English Language and Literature at Oxford is known for its thoroughness, and the chance it gives students to study English literature from across a large breadth of English history in considerable depth. As there are no compulsory authors for each of the exam papers, which are themed by historical period, you will be able to explore a wide range of writers and literary forms, guided by your tutors. You are further able to tailor your degree to your own interests through the dissertation and extended essay in third year.

Studying English at Univ you will be part of a unique community – “Team English” as they’re known. Univ’s English tutors cover a wide range of specialisms and are leaders in their field. Tutors support normal tutorials and classes with extra activities like Chaucer Reading Group and play readings to help students get to grips with texts. Univ has been the home of famous authors including V. S. Naipul, Andrew Motion, C. S. Lewis, and perhaps most famously Percy Shelley to whom we have a monument to in college.

Univ offers places for the joint school of English and Modern Languages (Russian or Czech), and Classics and English. (Correct for entry 2023.)

There is a wealth of information about the English course structure and admissions criteria on the University of Oxford’s main website, available at ox.ac.uk

Any undergraduate degree at Oxford provides you with a wide variety of transferable skills and therefore Univ’s students progress to a diverse range of careers. For some, their undergraduate degree leads to academic research, industrial research or teaching. For many, their future career, for instance in business, government or the charitable sector, is defined less by the subject they studied and more by the skills they acquired. Oxford’s Careers Service provides destination statistics for graduates.

Resources

If you are considering applying for English, a number of resources you might find useful to explore beyond the school curriculum can be found on Univ’s Staircase12 pages, including the Reading Bank and Resource Hub.

You may also like to watch past student Ben discussing two varying textual versions of King Lear in our video review here.