All the Oxford undergraduate colleges are listed in the Undergraduate Prospectus for Oriental Studies , with details of their admissions policies. Although colleges are not technically bound by the opinions of members of the Faculty, they invariably take them into account, ecpecially as almost all teaching will be done within the Faculty. Once we have received your application and accompanying written work, and if we have assessed it favourably, you will be called to Oxford for interview in early December. The Faculty acts in liaison with the colleges to organise interviews with the subject specialist of the Faculty, in the Oriental Institute or the Institute for Chinese Studies. You will almost certainly be interviewed by one or more of the colleges too.
Most candidates have absolutely no background in the subject they wish to study.
Therefore one of the important functions of the interview is to ensure that you have a full understanding of what the course involves, the skills you will be required to develop, and the way in which the course is taught. However intelligent you may be, we want to make sure that this is the course for you. As well as your general ability and motivation, we will also be interested in gauging your potential for learning one or more difficulty European languages. The interview is of vital importance in allowing the interviewers to make informed assessments of students from a wide range of backgrounds.