About the Department - What we do

We offer courses and Oxford qualifications

Primarily, the Department for Continuing Education offers courses: over 800 courses per year, across a full range of subject areas.

Our courses range from single-day events to full degree programmes, and everything in between. So whether you want a weekly class in French, a Master's in Sustainable Urban Development, an online course in Mathematics, or continuing professional development in Telecommunications, chances are that we offer a class to suit your needs.

We're specialists in adult education, and our courses are designed for part-time learners. Each year we have over 15,000 student enrolments.

• Learn more by visiting our courses page.

We run a Graduate School for part-time and distance learners

At Continuing Education we offer part-time Master's and DPhil's in the arts, social sciences, health care and biomedical sciences. Our postgraduate programmes are specifically developed to meet the needs and interests of part-time students and are designed to enable those with career and family commitments to study successfully at Oxford.

Our postgraduate courses are academically rigorous and challenging, as you would expect at Oxford. They are taught by research-active academics and subject specialists who combine subject expertise with experience of teaching and supervising students studying part-time and at a distance. Our programmes are are also flexible and innovative in their structure and delivery, enabling students to both study at a distance and receive face-to-face teaching and supervision.

In addition to our set DPhil programmes we also are able to recruit exceptionally well qualified research students in subject areas where we feel able to offer appropriate supervision and where we can identify suitable facilities and resources for candidates.

Learn more about our Graduate School.

We do global outreach

We run a number of key international programmes which are designed to address urgent needs worldwide, in areas such as wildlife conservation, paediatric infectious diseases, human righs law, education policy and diplomacy. These programmes serve students of merit from all over the world, but especially those from developing nations.

Our special ability to assemble needed expertise, both from the rich pool of academic specialists within the University and from top-flight practitioners in business and industry, means we are able to stay one step ahead of a changing world. We are proud to provide education opportunities that have global impact.

• Read a news story about the WildCRU wildlife conservation programme, which is delivered by the Department in collaboration with the University's Department of Zoology.

We create bespoke training and e-learning resources

With 29 full-time academic staff, a full-service e-learning and online course development team, dozens of specialist partner organisations, and over one hundred part-time tutors, we have ample talent and resources to create and deliver custom training for businesses and organisations.

We can conduct a training requirements audit and design a programme tailored to the exact needs of companies and organisations. We can also create follow-up sessions as required.

Bespoke courses with heaviest demand are in the areas of management, business and presentation skills, systems engineering, health care, sustainability, architectural history and telecommunications. Our clients include such global entities as Sony Ericsson and HSBC Bank, and localised entities such as the KTH Royal Institue of Technology in Sweden.

• Learn more on our business services pages.

We run an accommodation, catering and conference centre

With a full-time staff dedicated to catering and accommodation, including an in-house team of chefs, it's no wonder our accommodation has won a three-star rating.

Our facilities at Rewley House in central Oxford include a handsome dining room, 35 en suite bedrooms, a lecture theatre, a variety of lecture/seminar rooms, a library, a common room and a computer training room. We are opening a new boutique suite of hotel rooms in the autumn of 2011.

There are a range of custom services at the disposal of conference clientele, including digital technology for all meeting rooms (supported by a full-time staff) and small or large menus to suit a range of meetings, and which accommodate a spectrum of food preference.

• View our facilities and services pages for more information.

We have our own in-house branch of the Bodleian Library

The Rewley House Continuing Education Library is one of the Bodleian Libraries. Our students are well served by a collection which contains approximately 73,000 books together with periodicals, a video/DVD collection of films and drama documentaries, and access to the full range of electronic resources subscribed to by the University of Oxford. The Jessop Reading Room (pictured) adjoins the library. A full-time library staff are on hand year-round to assist patrons with library services.

• Visit our library online.

We form partnerships

One of the keys to our success is that we actively seek participation and collaborations in the education, corporate and non-profit communities to produce our more specialised courses. Partners include the UK's National Weather Service (the Met Office), The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment and the National Trust. We also work with many other departments in the University, notably in the biomedical sciences, zoology and communications technology.

• See a range of current partners and sponsors.