This volume serves as the official administrative record and comprehensive directory for the University of Oxford during the 1987-1988 academic year. The University of Oxford compiles this data to provide a transparent overview of its collegiate structure, faculty appointments, and degree requirements. It functions as a primary source document for historians and researchers interested in the institutional evolution of the university during the late twentieth century.

Experts and archivists utilize this text as a foundational reference for verifying academic appointments and institutional policies from the 1987-1988 period. Readers frequently note the dense, administrative nature of the prose, which is intended for record-keeping rather than narrative consumption.