Once admitted to be a candidate for the degree, the candidate’s work will be under the direction of a Committee of two, one of whom is usually a Professor, appointed by the Board of the Faculty to which his subject belongs. In addition to the residence requirement of eight University Terms (i. e. two years), he must first have ‘satisfied the Board of Faculty, by examination only, or by submitting a dissertation, which, if approved, is necessarily followed by a viva voce examination. The Board may further require the candidate to publish his dissertation or some part of it.’ Any one who has taken an Oxford B.A. has satisfied the necessary requirements as to residence for the Research degree, and, without necessarily residing in the University, he can pursue his special studies in absentia under the direction of the Committee and proceed to his degree at his convenience.
Opportunities for research. Classical studies.
There are opportunities for research or advanced special work in almost every field of knowledge, but some of them deserve special mention. It goes without saying that the student of the Classics, of Comparative Philology, and of Ancient History will find at Oxford not merely the technical facilities in the way of instruction, libraries, and museums, but an atmosphere particularly favourable to the prosecution of his studies. ‘Every College has one or more classical lecturers on its staff who have usually made a special study of some branch of classical learning.’ A glance at the list of Professors and Lecturers for the Honour School of Literae Humaniores[62] will be sufficient indication and guarantee of the adequacy and efficiency of the instruction provided. Most of the Honour lectures are of an advanced character.
The Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum (Arthur J. Evans, D.Litt.) lectures (generally in Michaelmas Term) on Minoan and Primitive Aegean Culture, or on other prehistoric subjects. There are also opportunities for special work in Archaeology and Geography. Courses are given by specialists in Egyptology, Palaeography, and Numismatics. Dr. Grenfell and Dr. Hunt are continuing their work on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.
Archaeology.
There is also a special endowment for research—the Craven Fellowship, with an income of £200 per annum for two years; eight months in each year must be spent abroad. The British School of Archaeology in Athens offers (usually every other year) a studentship of £50 to some member of the University. The library facilities are unexcelled: the Bodleian Library with more than 600,000 bound volumes of printed works, and some 30,000 bound volumes of manuscripts; the Radcliffe Camera, in which are kept practically all English books published since 1851, and where most of the leading periodicals may be consulted; the Ashmolean Library, containing most of the works on general archaeology; and the various College libraries; the library of Oriel College containing a special collection of books on Comparative Philology, and Worcester College Library a valuable collection of books on Classical Archaeology. The collections in the Ashmolean Museum present some exceptional opportunities for study in the following departments:—Prehistoric and Early Dynastic Egypt; Primitive Anatolia (Hittite Seals, &c.); Primitive Greece and the Aegean; Greek Vases; Greek and Graeco-Roman Bronzes; Greek Sculpture—collection of casts; Greek and Roman Inscriptions. There is a collection of coins in the Bodleian.
The Pitt-Rivers Museum contains a unique ethnological collection, so arranged and classified as ‘to illustrate so far as possible, by means of synoptic groups of specimens, the actual or hypothetical origin and gradual development of the various arts and appliances of mankind, as well as their geographical distributions’.
Modern History.
The opportunities for advanced and special instruction in Modern History are excellent. There is a good system of inter-collegiate lectures which will be useful even to advanced students. The Regius Professor holds a small class ‘specially designed for students working for the B.Litt. degree’. There are courses in Palaeography and Diplomatic by specialists, and facilities for doing special or research work in Colonial History.
A series of six lectures is delivered by the Ford Lecturer, elected annually, upon some particular period or question connected with British History.