Our tutorial fellows are experts in their fields and will support you through Oxford’s small-group tutorial teaching model. Most of your teaching in the first years of your degree will be in college, organised by your Hertford tutors. We will teach you a broad range of subjects in an average of two tutorials per week – discussions between a tutor and two or three students where you will have the opportunity to test your ideas and learn from your peers. If we don’t have the relevant expertise, we will arrange for you to be taught by subject experts based at other colleges.

Your lectures and practical classes will be organised by the Department of Engineering Science. These are open to all Engineering students across the University, meaning that you will be able to work alongside students from other colleges and build links across the department. In your fourth year you will be able to choose a range of special subjects which will be taught centrally by the course leader, alongside your own research project.

We will assess your progress through exams and assessed practical coursework. You will sit exams at the end of every year – those in your second, third and fourth years will contribute to your overall degree classification. Find out more about course options and assessment on the department website.

A degree in Engineering Science from Oxford gives you a fantastic range of transferable skills which help to make our graduates highly employable, as well as providing an excellent basis for continuing on to further study. The course is accredited by six major institutions, and many of our students go on to work in the industry – Hertford graduates have followed careers in fields as diverse as civil engineering, microelectronics, healthcare and aerospace. You could also use the skills gained in your degree to move into managerial, financial and entrepreneurial jobs, while some of our students go on to start their own companies.

As well as submitting your UCAS form, you will need to sit the Physics Aptitude Test (PAT) at your school or other test centre. You can prepare for this by practising with the past papers which are available online. If we don’t shortlist you for interview, other colleges will be able to see your application, ensuring that you have a fair chance of success regardless of the college you apply to.

If you are shortlisted, you will have two interviews – one will be with Hertford and the other will be with a second college. In your Hertford interview, we will explore your interest in Engineering and test how well you can develop your ideas in mathematics and physics. We are not trying to trick you or trip you up, but to see your reasoning skills and how well you can apply theoretical understanding to practical problems.

The maths questions will be based on what you have studied at school, while the physics question will usually centre around an electrical or mechanical situation chosen to match the topics you have already studied. You will be asked to explain the physics of what is going on and, with help from us, you’ll be expected to develop the physical arguments using simple maths. This helps us to see how well you can express physical concepts mathematically, and how you might benefit from studying in Oxford’s tutorial system.