Application forms

Candidates must submit a UCAS form. These are available from your school or college, or from the central Oxford College Admissions Office. On this you can either name a college of first choice or submit an open application, which means that you will be allocated a college of first choice.

Written work

You will be required to submit two recent marked essays, each written as part of a school or college course within a two-week period or less, preferably in different subjects; you have the option of submitting an additional piece of work composed over a longer period of time if you so wish.  You are also required to submit a statement of no more than 300 words explaining your interests in the joint degree and what you understand to be the links between archaeology and anthropology. We are looking for something different than the general statement on your UCAS form, something that tells us why you are particularly interested in Archaeology and Anthropology at Oxford.

You should make sure that your essays and your statement of 300 words are sent directly to the Admissions Office of your chosen College to arrive before the stated deadline. All such material must be written in English. If you have any difficulty about identifying suitable essay topics please consult the relevant tutor at your chosen College well in advance of this deadline. If you have made an open application, then you should send your written work to the College to which you have been allocated.

Interviews

If you are invited for interview you will normally be required to stay for around three days in early December. You will have at least one interview in your college of preference and at least one interview at another college.

Interviews will include the following components:

1. Discussion of a topic of your own choice connected with the degree (e.g. a book that you have read, an archaeological excavation in which you have participated).

2. You will be asked to read a short passage before the interview and will be asked questions on it during the interviews.

3. Discussion of artefacts, maps or written material which you will be asked to interpret.

We are looking for how you think your way through problems, not for any specific knowledge and therefore no special preparation is required.

Interviews are typically wide-ranging, giving us the opportunity to find out about you as a person, your interests and your potential and allowing you to ask us questions about the degree or Oxford life in general. Some of the qualities for which we are looking in selecting students are:

• An ability to think independently
• Potential
• Motivation
• Enthusiasm and interest
• Commitment

Written test

There is no written test at interview.

Offers

If you are successful at this stage, you will receive an offer of a place. This will be conditional on your achieving specified grades in your school-leaving exams, unless you have already left school.

Overseas candidates

We welcome applicants from outside the United Kingdom. Information about applying from outside the UK is available on the main University of Oxford website.

English Language Proficiency Criteria

All non native English-speaking applicants (other than those who have educated in the medium of the English language during their two most recent years of study) must demonstrate that they are proficient in written and spoken English. If these requirements are not achieved at the time of application they will form part of any conditional offer.