Economics and Management interviews

Thank you for applying to Oxford to study E&M. You may have two interviews scheduled within an hour – as each will last 20 minutes, you will have time for a short break in between.

We understand that not all our applicants will have studied either economics or management; so we won’t be trying to test your knowledge in either subject. However, we will try and gauge your interest in engaging with the type of thinking that we do under each heading.

In economics, we’re likely to ask one or more ‘puzzle questions’. These are supposed to be puzzling! We’re not expecting you to get the right answer immediately, instead we’d like to see how you think it through. So please tell us your thoughts, don’t try to do it in your head! We often provide hints as you do this. This doesn’t mean you’re doing badly – it’s a way for us to see how it would go for us to teach you. And don’t worry if you only get one such question: we know that some of our questions are longer than others, so we probably didn’t expect to ask more than one. It doesn’t mean you did it particularly slowly.

For management, we’re interested to see how much you enjoy thinking broadly about the type of questions that arise for those running, working in, investing in and regulating organisations. This ends up often being quite broad, and might lead us into thinking about current affairs, ethics, psychology, and sociology. But we’re not looking for how much you know, but how much you enjoy exploring new ideas.

For E&M interviews, the University recommends that you have access to a Miro whiteboard (www.miro.com) for sharing resources in the interview. Take a look at our Online Interviews Technology page to find out more and watch an introductory video. If you have any questions or concerns about the technology set-up, you should email undergraduate.admissions@hertford.ox.ac.uk and we’ll work with you to find alternatives.