Michelle Bannister

Michelle Bannister

3rd year, History

History was something I’d always loved both in and outside school. In school it was a subject I’d always enjoyed even when I was not particularly good at it (being rather more science orientated during years 7-9 instead), and from around GCSEs I was not really able to see myself reading anything else at university. My teachers encouraged me to look at Oxbridge and I chose Oxford largely because it seemed to have far more to it as a city than did Cambridge, as well as the fact that it was apparently (according to league tables and so on) better than Cambridge for the subject. I was also lucky enough to be able to take part in a scheme where I shadowed a first-year history undergraduate from Somerville College for a day. I sat in on a lecture and looked around the History Faculty, while also finding out a bit about the Somerville student’s experiences of life in Oxford. It was all very inspirational and definitely encouraged me to apply.

I chose Univ because it was pretty much the only college I really liked when I was wandering around Oxford. The porter and admissions officers were welcoming, the college didn’t seem too large or too small, and most importantly the flowers in the main quad were not overwhelmingly bright! I certainly don’t regret the choice- everyone is very friendly and it’s the kind of college where you can still make new friends over halfway through the year- it’s not a particularly ‘cliquey’ college. One of the best things about the college system is that you can make good friends quite quickly because of the frequency with which you bump into fellow Univites during the course of the term; but you can also take part in activities that allow you to socialise outside of college if you want more variety.

So far I’ve enjoyed the history papers quite a lot- some more than I originally expected, since I chose a couple without really knowing much about them. In your first year in Oxford as a historian you have to take four papers. Up to this point I have studied British history in the 20th century, medieval Europe and the wider world (1000-1300), and a foreign text paper; I am about to start an optional subject in Witchcraft. Other people in my year have taken papers on late medieval or 19th century Britain, Europe and the wider world in the 1815-1914 period, and ‘Approaches to History’. Don’t worry if you’ve only studied Hitler, Mussolini or Stalin at A-level and GCSE. I personally had studied topics other than these, but on the other hand, I hadn’t covered any of the periods that I’ve been studying since I started at Univ, and it really hasn’t mattered. I know I was not the only one who felt somewhat thrown in at the deep end to begin with, but it does become easier as the first year progresses.

In the first year teaching basically consists of independent reading, attending lectures, writing essays and discussing them in tutorials. Tutorials differ a little depending on the tutor, but it’s definitely an effective teaching method, and Univ’s tutors are all very friendly. The work here has definitely been a big transition from A-levels, because it’s very much self-taught and your depth of knowledge is basically dependent upon the amount of effort you put into the reading. It’s certainly not an unbridgeable gap though. On the contrary, it can be quite rewarding, being able to (or at least attempting to) write an essay on something about which you’d known very little or nothing just a few days before!

Overall I’d say Univ is a great place to study history- everyone is very friendly, there are a comparatively large number of history fellows, with a wide range of interests, and the large yearly intake means there is always someone you can discuss the subject with if you find something difficult.