A general aim of interviews is to establish a sense of a candidate's potential for study at university level and to assess his or her aptitude for the small-group teaching that lies at the heart of Oxford’s tutorial-based system. Interviewers will assess the following abilities of candidates:
- clarity of thought and expression
- analytical ability
- flexibility (that is, the capacity to engage with alternative perspectives and/or new information in small-group discussions)
- enthusiasm and commitment
- the use of appropriate cultural and historical knowledge (that is, demonstration by candidates that they have understood well what they have studied and that they are able to deploy cultural and historical evidence in support of an interpretation)
- potential to develop an art historical imagination (that is, the ability to ground an argument in visual analysis and to make connections where appropriate between art works and their historical context)
Interviews will be designed to allow selectors to measure candidates against these criteria.