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Welcome to the home of some of history’s greatest thinkers!
Throughout the Oxford Summer Programme (OSP), students will journey to astonishing places, where they will experience academic enrichment and discover newfound confidence in their own research and writing abilities. Oxford is home to over 100 libraries just waiting to be explored; nothing will compare to this vast collection of scholarly resources. OSP fuels intellectual development at all levels of education. OSP seminars give scholars the chance to explore their chosen subject in-depth with an expert member of faculty and a small group of committed students. Each student takes two seminars. Each seminar course consists of five classes and two tutorials. Classes are meetings of 1.5 hours with the seminar leader and a small but varying number of participants. For each class, students read all or parts of assigned texts and then discuss them. No written work is required for the classes. Tutorials provide an opportunity for students to go one-on-one with their professors and defend their arguments and support their positions, students will be readying themselves for graduate school. During OSP, even when the book is down, the studies never really stop.
OSP is organized by SCIO, Scholarship & Christianity in Oxford, which is the UK subsidiary of BestSemester and the CCCU. It is a research center based in Oxford working in close partnership with Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford.
** Eligibility Requirements **
The Oxford Summer Programme is an interdisciplinary program which gives no preference to students in any particular field of study. OSP is designed for rising college sophomores, juniors and seniors; graduate and seminary students; non-traditional students; teachers; and those enrolled in continuing education programs. Generally a minimum GPA of 2.9 is required, though in the case of non-traditional students this may be reviewed (note this GPA requirement differs from that of the SSO programme), and OSP may accept any exceptional student it believes can meet the rigorous demands of the program. When non-Council students are admitted, an additional $500 is charged for their participation. (Not sure whether your school is part of the CCCU? Check out the list here.)
`I think the most surprising thing for me [about my BestSemester experience] was what we learned outside of the classroom. When you go abroad, you're experiencing a whole different culture, a different way of living life, and (to an extent) a different way of living out the Christian walk. It's so easy to get stuck on one way of doing things, but when you discover that there are different approaches to living life, and that those approaches may be just as valid as yours, then all sorts of new doors open up. That's what my experience did for me - it opened all sorts of doors in my life that I'd never even knew existed.` — Chloe Whitaker - Fall 2012
