Making an application

Your GCSE grades will be used in assessing your application, but there is no minimum requirement. We are looking for students with the best academic potential and recognise that performance at school is influenced by socio-economic factors. We therefore use contextual data to help us assess your achievements in your circumstances and compare them fairly with other applicants. We use a contextualised GCSE score that provides information about how well an applicant has performed at GCSE compared to other applicants, given the performance of the school at which they took their GCSEs. It can be useful for identifying applicants from low performing schools who have achieved fewer top grades than other applicants, but more than would be expected for an average from that school. We also have access to a wider range of contextual data, mainly information about your school, your neighbourhood,  any experience in the care system, and eligibility for free school meals.

All courses

You are strongly advised to take history as one of your subjects, but it is not an absolute requirement. You will need substantial experience in history in order to make a competitive application (the HAT is a history test, you have to submit written work on a historical subject, and interviews will be on history). This can be gained from other subjects, but you should think carefully about your history experience if you aren’t taking history. Being interested in history isn’t enough!

If you are only studying vocational qualifications, such as BTEC, you will not be able to make a competitive application.

You are most welcome to apply if you are studying a vocational qualification that is the equivalent of an A Level, such as BTEC Level 3, alongside two A Levels, provided you meet the requirements of the course.

A range of international qualifications are accepted. If your qualification is not listed on this page, you need to undertake further study if you want to apply. You can take any of the international qualifications, or UK qualifications accepted.

The offer for all history courses is:

• 3 As at A Level
• AA or AAB at Advanced Highers
• 38 at International Baccalaureate (including core points) with 666 at HL
• A D grade (distinction) will be required in any vocational qualification.

Required grades for international qualifications are listed under each country on international qualifications page.

The Foundation Certificate in History run by the Dept of Continuing Education at Oxford is accepted for application to the History course. Students with the Foundation Certificate can apply for direct entry into year two (applying for Senior Status).

It's unlikely that students with other foundation courses will be able to make a competitive application (you must be able to demonstrate that the foundation course must cover the same content, to the same standard, as an A Level for an application to be considered competitive).

We are looking for the following qualities:

• Enthusiasm for history
• Evidence of historical imagination and understanding, particularly the ability to speculate and compare
• The possession of appropriate historical knowledge and the capacity to deploy it
• Intellectual curiosity
• The capacity to engage with alternative perspectives and/or new information
• Capacity for hard work
• Accuracy and attention to detail

If you are applying for a Joint School course, these criteria only apply to the History side of assessment.

Use your personal statement to introduce yourself as a historian, and tell us why you want to study history at university. We want to know what you think about your academic activities, in school and beyond, and see how they have shaped your understanding of history. Let us know about books you have read, programmes and podcasts you listen to, museum or historical sites you have visited, and how they have influenced you. The information you include in your personal statement will probably be used in interviews, so please be sure that if you include, for example, a specific book, you have read it thoroughly!

If you are applying for a Joint School course, you should explain why you want to study both subjects, but tutors understand that the personal statement is generic and can’t be specific to the Oxford course.

In terms of studying on a course, your college doesn’t matter. All courses and exams are run centrally by the History Faculty and all students have the same options and choices. You may be taught in college, by tutors at your college, for your first term or two, but after that your teaching depends on which options you take. It’s probably more helpful to think of your college as where you’ll live while you are in Oxford, and as a community you’ll be a part of.

Your choice of college on your application will not affect your chances of getting an offer. The Faculty has oversight of all applications and works to ensure that the best students for Oxford are offered places. If offered an interview, it might be at a different college to the college you put down on your application, or you might be asked for a second interview at a different college.

Yes!

Applications from mature students are welcome, but tutors need to see evidence that you have studied for formal academic qualifications in the previous three years. These could be A Levels, or other school-leaving qualifications, or the Foundation Certificate in History run by Oxford’s Dept for Continuing Education.

The college that wants to interview you will contact you (usually by email) as soon as possible with details of your interview. You should get at least one week’s notice of a first interview(s).

• Your interview may not be at the college to which you applied. The Faculty has to reallocate some candidates to a different college after all candidates are selected for interview, to even out interviews between colleges (each college can only undertake a finite number of interviews). Candidates cannot appeal if they are reallocated for interview.

Some candidates will be called for a second interview, which will be at a different college to your first interview. The college will contact you as soon as possible, but you may only get a few days' notice.

If you applied to a Joint School and are called for interview, you will get two interviews (at the college which calls you) – one for each ‘side’ of the course. These interviews may be on different days.

• If you applied for any Joint School degree, you may be called for the (single) History degree.
• If you applied for History and Modern Languages, you could be called for a Modern Languages (single) interview.
• If you applied for History and English, you could be called for an English (single) interview.

Following a university-wide vote, all interviews will be on-line.

First interviews for History and the Joint Schools will be during the week of December 9th

Second interviews will be during the week of December 16th

Interview format is decided by the interviewing college, with the standard being each candidate having one 30 minute interview with two tutors. Some colleges may give two 15 minute interviews, with a different pair of interviewers.

Your written work can be used to form the starting point for discussions and you will probably be asked about the definition of terms you have used, to compare your submitted work with another historical example you have studied, or how new information could affect your arguments. It’s OK to have changed your mind since you wrote the work, we’ll be interested to hear why!

Some colleges may require you to read a short passage of historical writing just before your interview, which they will ask you to discuss as part of the interview process.

You may be asked questions about your personal statement – material you have read, listened to, or watched, places you have visited (please be sure you have read, listen to, watched, or visited everything you include in your application!).  

You might be asked wider questions about history in a wider context, such as how thinking about the past shapes your interpretation of your local area? Which historical figure (or type of figure) would you like to meet and why? What can historians not find out about the past?

Interviewers are not trying to catch you out, but do expect your interview to be intellectually challenging - we use interviews to assess your motivation, enthusiasm, and academic potential in history. The interview not a test of knowledge, but your ability to think, be flexible, understand concepts, and express yourself. It’s fine to pause and think before answering questions.

Arrange for the interview to take place somewhere you are comfortable and has the technology needed – you will need a reliable internet connection and a computer with a video camera and microphone.

Your school may be able to provide somewhere, but if using school equipment you’ll need to check that the camera and microphone can be enabled.

Make sure you can access any reading material sent to you before your interview (you might not have any) and a copy of your personal statement.

Think about why you want to study history at Oxford and practice explaining why out loud, to other people if possible.

Read these sample questions and explanation from tutors of what they’re looking for.