Why does Jude Fawley want to go to Christminster in Jude the Obscure?

In Thomas Hardy's novel Jude the Obscure, the protagonist, Jude Fawley, is driven by a deep intellectual ambition to attend the divinity school at Christminster, which is modeled after the University of Oxford.1

Jude, a poor villager, views the university as a gateway to academic and spiritual advancement. However, his aspirations are repeatedly thwarted by the rigid constraints of society, his own personal entanglements, and the exclusionary nature of the university system itself. Ultimately, his journey to Christminster serves as a central element of the novel's critique of the social and institutional barriers that trap individuals in lives of struggle and disappointment.1