Subjects

Students on the Visiting Student Programme study a wide range of subjects. 

On this page is the list of courses available to Visiting Students in the 2023-24 academic year. 

Please note that the provision of some course options depend on the availability of specialist teaching, and therefore may be subject to change. 

Visiting students may choose courses from the following subject areas:

English, History, Philosophy, Theology and Religion, Politics, Economics, Geography, Human Sciences, Oriental Studies.

Course Catalogue 2023-24

If you have a particular interest in an area of study which you do not see here, please contact us at , and we will ask our tutors for advice and guidance for you. You may also find it helpful to go to the subject website for the Oxford course you are interested in, to read about the range of options which are offered on the undergraduate degree at Oxford.

Before confirming your choice of topics we will look at your past qualifications and statement of interests to make sure we are providing the most suitable courses for you. These documents will be regularly updated as more information on courses becomes available.

Teaching at Oxford is primarily in tutorials, usually with one or two students working with one tutor, and writing an essay for each tutorial. Each student will take one primary (eight tutorials) and one secondary tutorial (four tutorials) a term. There may also be additional classes as part of a term's course, and most courses will be supported by lectures in the faculties and departments. We try to give you the same experience as our second and third year undergraduates, and as far as possible you will follow the same course of study as they do, except that you will not take examinations. You have the opportunity to follow a course of study in one subject, progressing through courses to more difficult and specialised work, or to pick from a range of disciplines. 

Credits

Students on the Mansfield Visiting Student Programme study one primary course and one secondary course each term.  The courses are equivalent to those taken by matriculated second and third year undergraduates, but are assessed by tutorial essay and participation rather than examination.  A primary course is awarded 8 tutorial credits and secondary course is awarded 4 tutorial credits.  Visiting Students study 36 tutorial credits in total during a full year of study, which is equivalent to 60 credits in the European Credit Transfer Scheme (ECTS). 

 

Intermediate courses require you to have taken an introductory level course prior to study. Advanced courses require more background in the subject.

Course Listing

Economics

Note: available only as primary tutorials

Intermediate:

 

ECO001: Microeconomics

ECO002: Macroeconomics

ECO003: Quantitative Economics

ECO004: Development of the World Economy since 1800* (Trinity term)

Advanced:

ECO005: Economics of Developing Countries* (Hilary term)

ECO006: Labour Economics and Industrial Relations* (Hilary term)

ECO007: Public Economics* (Michaelmas term)

ECO008: Economics of Industry* (Michaelmas term)

ECO009: Game Theory* (Hilary term)

ECO010: International Economics* (Michaelmas term)

ECO011: Money and Banking* (Michaelmas term)

ECO012: Econometrics* (Hilary term)

ECO013: Finance* (Hilary term)

 

English

ENG001: Old and Early Middle English 650-1350

ENG002: Literature in English 1350-1550

ENG003: Literature in English 1550-1660

ENG004: Literature in English 1660-1760 (Hilary/Trinity term)

ENG005: Literature in English 1760-1830 (Trinity term)

ENG006: Literature in English 1830-1910 

ENG007: Literature in English 1910-present day

ENG008: Shakespeare (Trinity term)

ENG009: Special Authors
E.g.Beowulf Poet; Chaucer; Spenser; Milton; Ben Jonson; Marvell; Dryden; Eliza Haywood; Wordsworth;Jane Austen; Byron; Tennyson; Dickens; Wilde; Conrad; Yeats; Woolf ; Walcott; Joyce; Roth; Friel; Emerson; Dickinson; Faulkner

ENG010: Special Topics
The ode from Wordsworth to Hopkins; The Avant-Garde; Children's Literature; Comparative Literature; Early Modern Criminality; Fairytale, Fantasy and Myth; Hit & Myth: Reinventing the Medieval for the Modern Age; The Icelandic Saga; The Literary Essay; Literature and Science; Literature and the Mind; The Long Fin de siècle; Postcolonial Literature; Post-war American Fiction; Post-War British Drama; Styles of Political Criticism since 2000; Texts in motion: literary and material forms, 1550-1800; Tragedy; Writers and the Cinema; Writing feminisms/feminist writing; Writing War

 

Geography

GEO001: Climate Change

GEO002: Human Geography

GEO003: Earth Systems Processes

GEO004: Geographical Controversies

GEO005: Space, Place and Society

GEO006: Earth System Dynamics

GEO007: Environmental Geography

 

History

Intermediate

HIS001: History of the British Isles II, 1042-1330

HIS002: History of the British Isles III, 1330-1550

HIS003: History of the British Isles IV, 1500-1700

HIS004: History of the British Isles  V, 1685-1830

HIS005: History of the British Isles VI, 1815-1924

HIS006: European and World History 1000-1300 (Hilary/Trinity term)

HIS007: European and World History 1300-1500 (Hilary/Trinity term)

HIS008: European and World History 1500-1700 (Hilary/Trinity term)

HIS009: European and World History 1830-1914 (Hilary/Trinity term)

HIS010: European and World History 1750-1930 (Hilary/Trinity term)

HIS011: European and World History 1914-1989 (Hilary/Trinity term)

HIS013: Optional Subject (see course catalogue)

Advanced

HIS012: Further Subject (see course catalogue)

 

Human Sciences

Intermediate

HUM001: Ecology and Evolution

HUM002: Physiology and Genetics

HUM003: Society, Culture and Environment

HUM004: Sociology and Demography

HUM005: Quantitative Methods for the Human Science

Advanced

HUM006: Behaviour and its Evolution

HUM007: Human Genetics and Evolution

HUM008: Human Ecology

HUM009: Demography and Population

HUM010: Anthropological Analysis and Interpretation

HUM011: Sociological Theory

HUM012: Anthropology of a Selected Region (eg Lowland South America, Japan, South Asia, Africa)

HUM013: Gender: Theories and Realities: Cross Cultural Perspectives

HUM014: Health and Disease

 

Philosophy

PHI001: History of Philosophy from Descartes to Kant

PHI002: Knowledge and Reality*

PHI003: Ethics

PHI004: Philosophy of Mind*

PHI005: Philosophy of Religion

PHI006: Aesthetics

PHI007: Medieval Philosophy*

PHI008: Post-Kantian Philosophy*

PHI009: Ancient Philosophy

PHI010: Wittgenstein*

PHI011: Theory of Politics

PHI012: Individual Authors
E.g. Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Kant

 

Politics

Intermediate:

POL001: Comparative Government

POL002: British Politics and Government since 1900

POL003: Theory of Politics

POL004: International Relations

POL005: Political Sociology

Advanced:

POL006: Modern British Government and Politics

POL007: Government and Politics of the US

POL008: Politics in Europe

POL009: Politics in Russia and the Former Soviet Union

POL010: Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa

POL011: Politics in Latin America

POL012: Politics in South Asia

POL013: Politics in the Middle East

POL014: International Relations in the Era of the Two World Wars

POL015: International Relations in the Era of the Cold War

POL016: Political Thought: Plato to Rousseau

POL017: Political Thought: Bentham to Weber

POL018: Marx and Marxism

POL019: Politics in China

POL020: Politics of the European Union

 

Theology & Religion

REL001: Reformation

REL002: 19th-Century Christian Thought

REL003: Modern Theology

REL004: Philosophy of Religion

REL005: Nature of Religion

REL006: Hinduism

REL007: Buddhism

REL008: New Testament

REL009: Old Testament

REL010: Introduction to Mysticism