Open-access short courses

Part-time learning at Oxford University – online and in Oxford
Start your learning journey at Oxford Continuing Education, at any time of life! You’ll join a highly diverse learning community: students of all ages, from all backgrounds and from all over the world.
Learn more about the different types of courses we offer below.
- Day and weekend events run in person or online, with some offered in both formats. Explore a topic in depth over one or two days with multiple speakers or hone your skills in small workshops and hands-on practical sessions.
- Weekly learning programmes are studied over one or two terms. These include courses that meet in Oxford, online courses with live-time sessions, and flexible online courses. Most of these courses are taught at undergraduate level, require coursework and may be studied for credit.
- Lecture series are a series of six weekly lectures on a given topic, providing a comprehensive introduction to your chosen subject. All are held in person in Oxford, with the majority also being livestreamed.
- Summer schools: Join us in Oxford for personal enrichment, academic progression or professional development. Many summer schools can be taken for credit; others require no coursework, and are non-assessed.
Upcoming courses
In-person day/weekend • Short courses
We will take a brief look at the workings of the brain, and how psychologists describe the functions of attention, perception and memory. Explore how these processes can work to fool us, and what we have learned from dysfunction.
- Fri 27 Jun 2025
- 10:00am – 5:00pm
Online - live • Professional development • Hybrid - in person or online
Consider techniques for reading effectively in different contexts, and think critically through seminal papers from different academic disciplines. Part of the Graduate School's postgraduate research skills training programme.
- Wed 09 Jul 2025
- 11:00am – 1:00pm
Online - live • Professional development • Hybrid - in person or online
Discounted package for all 5 postgraduate research skills training sessions: Academic Reading: Approach and Critique; Writing an Abstract; Improving Your Presentations; Writing Your Methodology; and Research Interviews: Styles and Techniques.
- Wed 09 Jul 2025 – 06 Aug 2025
- 5 meetings
- 11:00am – 1:00pm
Online - live • Professional development • Hybrid - in person or online
This interactive and practical hybrid session will consider how to write a clear and effective abstract in various different academic contexts. Part of the Graduate School's postgraduate research skills training programme.
- Wed 16 Jul 2025
- 11:00am – 1:00pm
Summer schools • Short courses
Explore the detective fiction of Agatha Christie, examining her two most famous detectives: Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. We’ll look at the historical contexts and narrative structures of some of Christie’s most successful whodunits.
- Sun 20 Jul 2025 – 26 Jul 2025
Summer schools • Short courses
Try your hand at four distinct types of short-form writing – micro-memoir, flash fiction, short creative non-fiction and prose poetry – and discover how each of them can benefit your writing life.
- Sun 20 Jul 2025 – 26 Jul 2025
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