Oxford was one of the pioneers of the University Extension movement in the United Kingdom, and we still retain our original mission of making the scholarship of the University accessible to wider audiences.
In recent years the Department has grown very considerably, and now every year more than 15,000 people join one or more of our courses. Our students may be members of the public who wish to study a subject out of general interest or for personal satisfaction, members of professional groups or business organisations who wish to update their professional knowledge and skills, or participants in our increasingly large number of courses for international groups.
Most of our longer courses now lead to a University award or other forms of credit but the large number of short courses on offer may be taken by those who are less interested in obtaining further qualifications. Courses last from one day to several weeks; the residential courses are held in Oxford but other part-time courses are also held in a large number of other centres.
