English and German

English and German is a combination that places you in dialogue with two of the most significant literary and intellectual traditions in the European world. English literature encompasses a vast range of writing across centuries and continents, from Chaucer and Shakespeare through the Romantics and Victorians to the modernists and the global English-language writers of the present. German literature is equally rich: Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Kafka, Brecht, and Mann are only the most prominent names in a tradition that also encompasses the great philosophers and critics, the Expressionists and the writers of the post-war Stunde Null.

At the University of Oxford, this four-year, full-time programme is taught through the tutorial system that has produced Oxford's distinctive intellectual culture. You will engage with both English and German literatures at the highest academic level, reading texts in the original and developing the critical and interpretive skills that both traditions demand. Oxford's English faculty and its German department are among the strongest in the world, and the combination allows you to pursue genuinely advanced work in each while developing the comparative perspective that studying two major literary traditions simultaneously generates.

You will read widely across historical periods and genres, write essays under close tutorial supervision, and develop the ability to construct sustained critical arguments with precision and confidence. A typical entry tariff of 184 UCAS points reflects Oxford's highly selective admissions standards.

English and German at Oxford produces graduates with exceptional analytical and communicative abilities, deep literary knowledge, and German language proficiency at an advanced level.

Graduates pursue careers in publishing, journalism, education, the cultural sector, the diplomatic service, international business, law, and academia. Many proceed to postgraduate study in English or German literature, comparative literature, or translation studies.