Oxford Leaders & New Saint Andrews

Dr. Ben Merkle, President of New Saint Andrews College, earned his doctorate at the University of Oxford and got to see what makes that school a unique institution. One key feature is the way it tests students.

In this video, Dr. Merkle specifically highlights how Oxford as an institution builds leaders. The school works to create people who are decisive, know what they think, and can defend their ideas.

For many centuries, Oxford has been educating the leaders of England, including educators, doctors, military officers, politicians, and more. Oxford was founded back in the 1100s and was modeled after the University of Paris. The program, from the beginning, was a liberal arts program with studies in theology, law, and medicine.

NSA seeks to imitate Oxford’s liberal arts program in a number of ways, including the way it builds leaders. The institution of Oxford builds leaders through its course work, its culture, and its programs.

Dr. Merkle discusses the specific example of Oxford’s testing methods. Oxford does not give tests at the end of each course, like in the American system, but rather at the end of the degree. So a student has to remember all his material from the first year’s courses up to the final year of his degree. This means the student has to be conscientious in how he prepares and studies for these tests at the end of the program. In this way, Oxford shapes the student to be a certain kind of person: one who remembers and can connect material from various courses.

Dr. Merkle added that the Oxford graders for these tests are set up to do double-blind grading. This means that the grader has no idea who the student is. All he sees is a number at the top of the paper. 

These are men who know what they think and they can defend it reasonably.

The surprising thing is that even in this double-blind grading system, Oxford still selects for and favors certain kinds of men who are leaders. These are men who know what they think and they can defend it reasonably. Dr. Merkle explains that he thinks there is an institutional memory at Oxford that has built up over the centuries that still guides the graders to grade for leaders of a certain variety. 

Dr. Merkle says that this is what NSA is working to do as an institution: build up a culture and an environment at the college that creates leaders who will shape culture. This means that everything at NSA matters. The school thinks through how it is shaping students from the first class to the last class. This includes the upperclassmen wearing robes as well as students completing and defending a thesis their senior year. This includes oral finals as well as disputatio–the end of week all-school assembly. Everything in the institution adds to and builds up students into leaders. 

This means leaders in all key cultural positions: filmmakers, novel writers, lawyers, business owners, politicians, theologians, and pastors.

The vision at NSA is to graduate leaders who shape culture. This means leaders in all key cultural positions: filmmakers, novel writers, lawyers, business owners, politicians, theologians, and pastors.

NSA is achieving this vision. Alumni work as writers, novelists, lawyers, educators, businessmen, and more. By the grace of God, the school will continue to build an institution that shapes students into leaders of culture.

If you would like to encourage this institutional work, please consider partnering with NSA.