According to Oxford's website the first of Oxford's colleges were founded around 1250. I'm curious what it would have been like to attend as a student during this time period.
I'm sure I could write a thousand more sub-questions, but I'd love to read anything else you can comment on.
hi! this section won't answer all of your questions, so hopefully others will chip in here, but do check out the FAQ* - there are lots of responses about Oxford
*see the link on the sidebar or the wiki tab
I can't answer all (if any) of your questions precisely but hopefully someone else will be able to fill in some of the gaps:
First question you should ask is in regards to collegiate universities - is it one university or a collection of colleges? This has no real answer to this but the cultures of each college are different and these different cultures would affect each of your questions asked.
The five earliest colleges (In no particular order: St Edmunds, University, Bailliol, Merton and Hertford) as well as all of the Permanent Private Halls (the earliest being Blackfriars and Greyfriars) all had explicitly theological foundations - that is for their first few hundred years of existence all you could study there was theology.
And if you want a history of Univ. Oxford up until the 19th century you are asking for a history of British religious debates. For example as late as the repeal of the Test Act in 1828 all entrants had to make a declaration of belief regarding transubstantiation. This was effectively designed to keep Catholics out (even though this may have been a moot point as the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith declared in 1865 that any Catholic attending Oxford or Cambridge was committing “the grievous sin of knowingly exposing himself to a proximate occasion of mortal sin”).
The other important aspect of study (in some colleges as late as the 1960's) was knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin.
These two things - classics and theology - would automatically make sure that a prospective student was of a particular class background i.e. wealthy (something that Oxbridge is still struggling with today in it's admittance procedure).
The final things worth noting is that until Lady Margaret Hall (1878) and Somerville College (1879) there were no women.
(also in regards to the question "How long would the average student study?" - I don't think studying can be quantified in such a way. I still maintain that I do my best 'studying' while in the shower as I find it is the easiest time to think through problems).
According to Domonkos, students at universities like Oxford were accorded clerical status. Some of them were actual members of religious orders, but some were just invested with minor orders so they would have useful exemptions and privileges (Freedom of taxes, for example).
They were not necessarily wealthy students. In fact, one of the benefits of the college system is that it provided poor students with room and board.
B.A degrees were bestowed and took 4-5 years. A master's degree might take another 3-4.
To be a faculty member, you needed at least a master's; if you were to teach law or medicine or theology you would need even more specialized study.
Despite the clerical status of students, they didn't all go into the church. Some entered lay professions.
Good ol' Leslie Domonkos; his essay entitled "History of Higher Education" is the thing I always reach for to refresh my memory for questions like this.