History of Art at Oxbridge
Hi!!!
I'm a high school student from the U.S. looking to apply to english schools for History of Art. Could someone please explain how the college system works at Oxbridge and which have the best History of Art programs? Is double major a thing?
I'm a high school student from the U.S. looking to apply to english schools for History of Art. Could someone please explain how the college system works at Oxbridge and which have the best History of Art programs? Is double major a thing?
Reply 1
I'm pretty sure you can't double major/do a joint honours degree in History of Art at Oxford. Less certain about Cambridge, as I didn't study there!
Colleges are basically where you primarily eat, sleep, and socialise. You will have many of your tutorials (small-group sessions with a DPhil (PhD) student, or a lecturer or Professor of some variety) at your college, but not necessarily all of them. Lectures are centralised and colleges don't tend to specialise in any particular subject - so it's not a case of there being a college that's "best" for History of Art.
The best way to narrow down colleges (other than by eliminating ones that don't offer History of Art) is to consider what you'd like from your living experience during those three years. For example, do you want
Things like that. Bear in mind around 25% of students end up at an Oxford college that they didn't apply to, though - so try not to get too fixated on a particular college 
Colleges are basically where you primarily eat, sleep, and socialise. You will have many of your tutorials (small-group sessions with a DPhil (PhD) student, or a lecturer or Professor of some variety) at your college, but not necessarily all of them. Lectures are centralised and colleges don't tend to specialise in any particular subject - so it's not a case of there being a college that's "best" for History of Art.
The best way to narrow down colleges (other than by eliminating ones that don't offer History of Art) is to consider what you'd like from your living experience during those three years. For example, do you want
•
a big college or a small one
•
a traditional/Harry Potter-esque one, or something more modern
•
ensuite room possibility? Kitchen access? Gym within the college grounds? Sports pitches? Green grassy areas you're allowed to walk on?
•
somewhere near the city centre, or a bit further out
•
somewhere near your lecture hall/main libraries
•
As an international student, do you need to be able to stay in college during the holidays? Be able to store your luggage somewhere within college?
Reply 2
Original post
by elizabethchao89Hi!!!
I'm a high school student from the U.S. looking to apply to english schools for History of Art. Could someone please explain how the college system works at Oxbridge and which have the best History of Art programs? Is double major a thing?
I'm a high school student from the U.S. looking to apply to english schools for History of Art. Could someone please explain how the college system works at Oxbridge and which have the best History of Art programs? Is double major a thing?
Also, don't forget to take a look at: "The Oxford University Alternative Prospectus." 🙂
College Suggester - Oxford University Alternative Prospectus
Reply 3
Original post
by The_Lonely_GoatherdI'm pretty sure you can't double major/do a joint honours degree in History of Art at Oxford. Less certain about Cambridge, as I didn't study there!
Colleges are basically where you primarily eat, sleep, and socialise. You will have many of your tutorials (small-group sessions with a DPhil (PhD) student, or a lecturer or Professor of some variety) at your college, but not necessarily all of them. Lectures are centralised and colleges don't tend to specialise in any particular subject - so it's not a case of there being a college that's "best" for History of Art.
The best way to narrow down colleges (other than by eliminating ones that don't offer History of Art) is to consider what you'd like from your living experience during those three years. For example, do you want
Things like that. Bear in mind around 25% of students end up at an Oxford college that they didn't apply to, though - so try not to get too fixated on a particular college
Colleges are basically where you primarily eat, sleep, and socialise. You will have many of your tutorials (small-group sessions with a DPhil (PhD) student, or a lecturer or Professor of some variety) at your college, but not necessarily all of them. Lectures are centralised and colleges don't tend to specialise in any particular subject - so it's not a case of there being a college that's "best" for History of Art.
The best way to narrow down colleges (other than by eliminating ones that don't offer History of Art) is to consider what you'd like from your living experience during those three years. For example, do you want
•
a big college or a small one
•
a traditional/Harry Potter-esque one, or something more modern
•
ensuite room possibility? Kitchen access? Gym within the college grounds? Sports pitches? Green grassy areas you're allowed to walk on?
•
somewhere near the city centre, or a bit further out
•
somewhere near your lecture hall/main libraries
•
As an international student, do you need to be able to stay in college during the holidays? Be able to store your luggage somewhere within college?
Looking at a lot of the colleges at oxford it seems like there are only 1-3 history of art students every year? Is art history not a very popular major in england?
Reply 4
Original post
by elizabethchao89Looking at a lot of the colleges at oxford it seems like there are only 1-3 history of art students every year? Is art history not a very popular major in england?
It's one of the smaller Oxford subjects, yes! I think art history is a bit more niche than other subjects like English literature or history (for example) because it's not a subject found in every secondary (high) school in the UK. So people don't get an early feel for what it might be like at degree level, so there's less demand for it at university. That's just my guess, though!
There are no joint courses in history of art at either to my knowledge. I'd note that it's not uncommon however to do an undergraduate degree in one subject (often although not always historically oriented, albeit usually a humanities subject) then do a masters in history of art. So if you have interests in a parallel discipline (e.g. archaeology and/or anthropology, history, classics and allied fields, language studies etc) then it's perfectly reasonable to do a degree in that area then a masters in history of art.
I suspect they're broadly similar at undergraduate level. Worth noting the Oxford history of art course has a number of options shared with the history or fine art students, whereas I think the Cambridge course is more self-contained. Both cities have a large number of very well known and established museums and galleries and I believe both are utilised by history of art students at each university
Cambridge might be a tad easier to get to London by train though for visiting more museums/galleries there!
As above while generally it's not an enormously oversubscribed subject to start with, the Oxford and Cambridge courses I believe are particularly small to facilitate the smaller group learning those universities are specialists in. By way of comparison the arguably next best history of art course in the UK, at the Courtauld, the cohort is about 80-100 students a year; however that is also the only degree they offer! UCL by comparison which offers a couple different courses in their history of art department (including a number of joint honours courses) takes on about 70 or so a year across all their programmes. Sadly the joint course between UCL and SOAS in Asian, African, and European history of art seems to have closed now though
I suspect they're broadly similar at undergraduate level. Worth noting the Oxford history of art course has a number of options shared with the history or fine art students, whereas I think the Cambridge course is more self-contained. Both cities have a large number of very well known and established museums and galleries and I believe both are utilised by history of art students at each university
Cambridge might be a tad easier to get to London by train though for visiting more museums/galleries there!As above while generally it's not an enormously oversubscribed subject to start with, the Oxford and Cambridge courses I believe are particularly small to facilitate the smaller group learning those universities are specialists in. By way of comparison the arguably next best history of art course in the UK, at the Courtauld, the cohort is about 80-100 students a year; however that is also the only degree they offer! UCL by comparison which offers a couple different courses in their history of art department (including a number of joint honours courses) takes on about 70 or so a year across all their programmes. Sadly the joint course between UCL and SOAS in Asian, African, and European history of art seems to have closed now though
Reply 6
You can do history of art jointly with other subjects at St Andrews, which ranks among the top in the UK for history of art according to various league tables, including https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2024/sep/07/best-uk-universities-for-history-of-art-league-table and https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/history-of-art-architecture-and-design and https://www.thetimes.com/uk-university-rankings/league-table
(edited 8 months ago)
Reply 7
It is worth noting that the art history departments at Oxford and Cambridge are very small, so the departmental expertise is a bit lumpy. Cambridge for example is very strong on renaissance and early modern less so for example on modern black or byzantine art. At undergraduate level this matters less but you need to be comfortable being part of a very small department. The Courtauld Institute is in London is the smallest school at the University of London but does take in 80-100 students a year, only teaches Art History and has a much larger teaching faculty and a much wider range of topics. It is also linked to King's College London and BA students can take a modern language or other humanities options. On the QS world rankings the Courtauld is 8 higher than Cambridge and 11 higher than Oxford for art history
Reply 8
would also add, art history will always be a much smaller department no matter the uni but when going to the Oxford open day vs the Cambridge one and seeing the statistics, Cambridge has around 30-45 a year whilst Oxford takes in only around 15-20 a year with around 100-115 applicants for both (just smth to consider)
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