I though I would take a moment to explain a little bit about how academics here at Oxford work, along with a little bit about our program and what I will be studying!
The University of Oxford is actually a federation of 38 independent colleges, each with its own campus and governing bodies, which run the day to day business of the college. The university's role is to oversee examinations, the library system, and confers degrees. Academics at Oxford are done mainly through the tutorial system. Tutors (the teachers) assign readings and a paper topic for a student, who works on the paper in preparation for the tutorial meeting. The tutor and student meet weekly, one-on-one, and the paper serves as the basis for discussion, which often involves many questions from the tutor and the student attempting to defend and explain their work.
My primary tutorial is on international relations and the secondary is on sub-Saharan African history. Currently I am working on my first paper for international relations, which is focused on the main competing theories of the field. I know! You all have such excited looks on your faces already! It has been lots of reading already and there is still lots more reading/skimming to do, since my first reading list has over 50 books on it! (Lets just say that the Social Sciences Library and I have become well acquainted.)
The APU program is run through an office called the Oxford Programe for Undergraduate Studies(or OPUS), which coordinates several study abroad programs at Oxford. For our program we have two tutorials: a primary (which meets 7 times) and a secondary (which meets 5 times). The term at Oxford lasts 8 weeks, following which we will have a short break and then come back for a seminar (a tutorial with 3-4 other students) on British politics or history.
Each student in the program is placed in one of four Oxford colleges: New, Christ Church, St.Catherine's, and Hartford. I ended up in New, which, despite its name is actually over 600 years old. The "New" name comes from the fact that the official name is College of St. Mary, but when the college was founded there was already a college of St. Mary in Oxford, so the college then took on the name, New College of St. Mary, shortened to New College. It feels like going to school in a castle! Just check out our dinning hall!
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