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Summer schools

Join us for a study holiday in Oxford – for personal enrichment, academic progression or professional development.

You'll live and study at one of Oxford's historic colleges or at Rewley House, experience dining in hall, and explore the world's most famous university city.

Choose from more than 100 one-week introductory courses; or opt for a longer, specialist summer school in a single topic. Subjects include history, music, literature, creative writing, politics, the environment and more. Many classes can be taken for credit; others require no coursework, and are non-assessed.

The Oxford Experience

The Oxford Experience

Held at Christ Church, the 16th Century Oxford college built by Cardinal Wolsey. Choose from 80+ one-week introductory courses. Live, dine and socialise in college, explore Oxford, and enjoy the world’s most famous university city.

Oxford University Summer School for Adults

Oxford University Summer School for Adults

60+ one-week courses: spend your mornings studying for credit, afternoons exploring the nearby Ashmolean Museum, Oxford’s many sights and colleges and the local area. Held at Rewley House on iconic Wellington Square.

Oxford summer schools for academics and professionals

Oxford summer schools for academics and professionals

Devote one to four weeks to your favourite subject, living and studying in an historic Oxford college. For those who want in-depth learning for personal or professional advancement.

Upcoming courses

Charles Dickens's Great Expectations

Summer schools • Short courses

The novel Great Expectations is the story of Pip, the poor orphan who becomes a man of means. This course traces Pip's social mobility through a haunting Bildungsroman of comedy and of tragedy.

Sun 02 Jul 2023 – 08 Jul 2023

Courtly Shakespeare

Summer schools • Short courses

As an actor and playwright, Shakespeare was part of the Elizabethan and Jacobean courts. This course explores how his imagination probed for the humans beneath the robes of courtliness, and revelled in the wit and elegance of courtly entertainments.

Sun 02 Jul 2023 – 08 Jul 2023

How Memoirs Work on Page and Screen

Summer schools • Short courses

A reading and discussion course for those wishing to refine their understanding of life stories. This course is aimed at keen viewers of screen 'bio pics', enthusiastic biography readers, and anyone thinking of writing a biography or memoir themselves.

Sun 02 Jul 2023 – 08 Jul 2023

Macroeconomics: Keynes and the Monetarists

Summer schools • Short courses

Covid-19 has generated an environment for a potential global economic crisis. During these uncertain times, the economic ideas of John Maynard Keynes have become more and more relevant to policymakers than those who believe in a totally free market.

Sun 02 Jul 2023 – 08 Jul 2023

Scandal, Satire, Sensibility: 18th-Century Women Novelists

Summer schools • Short courses

Exploring the fascinating lives, novels of 18th-century women who defied public opinion and family pressure to write and publish fiction for enjoyment, money, and fame: Eliza Haywood, Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, and Maria Edgeworth.

Sun 02 Jul 2023 – 08 Jul 2023