Oxford v Cambridge

choi

Oxford v Cambridge  | Trailing in its Wake; How and why the fortunes of England’s two ancient university towns diverged. Economist, Jan 17, 2015.
www.economist.com/news/britain/2 ... d-trailing-its-wake

Note:
(a) "Last October 40 Oxford councillors, academics and business leaders went to Cambridge to see how it handles urban problems such as housing and transport. That provoked joshing from the Cambridge local press"

josh (vt; origin unknown) "to tease good-naturedly :  KID"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/josh

(b) "Both are constrained by large 'green belts' in which it is almost impossible to build houses. * * * Cambridge is surrounded by just one district, Tory-led South Cambridgeshire, whose councillors know on which side their bread is buttered."
(i) green belt (United Kingdom)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_belt_(United_Kingdom)
(ii) South Cambridgeshireen.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Cambridgeshire
(a rural local government district of Cambridgeshire)

(c) "Decades ago a few visionary academics [in Cambridge] proposed that the city should convert its Decades ago a few visionary academics proposed that the city should convert its boffinry (and especially its comparative strength in the sciences) into wider regional prosperity. In the 1970s Trinity College opened the Cambridge Science Park; the St John’s Innovation Centre followed in 1987."
(i) boffin (n; origin unknown): “chiefly British:  a scientific expert; especially :  one involved in technological research”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boffin
(ii) University of Oxford has its own Trinity College. The following is about that in University of Cambridge.

Trinity College, Cambridge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_College,_Cambridge
(is the largest college in either of the Oxbridge universities; table)
(iii) St John’s Innovation Centre
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John's_Innovation_Centre
(a business incubator; first proposed by Dr Chris Johnson, who was Senior Bursar of St John's College, Cambridge; subsequently established on a 21-acre (85,000 m2) plot of land owned by St John’s College; completed in 1987; was the first innovation centre in Europe to focus on supporting knowledge-based businesses)

(d)"David Rudlin, a planner * * * says Cambridge is doing much better [than Oxford], though even it could learn from a place like Freiburg, a German university town that has used town extensions and trams to solve similar problems. What is needed is an overhaul of both the planning system and the green belt policy. But it does not require a DPhil [for 'Doctor of Philoshphy;' also written as 'PhD'] from the University of Oxford to see how difficult that is going to be."
(i) Freiburg im Breisgau
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiburg_im_Breisgau
(section 1 History for name origin; section 5 Education)
(ii) Breisgau
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breisgau
(In earlier times the Breisgau was known as Breisachgau, meaning the county around the town of Breisach on the east bank of the Rhine)
(iii) German English dictionary
* frei (adjective): “free"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/frei
* im: “Contraction of in dem: in the”
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/im