The Oxford History Faculty is at the forefront of research. Pioneering research is being conducted on topics which are at the frontiers of current academic historiography, including cultural history, popular politics, economic history, the history of mentalités, law and history, gender studies, the history of the book, and the relationship between the arts and society.

We believe strongly that research and teaching feed into each other. Most of the people who will teach you while at Oxford will be leading researchers in their fields, and lecturers are encouraged to put on new courses which reflect their research interests.

Every undergraduate is a member of a college, under the personal guidance of a tutor who is also a lecturer in the Faculty of History and an active research historian. Your tutor will take a keen interest in your welfare and intellectual development, organizing your teaching to ensure that you are directed to the appropriate experts. Because individual tutors are more closely involved in the selection of undergraduates than in most other universities and because colleges exist in a friendly rivalry, tutors are committed to realizing the full potential of their students.

Tutorials are at the heart of undergraduate learning at Oxford. Students have at least one tutorial per week, for which they are expected to write an essay, which is then discussed with a specialist. Tutorials usually involve pairs of students working with a tutor, and they therefore offer an opportunity for an in-depth mutual exploration of a topic. Tutors will explain to you how you can make your arguments more effectively; they will give you an opportunity to ask questions about the material you have been reading; and you will be able to challenge their assumptions. In an independent assessment of the quality of the teaching of History at Oxford, the majority of tutorials were found to be excellent, bringing students face to face with the necessity for literate historical argument, and developing the critical and verbal skills so valued in the world of work. Regular feedback from students finishing their history degree consistently shows around 90% rate tutorial work and the opportunity to learn from researchers themselves as very positive elements of the course.

Although Oxford historians believe that there is no substitute for the intellectual rigour of the tutorial system, tutorials are complemented by seminars and lectures. Seminar groups in Oxford are small (usually between eight and sixteen members) and give students an opportunity to discuss each other’s work by the presentation of papers in turn to the group. Lectures are provided on the Faculty’s courses, and the size of the Faculty means that on many of your options you will be able to hear a variety of contrasting viewpoints. History at Oxford is therefore a subject of energetic debate: debate between your tutor and yourself, debate between you and your fellow students; and debate between your tutors themselves.

Oxford also attracts a host of visiting speakers, some as the guests of the University and its colleges, others at the invitation of flourishing student clubs and societies. In coming to Oxford you will be participating in one of the most vital intellectual cultures in the world.

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