Pre-sessional Course in Academic English

There are a number of reasons to choose the Oxford Online Pre-sessional:

• You are able to follow the course from the convenience of your own home, and do not need to travel to Oxford
• The course is specifically designed for online delivery. Using cutting edge technology and software, the course follows the same curriculum, and offers the same quality of experience, as our in-person offering
• You will not miss out on personal feedback and social interactions. Over the weeks, you will:
  • receive regular personalised tutorials and feedback with University of Oxford language tutors
  • have the opportunity to meet and socialise with students from around the world in a virtual classroom environment

Oxford University offer-holders

• The course is open to all students with conditional or unconditional offers from Oxford University.
• A visa is not required for the online Pre-sessional course.
• Graduate offer holders can use the English language Pre-sessional Course to meet their English language condition provided:
  • They have completed an English language test within the past two years
  • That result is no more than 0.5 IELTS points overall lower than the Standard or Higher level required (equivalencies for other tests can be found here) 
  • That result is no more than 1.0 IELTS points (or equivalent) lower than the overall score in any of the four individual components (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening) for the Standard or Higher level required. The minimum scores required to enrol on the pre-sessional English Course are shown in the table below.

• Oxford offer-holders will need to provide evidence of their English language test result before being admitted to the Pre-sessional course. Please see the University’s English language requirements for undergraduate study and postgraduate study.
• The successful completion of the Pre-sessional at the required level will automatically satisfy the English language condition and assessment will be completed in time for visa applications.
• An offer holder who narrowly fails to pass the Pre-sessional at the required level for their academic course may, at the discretion of the department with the agreement of the college, be allowed to make good their deficiency in the relevant skill by taking an appropriate course in-term in Academic English at the Language Centre. Both the department and student will pay their usual share of the course fee 
• Graduate offer holders who wish to use the English language Pre-sessional Course to meet their English language condition should contact their academic department to notify them of their intentions, since it is likely that the department will need to extend the deadline for completing their conditions.

External learners

• The course is also open to international academics and students intending to study at other universities.
• A visa is not required for the online Pre-sessional course.

The assessments will cover all four key skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and will take place throughout the course. The successful completion of the Pre-sessional at the required level will automatically satisfy the English language condition for graduate offer-holders. Assessment results for conditional offer-holders will be shared with the academic department on or before the final day of the course, 15 August 2025, in time for visa applications to be completed.

A typical weekly timetable will consist of teaching on four days of the week with one day set aside for tutorials, feedback and task completion. An overview schedule of the course is as follows:

• Live classes, lectures, seminars and discussions. These will take place for around three hours per day for four days of the week.
• Live Tutorials and Office Hours. These will take place for between 30 minutes and one hour per week.
• Recorded lectures and content. These will take place for up to an hour for four days of the week.
• Independent learning and self-study (often connected to specific tasks) should take a minimum of 20 hours per week - this is an intensive course.
• Independent group work and student-to-student discussion. The amount of time spent on this will vary, but it will form a significant part of the course.
• Discussion forums. The above will all be linked to asynchronous methods of learning where students will be able to post questions and comments to their tutors and fellow course participants.

The schedule for real-time classes will be arranged according to students' time zones.

Students taking the course in Africa, Asia or Europe might have a real-time class schedule as follows:

Students taking the course in the Americas, Europe or the Middle East might have a real-time class schedule as follows:

More detail will be available from the student handbook which will be sent to all students two weeks prior to the course start date.