Overview
Classes meet in the college museum, the chapel and the galleries of three nearby cities. You will learn to look closely, to place a work in its time, and to write about what you see.
The course includes a study trip each year and a curatorial project in which students mount a small exhibition from the college collections.
- 3Study trips
- 1Exhibition curated by students
- 4,000Objects in the college collections
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.
Year 1
- Looking at Art
- Classical and Medieval Art
- Renaissance and Baroque
- Architecture of the College
Year 2
- Modern Art, 1850-1950
- Museums and Collecting
- Curatorial project
- Study trip
Year 3
- Special subject
- Dissertation of 10,000 words
- Study trip
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
Essays, visual analysis papers, the curatorial project and a dissertation.
Entry requirements
- A levels: AAA in any subjects
- International Baccalaureate: 38 points
- One piece of marked written work
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:
- Museums and galleries
- Auction houses
- Heritage and conservation
- Publishing
- Teaching
- Arts journalism
We wrote our essays about paintings we could walk to. That changes how honestly you look.
Felix Warren 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.
