Architectural history
Study part-time with Oxford University
Short courses for beginners and professionals
Learn to ‘read’ architecture in a critically informed way, and to recognise and differentiate between major architectural styles with a short course in Oxford or online.
We also offer a programme of courses and workshops providing expert training for professionals in the historic environment, archaeology, museums and heritage sectors.
Undergraduate and postgraduate programmes
Many of our short courses, including short online courses (live and flexible), weekly classes in Oxford, and some summer schools, can be studied for credit, which means they can count towards a recognised qualification such as our Undergraduate Certificate of Higher Education.
We also offer two part-time postgraduate programmes in architectural history:
Upcoming courses
Short intensive • Short courses • Professional development
This course provides an introduction to the legal and ethical issues arising in the art and cultural heritage sectors today. Aimed at all those engaged in the art world, it will outline principles and practices, exploring cases from the UK and beyond.
- Tue 02 Dec 2025
- 10:00am – 5:00pm
Online - live • Short courses • Professional development • Hybrid - in person or online
Can we re-frame heritage loss? This transdisciplinary course will explore how to manage transformative change in the historic environment to generate both ecological and cultural benefits. Join online or in-person to stay on top of emerging ideas.
- Tue 09 Dec 2025
- 1 meetings
Online - live • Short courses
What links the ground beneath our feet to our cultural heritage? How do local building variations emerge and develop? Why is traditional building practice still important? Join this course to explore the material culture of historic buildings in Britain.
- Wed 14 Jan 2026 – 25 Mar 2026
- 10 meetings
- 4:00 – 5:00pm
Online - live • Short courses
Join us to explore the rich and dazzling architecture of the Italian Renaissance in three key cities. We will investigate the differing ways in which the classical styles of the Renaissance found expression in Florence, Rome and Venice.
- Thu 15 Jan 2026 – 26 Mar 2026
- 10 meetings
- 7:00 – 8:00pm
Online - flexible • Short courses
This course is designed to enable you to 'read' the architecture of the Western world in a critically informed way.
- Wed 21 Jan 2026 – 10 Apr 2026
In-person weekly • Short courses
Flowering after 1300 with the ogee arch and glorious flowing window tracery, the Decorated style not only operated as a distinct form unique to medieval England, but was later regarded by Pugin as his favoured style for the Gothic revival of the 1800s.
- Wed 21 Jan 2026 – Wed 25 Mar 2026
- 10 meetings
- 2:00 – 4:00pm
Related courses and spotlights
Cultural heritage training
Expert CPD tuition for those with a keen interest, professional or personal, in archaeology, historic buildings and cultural heritage.Undergraduate Certificate of Higher Education
A flexible, part-time route to an Oxford University qualification. Gain credit from flexible short online courses, weekly classes, and the Oxford University Summer School for Adults. Explore a wide range of subjects in this multidisciplinary programme.Postgraduate Certificate in Architectural History
This 11-month part-time course covers English architectural history from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day. The course consists of three taught units and a dissertation.DPhil in Architectural History
The programme is defined broadly to include the built and designed landscape, and aspects of interior design and is designed to enable students to undertake individual research.Student spotlights
View all student spotlights for this subject area