Online History Skills Workshops

Oxford University’s Faculty of History offers free online History Skills Workshops to state secondary school, sixth form and FE college pupils in years 12 & 13 from across the UK. 

Each workshop has three aims:

  • To inspire curiosity about the past and enthusiasm for studying history.
  • To help students to develop the analytical, critical, and imaginative skills that Russell Group universities look for in applicants for humanities degrees.
  • To inform and encourage students to consider applying to read history at university, including at the University of Oxford.
Online Workshop

Practical information

History skills workshops last about an hour and are held online via Microsoft Teams. You will require access to a computer, tablet or smartphone with the Microsoft Teams App or a browser that is compatible with Microsoft Teams in order to attend the session.

All history skills workshops are interactive. As part of a presentation, students will debate how historians should interpret thought-provoking primary sources, and will have time to ask questions about history, applying to university, and Oxford.

The workshops develop the skills that are tested by Oxford University’s undergraduate admissions process, including the History Aptitude Test (HAT) and admissions interviews. To find out more about applying to study history at Oxford, see: https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate-admissions

Workshops are taught by historians who are researching PhDs at Oxford and who have been trained to work with schools. Ambassadors are also able to put you in touch with admissions co-ordinators at Oxford who can provide further individual guidance to potential Oxford applicants.


We offer a number of free workshops to help develop your skills as a historian. 

Please note that the multiple dates offered are repeat workshops NOT different workshops. Book to attend the workshop that best suits your schedule. 

1. History Research Skills 

This workshop aims to introduce students to the skills that they will need to undertake successful independent research. Our Graduate Outreach Tutors (all of whom are currently working on in-depth and specialist historical research projects) will discuss and engage students with the research process from choosing a question to writing up. 

Upcoming workshops

2. Thinking Big: concepts and historiography

This workshop is designed to encourage students to engage critically with historiography and different concepts. Students will explore why engaging with how we write history is an essential and exciting part of being a historian and discuss what we mean by conceptual clarity. 

Upcoming workshops

3. Primary Sources

In this workshop we explore the different kinds of sources that Historians use in their research. Students will then have the chance to put their analysis skills into practice with a variety of sources currently being used by our Graduate Outreach Tutors in their research.

Upcoming workshops

4. Admissions: the HAT

This workshop aims to demystify the Oxford admissions process and build student’s confidence and ability to analyse unseen primary sources as we work through a past History Admissions Test (HAT) paper. 

Upcoming workshops

Please note these are all the same workshop. Please only book a place on ONE workshop. 

5. An Introduction to History of Art: Visual Analysis

The aim of this workshop is to provide a general introduction to studying History of Art at university. We will go through some of the discipline’s key concepts and methodologies and practice one of the key skills of art history - visual analysis.

Upcoming workshops

 


The History Faculty’s outreach programme seeks to challenge educational inequalities across the UK. To find out more, email outreach@history.ox.ac.uk. For information about other Oxford University outreach activities, including UNIQ summer schools, Oxplore digital learning resources, and teacher conferences, see: ox.ac.uk/access.