Keble College is running online sessions to provide information and guidance on aspects of the Oxford admissions process during the summer term. These offer opportunities to receive up-to-date advice and guidance on applying to Oxford, and have questions answered by University staff. All sessions are open to Year 12 (or equivalent) currently attending a UK state school or college, and/or those supporting a prospective student in this category.
Keble College and the Beecroft Building from University Parks
Please see the tables below for this year’s webinar schedule for prospective students and those supporting them.
Admissions Webinar Schedule: Summer 2025
Webinars for prospective students Please note: sessions with the same title are duplicates
The Faculties of History and Medieval and Modern Languages along with St Hilda’s College, Oxford are delighted to be offering a Study Day dedicated to Year 12 state school students looking to study History and a Modern Language at University/Oxford!
This event will take place on Thursday 29th May at St Hilda’s College.
People punting on the River Cherwell, St Hilda’s College
The Study Day will offer students the chance to:
experience academic taster sessions in both History and a Modern Language (that they are studying at A-level or in a brand-new language that they might wish to take from scratch* alongside History);
meet and ask questions to current History and Modern Languages students;
hear about the History and Modern Languages course and admissions process;
meet other students who are interested in studying History and a Modern Language at University/Oxford;
visit an Oxford college and learn more about Oxford’s collegiate structure.
Please note, students do not need to be studying History or a Modern Language at A-level in order to attend the event but must have a serious interest in studying the two subjects as a joint degree at University in order to apply.
There is no cost for attending the Study Day and participants will receive a free lunch at the college. We are committed to ensuring that students are not prevented from attending this event due to costs. Therefore, we are pleased to be able to offer financial support to students for reasonable travel expenses to and from Oxford for the Study Day.
Students who are interested in taking part can apply via this form by Sunday 27th April.
In the case of oversubscription to the event, priority will be given to applicants who are currently under-represented in higher education. More information about this and the University’s commitment to increasing access can be found here.
* Our beginners’ languages courses offer an exciting and rare opportunity for students to engage with a new language and culture for the first time, or to pick up a language they studied at GCSE. The courses are challenging yet rewarding, with many designed to bring students up to A-level standard within the first year.
Balliol College is running a series of free ‘Try Before You Buy’ Days over the course of May and June 2025.
These are an opportunity to experience a taste of Oxford undergraduate teaching, with participants taking part in a tutorial having completed and submitted work prior to the event. Students will also take part in an admissions session and college tour with undergraduates. A free lunch will also be provided in the Balliol Dining Hall.
Balliol College, Oxford
The Days are aimed towards prospective applicants of a variety of subjects, but in terms of languages, are open to Year 12 students hoping to apply for degrees with French (starting in 2026). Under-represented groups will be prioritised for this event.
These events are in great demand so applicants must ensure that they are able to attend and can complete the work and return it by the deadline which is usually a week before the event.
More information about the days can be found here and students can register for the sessions at the links below:
Applications are now open for Wadham College‘s annual five-day Modern Languages Summer School. The residential will take place at the college, based in the centre of Oxford, from 18th to 22nd August 2025.
Summer schools are designed to give UK pupils studying in Year 12 a taste of what it’s like to be an undergraduate studying at the University of Oxford. Pupils will take part in an academic programme, live in College, meet student ambassadors studying at Oxford, and receive information, advice and guidance on applying to university. Wadham’s Summer Schools are free and the college will provide financial support to pupils to cover their travel costs.
Wadham are delighted to be able to run these events in-person allowing participants the best experience of life at the university. The feedback from last year’s Summer Schools was hugely positive with over a third of participants subsequently securing offers to study at the university.
“After the summer school I am much more confident that I would fit in at Oxford and feel like I am more ready to move away from home”
– Summer School participant, 2022
For Modern Languages more specifically, pupils will engage in a seminar series led by Wadham’s language tutors, including language classes in their selected language of study (French, German or Spanish) with opportunities to try other languages as beginners (including German, Portuguese and Russian). Students will complete an assignment on a main topic with feedback from tutors. Pupils will also be able to receive support from current undergraduates and from the College on making successful applications to top universities.
A Summer School French class
For more information and to apply, click here: Wadham College Summer Schools. Pupils should be studying French, German or Spanish at A-level or equivalent to apply. Applications close on 5th May.
With just under a month to go until the deadline, there’s still a chance to enter our Flash Fiction Competitions in French and/or Spanish – don’t miss out on your chance to win £100! A reminder of the competition details and how you can enter can be found below…
What is Flash Fiction?
We’re looking for a complete story, written in French or Spanish, using no more than 100 words.
Did you knowthat the shortest story in Spanish is only seven words long?
Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí. (When he woke up, the dinosaur was still there.)
– Augusto Monterroso Bonilla (1921-2003)
What are the judges looking for?
Our judging panel of academics will be looking for imagination and narrative flair, as well as linguistic ability and accuracy. Your use of French or Spanish will be considered in the context of your age and year group: in other words, we will not expect younger pupils to compete against older pupils linguistically. For inspiration, you can read last year’s winning entries for French here, and for Spanish here.
What do I win?
The judges will award a top prize of £100, as well as prizes of £25 to a maximum of two runners up, in each age category. Certificates will also be awarded to pupils who have been highly commended by our judges. Results as well as the winning, runner up, and highly commended stories will be published on this blog, if entrants give us permission to do so.
Poster for the 2025 Flash Fiction Competitions
How do I enter?
You can submit your story via our online forms at the links below.
Click on the links to be taken to the correct submission form for your age/year group.
You may only submit one story per language but you are welcome to submit one story in French AND one story in Spanish if you learn or study both languages. Your submission should be uploaded as a Word document or PDF.
The deadline for submissions is 12 noon on Monday 31st March 2025.
Due to GDPR regulations, teachers cannot enter on their students’ behalf: students must submit their entries themselves.
Please note that the competition has changed slightly this year. We are now only accepting entries from UK secondary school pupils.
If you have any questions, please check our FAQs here. If these still don’t answer your question(s), please email us at schools.liaison@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
Balliol College, Oxford is delighted to be running a Modern Languages Taster Day on Tuesday 27th May 2025, 10.15 – 15.45!
Academic Taster Days are a great opportunity for students in Year 12 to spend a day exploring a subject they enjoy and might pursue at University, meet with some current students, experience a taste of academic teaching, and enjoy lunch in the dining hall.
Balliol College
This specific event is designed for Year 12 UK state school students who are currently studying a Language A-Level or equivalent, and who intend to apply to study French, Italian or Spanish, or Modern Languages and Linguistics as a single honours (on its own) or a joint-honours (with another language/subject) degree at Oxford University. Balliol will prioritise applications from disadvantaged students and from groups which are under-represented at the university. This event will include academic sessions, admissions information, and a demonstration interview. You will have the opportunity to speak to tutors and current undergraduates.
Before submitting an application, please ensure you can attend the day in its entirety. For many schools this event will fall in the half term holiday. The event will be held in person at Balliol College in Oxford.
You can apply here. The deadline for applications is 5pm on Tuesday 6 May 2025.
Please contact outreach@balliol.ox.ac.uk with any questions.
On the blog this week, third year student Alice tells us all about the first semester of her Year Abroad…
I’m Alice and I’ve just returned from spending the first part of my year abroad in Lausanne, Switzerland. As a French and Portuguese student, I spend time in both French and Portuguese speaking countries during this year – having spent one semester at the Université de Lausanne, next I am going to do a language course in Lisbon for four months. The year abroad offers quite a bit of flexibility in terms of the activities you choose, and I found studying to be a rewarding experience. Whilst many French year abroad students choose to go to France, I decided to study in Switzerland and I’m very pleased with my decision, despite my nerves before going!
Choosing to go to Switzerland was a tricky decision because I really didn’t know Lausanne as a city, and I knew of only one other Oxford French year abroad student who would be in Switzerland at the same time as me. So I was quite anxious about living abroad in a city without people I know. However, as well as having family connections in German-speaking Switzerland, I also wanted to explore more of a country that I had been to a few times as a child. Also, my decision to study at a university meant that I knew I would be able to meet other young people in classes and lectures.
I really enjoyed exploring different areas of Switzerland and as my family connections are in the German-speaking part of the country, this encouraged me to travel quite a bit during the semester. Although travel and the cost of living are expensive in Switzerland, I managed to find quite a few deals which cut the cost of journeys. I got a ‘Half Fare Travel Card’ that allows you to travel on trains at half price and so I made the most of this offer – I visited my aunt in Rapperswil, as well as Zurich, Montreux and the Jungfraujoch, using the efficient and reliable trains. As the city where I lived and studied for the semester, Lausanne, is quite small, I really enjoyed being able to travel and meet up with the other year abroad student in Geneva. That said, Lausanne itself was a lovely city to live in and felt just the right size for me, as someone who comes from a relatively small place in the UK. As well as having Lac Leman within walking distance from the university campus, I also enjoyed exploring the historic centre of Lausanne. Although it is quite a walkable place, I really appreciated using the metro in such a hilly city and I used it to travel to the university campus too.
Whilst the weekends often gave me the opportunity to explore different parts of Switzerland, during the week I studied at the Université de Lausanne. The first few weeks of classes at this university allow the students to try out all of the different courses, and so I went to a variety of classes in different faculties, before finalising my choices after the first four weeks. This system relieved some pressure as I was able to attend a wide variety of classes without having to remain in them for the whole semester, and it encouraged me to try some classes I might not have gone to otherwise. The majority of the classes I chose were taught within the French as a Foreign Language Faculty as they offered some really interesting courses aimed at international students. For example, some of the classes I took were: ‘Améliorer son écrit en français’, focusing on improving written French specifically; ‘Histoire du français’, a class looking at how French has evolved as a language from Latin to modern French; ‘Lire un texte littéraire à tous les niveaux’, where we got to present a book of our choice to the class for discussion; and I also took one cinema option ‘Analyse d’une séquence d’un film’, which I really enjoyed as I had never studied cinema before and I learned how to analyse films using specific terminology.
It was through these classes that I was able to meet new people who I saw on a regular basis which helped me to feel settled into the university quite quickly. One aspect of studying abroad that I appreciated was the ability to experience a different university system. Although it was overwhelming at first, I valued some of the different teaching methods, such as the focus on presentations, debates, and group work; this allowed me to improve my spoken French and engage with the other students. I became good friends with the international students in these classes and I enjoyed attending some of the Erasmus student network events. Although I did find it harder to befriend the Swiss students, I was able to take part in the ‘Tandem programme’ in which you are buddied up with another student in order that you teach each other your mother tongues. I met a Swiss girl wanting to learn English and so we met regularly, becoming friends whilst practicing our oral skills. It was a great way for us both to improve our oral skills because during our meetups we split the time in half so we could practice both French and English.
Overall, I had a lovely time studying in Lausanne and I’m glad I decided to explore Switzerland and a different university system. As well as improving my French, it has made me feel more confident about going for the second part of my year abroad to Lisbon, as I want to make the most of my time there and get stuck into different activities offered by the ICLP language course at Lisbon University.
On the blog this week, final year German and Portuguese student, Aaron, reflects on his time in Berlin and what he wishes he’d known in advance of his year abroad…
My name’s Aaron, I study German and Portuguese at Wadham, and as I’m writing this blog post, I’ve been back at Oxford for one term since my year abroad. I recently wrote another post about the more general, administrative stuff that’s associated with the year abroad, but this time I want to talk about my time in Berlin and write something that I, myself, would have found useful before going abroad.
When I landed in Berlin and got the keys to my apartment, to be honest, all the fear came to a head. How was I going to meet people? What if I ended up holed up in my flat every day? The great thing about the year abroad is that it’s tried and tested – especially in major European cities. There are countless blogs (including this one!) that document the experience, as well as travel sites, and as an Oxford student in particular, you will usually be able to reach out to your college parents (a set of students in the year above who do your subject) and get their guidance too. Alongside all of this, it’s good to try and get an idea of the social media landscape, since it can vary from one place to the next. Things like TikTok and Instagram are generally helpful for finding stuff like exhibitions that you might want to go to, but for more personal events, there are apps like Meetup and Flock.
Meetup is particularly good for finding groups with specific interests – it has everything from wellness events to Dungeons and Dragons groups, from sports clubs to foodie meetups. It was through Meetup that I made some of my closest friends, and the great thing about using apps or sites like these is that the other people you meet are usually as new to the city as you are. We also ended up finding a lovely weekly brunch group, where they’d go to a different restaurant every Sunday and spend a few hours with some yummy pastries and good company. The other really nice thing about the major cities is that they’re super international, so if you’re not feeling very confident in your second language, you can usually find people who speak your first, whether that’s English or not.
While I do enjoy spending time with other people, I also love a good bit of ‘me time’ – the year abroad is great for this in general, there’s always museums and beautiful scenery to take in. For me, I often found myself walking the length of Berlin’s Tiergarten park, losing myself in its beauty and wandering through the Brandenburg Gate before grabbing a coffee and just taking in the view. This is another reason why it’s important to love what you do; Berlin is now one of my absolute favourite places to be, but being there on your own schedule and with total freedom is such a special and freeing experience. Berlin, specifically, also has two great museum programs: the first is Museumssontag (Museum Sunday), where entry to around 80 museums is free on the first Sunday of every month. The second, and my personal favourite as a certified night owl is the lange Nacht der Museen (the long night of museums), where a number of Museums are open from 6pm until 2am!
Berlin’s also known for its Sunday flea markets or Flohmärkte, of which there are many. One of my absolute favourite things to do was go and wander the Flohmärkt am Mauerpark, one of the best-known markets, with hundreds of small businesses trading out of it, selling artisan jewellery, art prints, and (the best part) all manner of different foods. Berlin is split up into a number of different districts, each with its own distinct identity and character. From one market to the next, you can really see the character of a given area and the difference in the locals, even what they’re selling. There’s a flea market at Rathaus Schöneberg, the same place where John F. Kennedy once stood and proudly professed himself to be ein Berliner (understood outside of Berlin to actually refer to a jam-filled doughnut). Anyway, this market completely encompasses the historical nature of the area – there you’ll find vendors selling anything from old books to items from the GDR, or even antique jewellery.
So, there was plenty of stuff to do! The last thing I’ll mention is that, because you’re not the only person trying to experience as much as possible, you get to watch friends find all of these incredible things too. A friend of mine from Paris found a local dance group dedicated to waacking (a street dance style, originating in Los Angeles in the 70s), while another friend, a local, was part of a university handball team – going to their performances and matches was great, as it pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and gave me the chance to see if those things were for me too. Unfortunately, I found that my waacking ability was inversely proportional to my enthusiasm for it…
All of this made the year abroad a really great experience and probably the best part of my languages degree so far!
Oxford’s University College, Magdalen College, and the Faculties of History and Modern Languages are delighted to announce that the virtual BAME Humanities Study Day will return for 2025 on Tuesday 15th April!
This event offers UK state school students with Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) heritage an exciting opportunity to engage with academic taster sessions from across the Humanities subjects, and also to access insight into Oxford student life and support with the admissions process.
This year, the day will open with a welcome and an introduction to the humanities subjects from current students followed by the opportunity to attend two humanities subject lectures. Students will learn more about the Oxford application process in our subject-specific admissions workshops. The day will conclude with a live student life Q&A where you will have the opportunity to ask your questions to current Oxford students from BAME backgrounds.
Screenshot of the Q&A with undergraduates from the 2021 Humanities Study Day
For the academic lectures you will be able to choose from the following subjects:
Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Classics
English
History
History of Art
Modern Languages
Music
Linguistics
Philosophy
Theology.
You will be able to specify your preferred lectures on the application form. All lectures will be recorded and available to watch after the event. If you are unable to attend live on the day but would like access to the recordings and resources, then please still submit an application via the form below.
Before attending the subject day, I had no prior ideas about attending Oxford, nor was I really interested. This was mostly because I thought Oxford was an unreachable place for someone like me, a coloured girl who does not come from a highly prestigious background, which I believed Oxford to be the opposite. Attending the study day made me realise Oxford is actually a very accessible and open place for someone of my background…
– 2023 Study Day participant
Eligibility Criteria:
Year 12
Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic (BAME) Heritage
Attend a UK State School (unless you have extenuating circumstances or meet several of the priority criteria listed below)
If spaces are limited, priority will be given to students who meet one or more of the following: first generation in your family to attend university, have experience of being in care, are a young carer, are eligible for Free School Meals/Pupil Premium, are from an area of deprivation or area with a low rate of progression to university.
Applications are now OPEN and will close on 26th February 2025. You can apply via this online form.
If you have any questions about this event please email one of the organisers, Nuala, at outreach@magd.ox.ac.uk.
Study Days are a great opportunity for prospective applicants to experience life as an Oxford student for the day. Study Days will always include taster sessions for the subjects which you are interested in studying at university, but often involve information sessions on admissions, a chance to talk to current undergraduates, and a tour of the College.
Study Days are free of charge with some colleges offering additional financial support to attendees. They are open to students at UK state schools, but places are sometimes prioritised by measures of socio-economic disadvantage.
The Radcliffe Camera from Exeter College
This year, Exeter College, Oxford is hosting a series of subject days for year 11 and year 12 students attending UK state schools. These events aim to provide tailored support for students interested in exploring a range of subjects at University level.
Exeter’s Humanities and Modern Languages Study Day will be taking place on Monday 7th April at Exeter College and is open to students looking to explore any of the following University courses further: Classics, English Language and Literature, History, French, German, Italian, Linguistics, Spanish.
If you would like to attend, please register your interest here by 5pm on Monday 24th February.
If you have any questions, please get in touch: outreach@exeter.ox.ac.uk.
A blog for students and teachers of Years 11 to 13, and anyone else with an interest in Modern Foreign Languages and Cultures, written by the staff and students of Oxford University. Updated every Wednesday!
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