Oxford University Summer Courses

Courses Range from The Beatles to The Brontës

 
Oxford, England, January 26, 2010—More than a summer school, The Oxford Experience is a residential summer program (open to everyone) of one-week courses in a variety of subjects—all without tests or papers.  There are some 50 choices of subjects, everything from The Beatles: Popular Music and Sixties Britain to The Brontës, as well as The Archaeology of English Cathedrals, The English Romantic Poets, Introduction to the History and Science of Cosmology, Jewish Life in Medieval England, Oxford Murder, Romanesque Churches of England, The Crusades, Twilight of the Romanovs and more.
 
The Oxford Experience takes place each summer at Christ Church, one of the most beautiful and prestigious of Oxford colleges (from July 4 to August 7 this year).  Each one-week course starts on Sunday, finishing the following Saturday after breakfast (though anyone attending for two or more weeks gets free bed and breakfast over the intervening weekends.  And people do attend for two or even three, four or five weeks, year after year.  The program attracts not only American tourists, but a cosmopolitan mix from all over the world, varying in age from 25 to 90.
 
The Oxford Experience is also a chance to sample student life in Christ Church.  Accommodations are in student dorms—which range from picturesque 18th century to modern—though some rooms with private bath are available. And everyone can feel the magic of Christ Church, entering beneath Christopher Wren's Tom Tower, being greeted by a bowler-hatted porter while gazing at Tom Quad and the college chapel (which is also the Oxford Cathedral).
 
Then, too, everyone dines in the magnificent Tudor Hall, lined with portraits of famous Christ Church alumni (W.H. Auden, William Penn, Lewis Carroll, John Wesley, Anthony Eden and several other prime ministers), that is featured in the Harry Potter films.  Three meals daily are included in the cost of the program: a full English breakfast, a buffet lunch and a served three-course dinner.  One night during the week each participant is invited to dine on High Table and on the final night a reception in the Cathedral Garden is followed by a gala dinner in the Hall.
 
Throughout the week there are excursions to stately homes, castles, cathedrals, museums and such; tours of Oxford; strawberries and wine in the Masters' Garden; a display of traditional Morris Dancing; a whisky tasting; evening lectures and concerts.
 
The price of a one-week course—including tuition, accommodation and all meals is £1,050, or $1,691.  Excursions and private bathrooms are extra.  The deadline for registration is May 1.  For more information, visit www.conted.ox.ac.uk/oxfordexperience, or write to The Oxford Experience, OUDCE, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX 1 2JA, U.K.
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