Best Oxford Summer Schools

If you’re looking for a detailed breakdown of the best Oxford summer schools, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll be looking at four of the best Oxford summer schools, first discussing their course content, prices, and, last but not least, the pros of each institution. 

Oxford Summer Courses

This summer school company was founded by a group of Oxford alumni looking to share the magic of Oxford with the wider world. They offer either 1-, 2-, and 4-week summer courses. The range of subjects Oxford Summer Courses offer is truly impressive. They have pretty much every subject in the book.  

Some of their most popular courses are namely:

• Biology
• Business
• Computer Science
• History
• Law
• Medicine
• Philosophy

That really is just the beginning. I truly recommend you browse their course catalogue. Price: 2 weeks for £5095 (moves up to £5595 if you want an en-suite and private room) What the price includes: All teaching, 1-1 or 1-2 tutorials, skills workshops, accommodation, meals (including some in local restaurants), a prize-giving ceremony, three-course college banquet each Friday evening, graduation ceremony, excursions and finally, airport transfers.

Pros:

• Their average class size is four students
• 55 total academic subjects to select from
• 91% of tutors for the 18-24 age group studied at Cambridge or Oxford
• British Council accreditation for EFL courses
• BAC accreditation for UK short courses

Summer Boarding Courses (SBC)

With over 12,000 students having attended since 2009, this, makes SBC one of the most famous summer schools. Moreover, in the years 2018, 2019, and 2020, they ranked #1 in the El Gazette accreditation league tables. What's more, they also won one of the 2019 PIEoneer awards for secondary learning international impact. 

They offer the following courses: 

• Business and Leadership
• Engineering
• General English
• International Relations
• Law
• Mathematics
• Medicine
• Natural Sciences
• Politics and Economics
• Psychology

There are also several different campuses across England. In fact, if you wish to visit a different campus, there are some further subjects like Academic Discovery. Price: 2 weeks for £4,000 (at the Cambridge and Oxford locations). What the price includes: By going to Summer Boarding Courses, your fees will include accommodation, meals, progress reports, certification, laundry, a U.K. SIM card, travel insurance, 3 cultural excursions, extra activities and academic options, a full afternoon and evening activity programme, and most importantly, all tuition. 

Pros:

• Ranked as the #1 summer school provided in the U.K. by the El Gazette
• The summer school was awarded 15/15 areas of strength by the British Council inspection, namely, the first and only multi-campus summer school to achieve this)
• International mindset: having accommodated 151 different nationalities

Summer in Oxford

The international Summer in Oxford accommodates students from 13 to-19-years-old. They offer students a glimpse of what it’s like to study at Oxford. With a mixture of lectures, workshops, and mentoring, this is indeed a very comprehensive programme. Summer at Oxford offers four different academies that you can attend. Each of these is one of the four taught subjects.

You can choose from: 

• Economics
• Law
• Natural Science
• Philosophy, Politics, Economics (PPE).

The programme consists of 24 lecture hours of seminars and elective teaching, alongside a further 12 hours of workshops. All of these will be beneficially conducted by students, tutors, and lecturers specifically from the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge. Price: 2 weeks for £4,380 What the price includes: Your stay at Summer in Oxford will grant you all of the lectures and seminars, accommodation in a double room inside the campus, three meals a day, certification of attendance and achievement, academic transcript, three cultural excursions, leisure activity, evening academic talks, and to top it off, a welcome and farewell reception.

Pros:

• Offers additional ‘Future Leaders’ workshops on different topics each year. Past years have covered ‘Interview Techniques’ and ‘Public Speaking’.
• Student blog has a detailed summary of past students’ experiences 
• International mindset with over 100 different nationality students having participated
• Excursions visit lots of British landmarks and historic sites
• Social and sporting events are organised outside of teaching hours

Oxford Scholastica

Founded by two Oxford graduates, for this reason, Oxford Scholastica has a proven track record of helping students personally and academically. To. expand, 98% of reviewers have recommended the summer school, with an average of 4.85/5 stars over 434 reviews. The summer school has an international mindset. To illustrate, during the past summer alone, students from 85 different nationalities came to the Oxford Scholastica programme. For this reason, of those students, 9/10 said it was one of the most memorable summers of their life. Moreover, an additional 9/10 students said the courses granted them certainty about their future path. Finally, 10/10 parents said they would recommend the course to other parents.  

For 15–18-year-olds, they offer the following courses: 

• Business and Enterprise
• Computer Science and Coding
• Creative Writing
• Debate and Public Speaking
• Engineering
• International Relations, Politics and Leadership
• Law
• Medicine
• Psychology and Neuroscience

Price: Two weeks for £4,995 What the price includes: Accommodation, excursions to historical landmarks, graduation ceremony, academic certification, as well as breakfast and dinner (not lunch).

Pros:

• A fantastic array of cultural excursions
• The ability to choose which sporting activities you want to participate in
• A detailed class outline of every course so you know exactly what you’re getting
• Accredited as a short course provider by the British Accreditation Council

Closing thoughts

There you have it! To conclude, a summary of the four best Oxford summer schools and their pros, prices, and course content. If you’re looking for a truly unforgettable academic experience, with this in mind, why not apply for this coming summer? Don't forget, you need help studying for a particular Oxford admissions exam, you can always get in touch with our fantastic team of tutors!