Are you a state school student interested in studying English at the University of Oxford? The English Faculty at Oxford will be holding our annual State School Open Day on Saturday 14th March 2026 from 11am – 3pm, online via Zoom Webinar. Join us to find out more about the course and admissions process. We will have taster lectures and information talks from professors, and an exciting Q&A with current students.
The event is open to all state school pupils and their teachers. It is aimed at Year 12s.
REGISTER FOR YOUR FREE TICKET
Programme
11:00 – 11:05: Introduction and welcome from Professor Kirsten Shepherd, Director of Schools Liaison
11:05 – 11:35: Taster Lecture – Professor Gillian Woods – ‘Rhyme and Reasoning’
Found everywhere from playground chants to political speeches, rhyme is language at its most persuasive. Throughout history, it has been understood as giving verse a pulse, forging bonds, and unreasonably making sameness out of difference. Using Shakespeare as a case study, this short talk will show how close readings of form and style can offer a route into understanding the debates of the past, illuminate the ideological dynamics of a text, and offer opportunities for performers in the present.
Gillian Woods is an Associate Professor and Tutorial Fellow in English at Magdalen College, and worked previously at Birkbeck, University of London and the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on early modern drama and she is a General Editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Shakespeare Editions. She has a particular interest in teaching, and was a Series Editor of the Cambridge Elements in Shakespeare and Pedagogy and has worked with school teachers through her Shakespeare Teachers' Conversations series and an English Association Hub. State school educated and a first-generation university graduate, she is committed to outreach.
11:35 – 12:05: Oxford English (with Professor Kirsten Shepherd)
12:05 – 12:50: Oxford Admissions + Q&A (with Professor Sos Eltis, Director of Undergraduate Admissions)
12:50 – 13:10: Break
13:10– 13:45: Taster Lecture – Professor Michael H. Whitworth – Lecture title TBC.
13:50 – 14:50: Student Ambassadors Q&A
- We will be joined by four current students – Emily, Ksenia, Sanvi and Soham – to discuss details of the course and university life. Come along with your questions to find out more!
14:50 Closing remarks from Professor Kirsten Shepherd.
