Courses

Students compose fiction and poetry under the guidance of a published writer, with Oxford’s rich literary history as their inspiration. They explore their own potential by experimenting with new forms and styles of writing. Successful authors give workshops in which students learn about the creative process and the practicalities of publication. Students develop a portfolio of their best writing and collaborate to design, edit, and publish a literary magazine.

From toxicology and fingerprints to DNA samples, students taking our CSI summer course discover how forensic science has progressed over the years to meet ever-changing legal standards. They learn how modern crime scenes are secured and searched, how material is treated in laboratories, and how different types of evidence are used to sort legal fact from criminal fiction. Branching out, they discover how forensic science has achieved breakthroughs in a multitude of disciplines, such as archeology, history, and geology.

Students learn the principles of engineering science. Both world-renowned and local examples are examined, and the findings applied to a variety of case studies to solve mechanical, structural, and architectural problems. They complete the course by designing a model engineering project of their own.

This course examines some of the great works of English literature from Chaucerto Zadie Smith amidst the evocative surroundings of Oxford. Students engage with a wealth of writers in the literary pantheon to improve their skills in close reading, textual criticism and clear, informed writing. Each student engages in a close study of a chosen text in the final week.

Students discover what drives entrepreneurs, the rules they follow, and the ones they defy. They learn how to identify demand, determine fixed and marginal costs, generate a business plan, canvas for support, calculate overheads, estimate break-even and future value, and manage debts and depreciation. For their final project students launch their own mini-businesses.

This course addresses International Relations by focusing on key issues of the day. Subjects covered include globalization and its political, economic, and social effects; environmental challenges; new forms of war and peace; the changing nature of security challenges; peacekeeping operations; the regional complexities of areas like the Middle East, Africa, and South-East Asia; and the relationships and rivalries that define global order today.

Students examine the British and American legal systems and how they reflect the values and institutions of their respective societies. Emphasis is placed on legal history and modes of thought, precedent-setting cases, current controversies, and the kind of first-hand courtroom observation that brings them to life. Each course includes visits to a court and sessions with lawyers. Major courses culminate in a formal moot court competition.

This hands-on course introduces students to key aspects of medicine and modern medical practice. Combining specialist lectures with experiments and class discussions, students learn the main principles of human anatomy and physiology, the pathology and significance of certain diseases, the main challenges that medical science faces today, and the variety and changing nature of careers in medicine.

Using cognitive, experimental, and clinical approaches, students explore the structure and function of the brain as it relates to cognitive process and behavior. Students address the principles of neuroscience, neurology, and psychiatry, learn select diagnostic techniques, and study brain injuries and mental disorders. Classroom experiments are complemented by visits to laboratories.

Photographers of all levels of expertise spend much of their time in the field, pursuing assignments designed to improve their landscape, portraiture, art, and fashion photography skills. Students exhibit their best work at the end of the program. They require their own DSLR camera with USB cable, charger, manual, and at least one 8 GB memory card. Materials fees of $100 US for the Minor.

Students are exposed to university-level physics, including Newtonian mechanics, electromagnetism, and thermodynamics, Einstein’s theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, and string theory. Touching on such diverse areas of knowledge, students look at theoretical advances in science as a means of imagining the future. Prerequisite: At least one year of Physics.

Oxford’s famous undergraduate degree, Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE), is adapted for our students. They examine the institutions and policies of modern Britain and contrast the British, American, European, and East Asian approaches to global problems. Students engage in practical exercises such as a fantasy stock portfolio competition and complete the month by participating in a mock Parliament.

This syllabus is built from the type of course typically taught on MBAs. Students learn to organize their lives, to create realistic schedules, to manage time-tables, and to define priorities. They learn how to collect and manage information, how to take notes, and how to condense and file them. They learn how to build their profiles, not least how to leverage their growing experience and expertise as they take their first steps into the job and university markets.

This course focuses on behavior and development in a social context. Students are introduced to major themes, including stereotyping and prejudice, cross-cultural differences, the dynamics of cooperation and conflict, conformity and persuasion, attraction, and the role of the individual in the crowd. Through case studies and interactive experiments, participants gain an introduction to psychology and learn to analyze their own peer-group dynamics.

Students explore major debating styles and strategies, engage in daily speaking exercises, orations, and dialogues, and prepare and present regular debates. The culmination of the course is a formal debate in the historic debating chamber of the Oxford Union Society, founded in 1823 and one of the oldest university debating societies in the world.

HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis alone are thought to result in ten percent of all deaths every year. The ongoing search for new pathogens is being conducted against the backdrop of outbreaks of diseases such as Ebola, SARS, and Zika. This interdisciplinary medical course investigates the biology of disease. Topics include animal models of human disease; cancer; conventional therapy treatment strategies; the genetics of complex and simple traits; the interaction between environment and genetics; Karyotypic analysis; the molecular and cellular basis of genetic diseases; and the role of oncogenes in tumor initiation and treatment.

War has been one of the greatest forces for change in human history and continues to shape the world. Violence in the Middle East and Africa, guerilla conflicts in South America and the Far East, and the global ‘War on Terror’ are the most recent examples of mankind’s long history of conflict and combat. While covering military history, this course also examines war from other aspects: the political, economic, social, ethical, and psychological. It examines how and why wars are fought, what has changed, and what has remained the same, from conflicts in Ancient Greece to the war in Syria.