Yes, You Can Go to Oxford University

The Oxford Experience Summer School is Open to All

Oxford, England, October 31, 2013—The Oxford Experience, a one-week residential summer course at England’s celebrated Oxford University, is open to everyone.  There are no requirements, no exams and no papers.  Anglophiles from around the world  gather each summer for a week (or more) of study and fun at Christ Church, the most beautiful and prestigious of Oxford colleges, originally founded by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525. 

Summertime students, who range in age from 25 to 85—stay in rooms where prime ministers, philosophers and poets once lived. They dine (surrounded by portraits of the same) in  the impressive Tudor Hall made famous by the Harry Potter films.  And they study one of 60 courses, which  include The British Empire at War, William the Conqueror, Creative Writing, The Golden Age of the Romanovs, The Craft of the Opera Composer, Understanding the Cosmos, Oxford’s Medieval Jewish Quarter, Enjoying the Cotswolds, Introducing the Human Brain, Spies in British Fiction, Ireland’s Troubled Past, The World of the Vikings, and Paradise in an English Garden.  Classes are small (maximum 12) and tutors are friendly and approachable.

The Oxford Experience  takes place from July 6 to August 16, 2014 and  costs £1,230 or $1,989.  That price includes tuition, accommodations, evening entertainment and lectures, a welcome reception and all meals—a full English breakfast, buffet lunch and delicious served three-course dinner.  Once a week each student is invited to dress up and dine on High Table and on the final night everyone gathers for champagne (and picture-taking) in the flowering Cathedral Garden and a festive farewell dinner in Hall.  There are extra charges for rooms with private bath and for excursions.

Most courses provide excursions to stately homes, cathedrals, museums and such, and on some afternoons tours of Christ Church and the city of Oxford are offered.  In the evening there are pub crawls, whisky tastings, displays of traditional Morris dancing, wine and croquet in the Masters’ Garden, and Evensong in the college chapel, which is also the Oxford Cathedral.  And, of course, there are always plays and concerts available in this “city of dreaming spires.”

The deadline for summer 2014 registration is May 1, 2014.  (Since courses are filling quickly, however, early registration is urged.) For more information, visit www.conted.ox.ac.uk/oxfordexperience, or write to The Oxford Experience, OUDCE, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA, U.K.

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