Emory University offers two academically equivalent yet distinctively different educational programs for first-year students and sophomores. Oxford College is located thirty-eight miles east of Atlanta in the village of Oxford, Georgia, on the campus where Emory was founded in 1836. Approximately one thousand students, one fifth of the Emory first year and sophomore classes, enroll on the Oxford campus where they pursue a liberal arts intensive program for the first two years of their Emory undergraduate education.
Oxford College is unique. Students spend two years in an intimate, challenging, and supportive community where they develop as scholars and as individuals before moving on to a rich research university environment at Emory. For many students, it is the perfect combination.
Oxford College concentrates on development of students' intellectual, social, and personal capacities as these are understood in the liberal arts tradition. Oxford students earn an associate of arts degree. In their third and fourth years, they join their classmates on the Atlanta campus to focus on their majors and complete their baccalaureate degree with the resources of one of the world's leading research communities. Oxford College offers the advantages of (1) faculty who come to Oxford because they recognize the transformative potential of the first two baccalaureate years, (2) small classes averaging seventeen students (the largest class is twenty-eight), (3) challenging yet supportive personal working relationships between faculty and students, (4) an environment that provides extensive opportunities for student participation and leadership, and (5) an exceptionally strong sense of supportive community among students, faculty, and staff.
Oxford's liberal arts–intensive character is expressed through in-class discussion and debate, problem-based learning, case studies, individual and team research projects and presentations, frequent writing, and detailed analysis of texts. A consistent theme throughout is to compel students to become engaged, active learners so they acquire knowledge, skills, and understanding as a result of their own mental effort and discipline. Students are urged to go beyond the syllabus and to think creatively in deepening their knowledge and connecting what they learn in various courses. These teaching strategies are possible because of Oxford's small classes and the faculty's commitment to working with individual students.
All Oxford students live on campus, and residential life is an integral part of the Oxford educational program and experience. Clubs, varsity and intramural sports, student theatrical and musical productions, and leadership training are among the activities that attract high levels of participation. There is an active program of weekly social and cultural events. Oxford students are generous with their time and caring and serve the Newton County community through Volunteer Oxford, the Pierce Leadership program, and extensive use of community engaged learning in classes. One of Oxford's special characteristics is the ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, and geographic diversity of its students. The closeness of the Oxford community means that students learn from others who are different from themselves. Oxford students form lifelong friendships and say that when they move to the Atlanta campus as juniors, they go with four hundred friends.
Emory University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award associate, baccalaureate, masters, doctorate, and professional degrees. Emory University also may offer credentials such as certificates and diplomas at approved degree levels. Questions about the accreditation of Emory University may be directed in writing to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, GA 30033-4097, by calling (404) 679-4500, or by using information available on SACSCOC’s website (www.sacscoc.org).
