The Tutorial System

Undergraduate instruction at Oxford University is largely carried out through individual or small-group tutorials, in which students meet weekly with their tutor to present and discuss an essay they have written, based on an extensive amount of reading undertaken from an assigned reading list they will receive at the beginning of each term. In addition to the weekly tutorial, students are from time to time encouraged to attend a pertinent course of lectures offered by the University that corresponds to the material being addressed in their tutorials.

Each student will plan a course of study for the three terms of the academic year in consultation with the Director of the Programme. In his or her capacity as the Tutor for Visiting Students at Exeter College, the Director, working closely with Exeter's subject tutors, will arrange the teaching for the students, monitor student progress, be in regular contact with the student's tutors, supervise the examinations that students will sit at the end of each academic term, and report on each student's academic progress to the Senior Tutor at Exeter College. There are no 'add/drop' periods at Oxford; once a student has made a commitment to a particular tutorial course, and the Director has then secured a tutor to teach that course, students cannot back out.

Over the course of the three terms, students are required to enroll in a minimum of FOUR full tutorial courses (each consisting of eight individual tutorial meetings and requiring the preparation of eight essays) and ONE half tutorial course (consisting of four individual tutorial meetings and the preparation of four essays). Some students choose to substitute a fifth full tutorial course for the half tutorial course and a few will decide to enroll in two full tutorial courses each term. The average course load undertaken by most students in residence in Oxford during the past has been five full tutorial courses or their equivalent.