Overview
No previous Latin or Greek is needed. Students who have not studied the languages take an intensive beginners' year, and by the end of it are reading Virgil and Homer in the original.
Alongside the languages you will study ancient history, philosophy, art and archaeology, including a fieldwork season on a Mediterranean excavation.
- 0Latin or Greek needed to apply
- 4 weeksOf fieldwork on an excavation
- 900Books in the 1864 founding library, many of them classical
Course structure
The outline below shows a typical path through the course. Options change a little each year as tutors join and research moves on.
Beginners' year (if needed)
- Intensive Latin
- Intensive Greek
- Greek and Roman History
Year 1
- Homer and Virgil
- Greek Tragedy
- The Roman Republic
- Classical Art and Archaeology
Year 2
- Plato and Aristotle
- Roman Historians
- Excavation fieldwork
- One option
Year 3
- Two special subjects
- Dissertation of 10,000 words
How you will learn
You will have two tutorials a week with one or two other students, where you discuss the essay or problem set you wrote that week with a tutor. Lectures, seminars of ten to twelve students and practical classes fill the rest of the week. Each student has a personal tutor for the whole degree.
Assessment
Language papers and unseen translation, essays, a fieldwork report and a dissertation.
Entry requirements
- A levels: AAA; Latin or Greek welcome but not required
- International Baccalaureate: 38 points
- A language aptitude test for applicants without Latin or Greek
We make contextual offers, typically one grade lower, to applicants from schools that send few students to university. If your qualifications are not listed, the admissions office will tell you what we would expect.
Fees and funding
Tuition for 2027-28 is $38,400 a year, including college membership. Under the Aldermere Promise, students from families earning under $85,000 a year pay no tuition, and partial awards continue up to $150,000. Every undergraduate also receives a $2,000 grant each year for books, travel and equipment.
Careers
Graduates of this programme go on to a wide range of careers. Recent destinations include:
- Law
- Museums and heritage
- Teaching
- Publishing
- Civil service
- Finance
Eighteen months after my first Greek lesson I was reading Sophocles aloud in the cloister. Nobody believed me at home.
Jonah Fraser Final year
Questions
Can I change programme after I arrive?
Yes, at the end of the first year, if there is space on the programme you want to move to and your tutors agree. Around one student in twenty does.
Is there an interview?
Yes. Shortlisted applicants have a conversation of about twenty-five minutes with two tutors in December, in person or online. It is about how you think, not what you have memorised.
