Religion and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at University of Oxford

Start with the official Oxford course page, because it is the primary source for entry requirements, written work, interviews, course structure and statistics.

Use the Faculty of Theology and Religion undergraduate admissions FAQs to understand course structure, colleges, interview count, interview duration and admissions process details. Keep the Oxford admissions timeline open while planning, because the verified resource set uses it as the official 2027-entry dates source.

For subject preparation, turn the course structure into a reading-and-language plan. Pick one possible language route, one religious tradition or question, and one primary-text problem you want to understand better; that keeps your preparation specific to this joint degree rather than drifting into a generic humanities reading list.

The World's Religions by Huston Smith provides a sympathetic survey of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity that treats each tradition on its own terms — useful for understanding the range of this joint degree.

For video lectures, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford and SOAS University of London both publish academic talks directly relevant to this degree’s combination of religious studies and area studies.

For structured study, Introduction to the Hebrew Bible from Yale Open Courses provides a rigorous academic treatment of biblical texts, their composition and historical context. In Our Time has authoritative episodes on Islam, Sufism, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism that build the comparative vocabulary Oxford interviews expect.

38 colleges offer this subject. 15.4% of applicants submit an open application. around a third may be reallocated or receive an offer from a college other than the named college, per course-page wording of places come through the pool.

Oxford applicants can choose a college or make an open application, and they may still be interviewed by or offered a place at another college. Oxford uses this process to reallocate candidates between colleges where needed.

Reallocation exists so that strong candidates are not disadvantaged by applying to a particularly oversubscribed college. For this course, the course-page wording suggests that around a third may be reallocated or receive an offer from a college other than the named college; treat this as a partial-confidence course-page indication rather than a guaranteed annual rate.

College choice affects community, accommodation and initial handling, but it should not be treated as a way to game the course. Choose a college you would be happy to live and work in, then prepare as if the academic assessment could happen across more than one college.