Every year UNIQ helps change the lives of young people, helping them to get into Oxford and other highly-selective universities. Apply now to take part!
What is UNIQ?
UNIQ is the University of Oxford’s access programme for UK state school students. It prioritises places for students with good grades from backgrounds that are under-represented at Oxford and other universities. Every year more students from diverse backgrounds get offered places at Oxford with help from UNIQ.
In terms of Modern Languages, we will be offering courses for French, Spanish and German again this year, all of which include the opportunity to taste two beginners’ languages.
UNIQ offers:
online support through the application process
a residential at an Oxford college for most participants
a trip to an Oxford open day for another 250 participants
UNIQ is completely free: accommodation, meals, academic courses, social activities, and travel are all included.
Every year students use their experiences on UNIQ to help inform their university choices and to make successful applications. UNIQ students who apply to Oxford have a higher rate of success than other applicants.
How to apply
UNIQ prioritises state school students with good grades from backgrounds that are under-represented at Oxford and other highly selective universities. UNIQ welcomes applications from:
Year 12 students from England and Wales in the first year of A level studies or equivalent
Year 13 students from Northern Ireland in the first year of A level studies or equivalent
S5 students from Scotland studying Highers or equivalent
We use criteria such as experience of being in care, eligibility for Free School Meals, and information associated with the area that you live in to prioritise who comes on UNIQ.
In our final blog post before Christmas, first year French & Philosophy student at St John’s College, Laurence, tells us all about his first term at Oxford – settling in, making friends, and exploring new literature… over to you, Laurence!
Laurence at Matriculation
I have finished my first term studying Philosophy and French at St John’s College, and what a rollercoaster it has been! Freshers’ week, matriculation [1], my first tutorial [2]… and all while making new friends and starting to feel at home in Oxford. I initially wanted to study Law but decided that I first wanted to explore French literature and culture, as it had been my favourite subject during A levels. It is not a decision that I have come to regret! I would recommend French at Oxford to anyone with a passion for languages and literature.
The French course at Oxford is varied and engaging, with something for everyone. The first year syllabus is perfect for helping students get a sense of what they might like to pursue in future years – in the space of eight weeks I studied French essays, tragedies, and poetry. These included Michel de Montaigne’s Des Cannibales (c. 1580) which sheds light on French attitudes to South American tribes, raising fascinating questions of religious politics, Gallic identity, and colonialism’s fallacious distinction between savage and civilised cultures. Montaigne also pioneered the form of the ‘essay’ itself and his later revisions and editions to the initial text demonstrate his attempts to grapple with complex subject matters. We touched on all these points and more in our classes and tutorials, which are supplemented by lectures in the beautiful Taylor Institution Library.
Another benefit of the course is the variety of subjects that can be combined with French: whilst I study philosophy, I have friends studying French and English, Arabic, German, and linguistics, to name a few. I think Philosophy and French is a great combination… in later years I will have the opportunity to read the philosophical works of Descartes, Sartre, Pascal, and Merleau-Ponty in their original French, as well as studying the philosophy of language.
Inside the Radcliffe Camera
On an average day in my week, I might wake up early and go to the Radcliffe Camera for at least an hour of work as it is my favourite study spot. After a couple of lectures or a tutorial and then some lunch, I might have a grammar or conversation class. I particularly enjoy these because I love speaking in French, and there is no better place to practise than with the patient, friendly native speakers that are employed at St John’s to help us improve. We have discussed topics as varied as the Bouquinistes (book sellers on the banks of the Seine in Paris) and the life of Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’, through presentations, debates, and games. After dinner, my class might work on a translation together or do some reading in the college library. The collaborative element of language learning is really encouraged in the Oxford environment – tutors want us to test each other on vocab and speak French among ourselves wherever possible. You might even find a native French speaker in your college – I often test my speaking skills with my Canadian friend!
Finally, life at Oxford is not all about work. I enjoyed a languages ‘initiation’ party in college where second year language students encouraged us to dress up as figures from our personal statements. I came as Socrates, and one friend of mine donned his long, black wig as Madame Bovary! In short, life as a language student at Oxford has so much to offer…
Thank you Laurence for that excellent insight!
After a short break over Christmas, we’ll be back with more blog posts in the new year. For now, we wish you a restful and joyous festive period with loved ones. Bonne fêtes à toutes et tous!
[1] An Oxford ceremony that marks a student’s induction as a member of the university.
[2] A teaching format of a tutor and 1-3 students.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to continue studying a subject you love, beyond an undergraduate degree? Well, wonder no more! Further study is a popular route taken by our graduates, whether it’s completing a Law conversion, a PGCE, or a DPhil [1] . On the blog this week, current DPhil student in German, Isabel Parkinson, explains what this means and entails…
Being a DPhil student is to exist in a strange, liminal space between the student bubble and the real world. You’re straddling the boundary between town and gown; certainly no longer an undergraduate – in fact, you’re probably teaching them! – but still going to college formals, still claiming a student discount whenever the chance should come your way. I was an undergraduate here at Oxford, and I’m a third-year DPhil student now – not quite long enough to have produced a full thesis, but long enough to have noticed the biggest differences between the two degrees.
Expertise
Even if you are just a couple of weeks into your DPhil research, you’ll have crafted a research proposal that is so niche, and so specific to you, that you are probably already a world expert in your own little field. It’s possible that nobody else in the Faculty will be looking at your chosen author or text, or will have considered your topic with the particular slant that you have put on it, or will have seen the archive material that you’re accessing.
Isabel presenting her research at a conference.
How often you meet with your supervisor will depend on what you both decide, but there is a real possibility that you could go for at least a fortnight without seeing anybody else (theoretically, at least – I do not advise doing this). It’s a personal choice, how much you fill this time and what you fill it with: you may choose to take on teaching commitments, to convene this seminar or that reading group, to deliver outreach, to present at conferences.
Instead of tutors asking you questions to which they already know the answers, your supervisor(s) will ask you for your opinion and input because they recognise it as valuable, informed. It’s a disquieting feeling at first; similar to when the GP asks you what treatment you fancy for whatever ailment you’ve presented them with. But as you’re trusted to set your own working pattern, your hours, your deadlines, as the bare bones of your research proposal get fleshed out, the feeling of being a clueless undergraduate pushed, blindfolded and disoriented, into a world of Real Academics, begins to fade.
People
The end of an undergraduate degree brings an end to tutorial partners, college classes, lectures. Rather, as a DPhil, you will likely mix much more with people in fora not specific to your degree – the MCR [2] , perhaps your scholarship or funding group, on projects or at conferences. It generally means coming into contact much more frequently with people working on very different research – oncology, music, archaeology, politics, anthropology… you get the sense very quickly that you could assemble an unbeatable University Challenge team.
St Hugh’s College, Oxford
Unlike school, undergraduate, and maybe even Master’s, a DPhil cohort is also a much broader cross-section of ages and life stages. I spend an inordinate amount of time saying to new acquaintances, variously, ‘nooo, I can’t believe you’re thirty-seven!’ or ‘wow, so – yes, you were still in primary school when I was a Sixth Former?!’ Mixing with people who have spent years in the working world, or who are married or have children, helps to remind you that life is a little broader and bigger than your laptop screen and your library desk, in a way which the undergraduate world seldom does.
Time
Unlike at undergraduate level, there is more of a sense at DPhil level that you are expected to have a rich life outside of your research. Three senior academics have now told me, independently of each other, that one never has as much free time again after the DPhil – so enjoy that time; read widely; explore new topics; do those things that you didn’t get time for as an undergraduate.
View of the Radcliffe Camera from Exeter College
Focus
From swapping between ten or so subjects at GCSE, three or four at A-Level, a plethora of assorted papers or modules at undergraduate – a DPhil is the culmination of an increasingly specialised focus across your academic journey.
Rather than the constant working towards deadlines as an undergraduate – handing in a completed essay for a tutorial and, Sisyphus-like, beginning the whole process again with a fresh title – you spend three or four years focussing on one title, one big research question. That focus will shift as you get better at research, get worse, and then get better again, as you read more texts and soak up more opinions – but that’s what keeps the whole process so absorbing.
Isabel Parkinson
St Hugh’s College | DPhil in German
[1] Doctorate of Philosophy. The PhD is known as the DPhil in Oxford.
[2] MCR (Middle Common Room): The self-governing body and social centre for graduate students in a college. Fourth year students are also granted MCR membership. The MCR is also a room located in the college.
We’re delighted to announce the return of our ever-popular French and Spanish Flash Fiction competitions for UK secondary school pupils. If you are learning French and/or Spanish in Years 7-13, you are invited to send us a *very* short story to be in with a chance of winning up to £100! Read on to find out more…
Credit: Aaron Burden via Unsplash
What is Flash Fiction?
We’re looking for a complete story, written in French or Spanish, using no more than 100 words.
Did you know that 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.
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 Wednesday 27th March 2024.
Due to GDPR, 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.
Huge congratulations if you have been invited to an Oxford interview over the next couple of weeks! Our tutors from across the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages are very much looking forward to meeting you.
We know that interviews can be daunting and it can be difficult to know what to expect and how to prepare. Therefore, this week’s blog post aims to offer some information and resources that should help with your preparation and calm a few nerves!
First thing’s first…
It’s important to remember that an Oxford interview is designed to simulate a tutorial (aka Oxford’s method of teaching in small groups).
Through tutorials at Oxford, students develop powers of independent and critical thought, analytical and problem-solving abilities, and skills in both written and oral communication and argument. These are the kinds of skills and abilities that tutors are looking to see candidates display/show potential for during an interview.
The interview is also a chance for tutors to understand students’ motivations for studying their chosen subject(s) and where their specific interests lie.
For more general information about Oxford interviews, the University has a bank of FAQs and resources available on their admissions website.
What about Modern Languages?
For Modern Languages, interviews can vary depending on the academic tutor conducting them, but here are a few things to expect:
You may be given a short piece of text (in English or the target language) to look at and discuss during the interview. Further questions may be asked based on your responses and analysis of the text.
You may be asked about something you’ve mentioned in your personal statement, so be ready to discuss any wider reading or interests you’ve referenced!
You may be asked to speak or read a short passage of text in the target language. This part of the interview is often fairly short.
Below are some example videos that demonstrate how (aspects of) a Modern Languages interview might be conducted.
In this demonstration video, Jane Hiddleston, Tutor in French, and Joanna Neilly, Tutor in German, will take you through what to expect during the interview process.
A mock interview for French at Jesus College, Oxford. This video is representative of a typical Modern Languages interview.
Prof. Jennifer Yee, French tutor at Christ Church, discussing a poem with an undergraduate student, Chloe. This type of discussion is a typical component of a Modern Languages interview.
Advice from a former undergraduate
To round us off, here is some sage advice from Isabel, current DPhil researcher in German, and former undergraduate in German & Philosophy at Worcester College:
My biggest tip for the interview is to remember that your interviewers are not expecting you to know absolutely everything. Case in point: I had to ask – in a German interview – what an English word meant.
Show your thought process when you’re addressing a question – maybe you don’t know the answer, but maybe the question pertains to something that you do know about, so you can take an educated guess. Maybe you’re being shown a word in your foreign language that you don’t recognise, but maybe you can tell it’s from the same root as a word you do know. Are they showing you a poem that you haven’t seen before, but from a literary period that you’re passingly familiar with? Maybe there’s something you can say about the wider culture or concerns at the time.
If you already knew everything, you wouldn’t be applying to university. Use your interview to show that you can respond to new information, offer ideas, and think deeply and critically about what you’re being asked.
To that end, one of the best ways to prepare for your interview is to read widely around your subject: podcasts, the news, scholarly journals, extra books by your favourite author. Show that you are far too interested in your chosen subject to be constrained by the curriculum!
Thanks Isabel!
We hope this has been helpful in preparing you for the interview process. Best of luck to all candidates next week – you’ve got this!
Exeter College’s flagship outreach programme, Exeter Plus, is now accepting applications!
Exeter Plus is a sustained contact programme for Year 12 students from non-selective UK state schools who want to find out more about the University of Oxford.
Exeter College
The programme combines in-person visits and with online sessions that run from March to September. The sessions start off as an introduction to Oxford and Exeter College, including tours and workshops. Later sessions delve into more detail about the Oxford application process and give the students the opportunity to explore topics related to the degree subject(s) they are interested in studying, including Modern Languages.
Throughout the programme, participants have the opportunity to speak with Student Ambassadors and Tutors of Exeter College, and to take part in mock tutorials enabling them to discuss the subject they would like to study at University with experts in that field.
Exeter College covers the travel costs upfront and offers free lunch to all participants. They also run in-person visits on Saturdays and virtual sessions out of school time.
Participants on the 2023 Exeter Plus programme
Previous participants in the programme have said:
Thank you for running such an insightful programme, the in person visits really do make a very good experience.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime and allow me to meet some brilliant people who I intend to cherish for life.
If this programme is of interest to you or to any of your students, the application form can be found and completed here. The deadline for applications is Monday 8th January 2024 at 11am.
The Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx) is a cross-university platform with the aim of facilitating equitable and sustainable collaborations between researchers based at the University of Oxford and African universities, as well as increasing the number of African students pursuing postgraduate degrees in Oxford.
AfOx’s flagship project is its Visiting Fellowship Programme. The programme provides exceptional African researchers with an opportunity to spend up to eight weeks at the University of Oxford to focus on a research project of their choice. The fellowship also provides the opportunity to build international networks and collaborate with Oxford-based scholars.
This year, the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages is delighted to be welcoming a visiting researcher, Dr Gibson Ncube, who will be working on a project with an MML Research Fellow, Dr Dorothée Boulanger.
Gibson Ncube holds a PhD from Stellenbosch University and has received several research fellowships.
During his time in Oxford, Dr Ncube will be working on a project about Queer Ecologies in Contemporary African Literature and Cinema. This study explores how literary and filmic texts creatively challenge normative frameworks that thrive on hierarchization and exclusion. Instead, they celebrate new forms of human and inter-species alliances and solidarities.
We look forward to welcoming you to Oxford, Dr Ncube!
We’re delighted to announce that our annual Modern Languages Open Day will be taking place on Saturday 11th May, once again in the Examination Schools in Oxford city centre. Save the date! Mark it in your calendars!
The Examination Schools, Oxford Modern Languages Open Day 2022 photo (c) John Cairns
Bookings are not yet open but you will be able to reserve your place soon via our open days webpage.
This event, which runs from 10.30am-4pm, is a fantastic opportunity for students who are interested in learning more about our language courses, or who are still considering their options, as this Open Day will cover ALL of our languages: French, German*, Spanish, Italian*, Russian*, Portuguese*, Modern Greek*, Czech*, and Polish*. Most of our Joint School degree subjects will also be represented at the event.
*All of these languages can be studied here at Oxford from beginners’ level.
Modern Languages Open Day 2022 photo (c) John Cairns
Our Modern Languages Open Day is aimed primarily at Year 12 students and their parents/ guardians/ teachers, but Year 11 students who are starting to think about university study are equally welcome to attend. The Open Day will offer an overview of our Modern Languages courses and a general Q&A for prospective students in the morning, with individual language sessions and a parents’/guardians’/teachers’ Q&A session occurring in the afternoon.
You can view the provisional event programme here.
The Oxford German Network have launched the 12th edition of its annual Olympiad Competition! The competition will run between now and March 2024 with winners being announced in June.
2024 theme: Kafkaesque Kreatures
This year’s competition is all about animals – but from perspectives with a difference. The tasks take inspiration from the animal stories by Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who gave the German and English languages the word kafkaesk / Kafkaesque to describe a weird, disturbing experience. Imagine waking up one morning and finding you’ve turned into a beetle. Or that you’re an animal living in a burrow, worrying about your animal enemies up above. But the animal perspectives aren’t all about weirdness – Kafka was a vegetarian. And his story about the ape Rotpeter shows deep concerns about how humans treat animals.
There are a variety of different challenges aimed at pupils in Years 5 and 6 all the way to Years 12 and 13. Some are for individuals to enter, others are aimed at groups. There is even a taster competition for pupils who have never studied German before! From drawing and painting to writing stories and planning conferences, there’s something for everyone! Take a look at the Olympiad website for more details.
You should:
Choose one of the tasks appropriate for your age group.
Complete all tasks in German, unless indicated otherwise.
Each participant may only enter for one task within their age group as an individual entrant. We will only accept group entries (2-4 participants) for the “Open Competition for Groups” category.
We require a consent form for under-13 participants. Click here to download the form.
Note to teachers: Teachers will be able to submit their students´ entries in bulk. Please contact olympiad@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk for instructions.
Further resources & information
Click here for some thoughts and ideas about this year’s tasks. You can also find the Kafka texts and creatures mentioned in the tasks here.
The closing date for all entries is Thursday, 7 March 2024 at 12 noon.
Results will be announced on the Oxford German Network website in June 2024. Winners will be contacted by e-mail.
During our Teachers’ Conference at the end of September, Professor Simon Kemp delivered a wonderful presentation about a common French A-level text, Joseph Joffo’s 1973 novel, Un sac de billes.
Prof. Simon Kemp presenting on Un sac de billes for our A-level Literature Circus session at our Teachers’ Conference in September 2023.
As well as looking at the symbolic imagery that the marbles provide in within the first few pages, and touching on themes of brotherly love and the cyclical nature of history, Simon highlighted a series of old blog posts about French A-level texts which we thought we would resurface and draw your attention to this week.
The series of articles all address a pertinent but perhaps unexpected question about common texts on the French A-level curricula.
If you have just started or are part way through your French A-level course, or if you just enjoy dabbling in French literature, then these articles will be perfect for you!
If you’re hoping to apply to study French at university, reading these kinds of articles is a perfect way to kick-start your super-curricular exploration of the French language and culture! Why not read more about the themes addressed in the blog posts, or dip into one of the other texts that sound intriguing to you…
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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