What formal graduate skills training is provided?
Students in all programmes of study are given intensive training, through practice in the first instance, in understanding and interpreting texts and writing essays on the basis of these texts, as well as constructing longer works of varying length in the form of theses or extended essays, the higher ones in particular normally being based partly on field research. Part of this training involves learning how to construct arguments and support them with evidence at a high level of academic discourse, as well as to develop the ability to criticize the work of others in the discipline effectively but professionally. At the same time, students are encouraged to develop their own intellectual strengths and scholarly abilities so as to equip them for involvement in the discipline at a professional level. Research students in particular are given a number of opportunities to present their work in class or seminar formats and are encouraged to attend relevant conferences in Oxford or elsewhere
