctorate. Merchandise available on eBay and Etsy indicates that it was established in 1963 and known as "Time Lord Academy".[30]
The protagonist of Linklater's semi-autobiographical White Maa's Saga attends medical school at this Scottish university, either identified as University of Aberdeen or set in a town which is "a thinly veiled combination of Aberdeen and Inverness".[33][34]
King's University, also known as King's College Dublin
Prestigious university in (fictional) Arkham, modelled after Brown and Harvard University. Part of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Home to a vast library of arcane literature and occult books, such as the Necronomicon.
Setting of Giles Goat-Boy. A vast university variously serving as an allegory for the United States, the human world, the universe, and the Cold War. It is divided into a secretive and authoritarian East Campus (representing the Eastern Bloc) and a more open West Campus, ruled by a messianic Grand Tutor.[44]
The title character of Griffiths' Ruth Galloway series heads the department of forensic archaeology at this university near King's Lynn, Norfolk (which is not in North Norfolk local authority district).[45][46]
Near Harrogate. Features in the novel Grand Depart (2013, Viridian Publishing, ISBN978-0956789143) and other books by the same author, as the employer of central character Dr Millie Sanderson.[47]
Location of the St Boniface College attended by the eponymous hero of Thackeray's novel Pendennis.[50] The Oxford English Dictionary defines Oxbridge as "Originally: A fictional university" and cites Thackeray as its earliest reference.[51] The term is now more commonly used as a portmanteau term for the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
Set in a fictional town somewhere west of Falmouth, Cornwall, this university is the setting for Smith's 2019 novel A Degree of Uncertainty (Compass, ISBN978-1912009411) featuring tensions between students and residents.[53]
College attended (or not) by the four flat-sharing students in 1980s BBC TV series The Young Ones, written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer. A highlight was the four's appearance as the college's team on TV quiz show University Challenge confronting Footlights College, Oxbridge.[61][62]
A Scottish university, the setting of Bridie's 1939 play What Say They?, which was adapted into the 1952 comedy film You're Only Young Twice.[63][64] Skerryvore is an uninhabited island off the west of Scotland, 12 miles (19 km) beyond Tiree.
Located in Dundee, Scotland, and hosts the Scottish Institute of Forensic Science and Anatomy (SIFA), the setting for the seriesTraces, made by Alibi and shown on BBC One. Filming locations include University of Bolton.[66] Also branded as "Tayside University".[67]
A fictional public university from the Canadian teen drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation. Based on the University of Toronto, this institution is where numerous Degrassi graduates attend for higher education. As its name suggests, it's located in Toronto, Ontario.
A clothing manufacturer in the real Tuktoyaktuk, a hamlet in Canada's Northwest Territories, sold celebrated teeshirts and sweatshirts from this fictional institution.[68][69]
This home institution of main character Professor Diogenes Teufelsdröckh is the backdrop of the ironic treatment of then contemporary German philosophical currents in the 1831 novel Sartor Resartus.[73]
Sefton Goldberg, the central character of Jacobson's 1980 novel Coming From Behind, is an unhappy lecturer at this English polytechnic "somewhere in the debased and deteriorating Midlands".[78][79] Inspired by Jacobson's experiences as a lecturer at Wolverhampton Polytechnic.[80]
^Reynolds, Pauline J. (2014). Representing "U": Popular Culture, Media, and Higher Education: ASHE Higher Education. ISBN978-1-118-96623-5.
^Tobolowsky, Barbara F.; Reynolds, Pauline J., eds. (2017). Anti-intellectual representations of American colleges and universities: fictional higher education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN978-1-137-57003-1.
^Davidson, Eleana (17 September 2019). "The Bantshire Effect". EduRank. Archived from the original on 2 March 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
^"Home page". The University of Bantshire. Archived from the original on 2 March 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
^Thody, Angela (September 2011). "Emeritus professors of an English university: how is the wisdom of the aged used?". Studies in Higher Education. 36 (6): 637–653. doi:10.1080/03075079.2010.488721. S2CID145620359.
^ ab"The Unknown Tutor". Wading through Treacle. 30 November 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
^Parr, Chris (18 April 2013). "THE Scholarly Web". Times Higher Education (THE). Retrieved 22 April 2024. The site makes clear that Burston Central University is entirely fictional, and that any character's resemblance to real persons, living or dead, ...
^Patel, Yasmin (18–19 October 2008). "Behind the stereotype". The New Black Magazine. Archived from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
^"Death in the Quadrangle". Eilís Dillon: Irish Mystery Stories. Eilís Dillon Literary Estate. Archived from the original on 22 January 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
^Greiert, Andreas (2011). "Rector mirabilis der Universität Muri: Satire als Institutionenkritik". Erlösung der Geschichte vom Darstellenden - Grundlagen des Geschichtsdenkens bei Walter Benjamin 1915-1925. Wilhelm Fink Verlag. pp. 445–446. ISBN978-3-7705-5143-9.
^Whitely, Giles (12 January 2021). "Romantic Irony: Problems of Interpreatation in Schlegel and Carlyle". In Derrin, Daniel; Burrows, Hannah (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Humour, History, and Methodology. Springer International Publishing. p. 350-354. ISBN978-3-030-56645-6.
^Lowe, Justin (20 January 2014). "'Dear White People': Sundance Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 July 2024. At an Ivy League stand-in called Winchester University
