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 vsp@mansfield.ox.ac.uk, 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