All about learning

Tutorials are central to teaching here. They are conversations, normally between two or three students and their tutor, and offer a rare level of personalised attention from academic experts. Tutorials are regular, rigorous academic discussions, and provide individual and consistent feedback on work.

As well as teaching in tutorials, many courses have seminars or practical sessions such as fieldwork, each week. Depending on your course, these are likely to concentrate on particular topics or focus on developing a particular skill. These classes might also give you an opportunity to find out more about the current research being undertaken by academics in your subject department. You are also likely to have some lectures to attend that will cover important topics relating to your course.

Students at Oxford, particularly those doing humanities degrees, spend much of their time working independently. All our undergraduate courses are full-time, and on average students spend around 40 hours a week studying. Students are expected to do their own research and develop their own knowledge and understanding usually by working through a reading list to complete a problem sheet or essay.

Many courses also give you the opportunity to follow your own in-depth research for a dissertation or project. These pieces of independent research often take place towards the end of a degree and allow you to focus on a subject that you've found particularly interesting. You will have the opportunity to develop strong research skills.