The MPhil in Greek and/or Latin Literature is a 21-month taught graduate course that can be used as a route to the DPhil, if then followed by at least two years of doctoral study. Applicants for the MPhil wishing to enter doctoral programmes elsewhere after their master's degree at Oxford are also welcomed.

The majority of students take the shorter MSt, which the faculty recommends as the default master's choice in Greek and/or Latin languages and literature. However, the MPhil is often taken by two groups of students and designed with them in mind: those who feel that they would benefit from two more years of taught education in Classics before embarking on a doctorate and those who have a clear idea of the topic that they hope to research eventually for their doctorate, and who wish to start extensive work on this topic already in their master's dissertation.

Most students take the course as preparation for a research degree, and for such students it might offer, for instance, linguistic training the opportunity to become acquainted with an ancillary discipline such as papyrology engagement with a particular author's texts at a deeper level and/or textual criticism of Greek and/or Latin or, reception studies. The MPhil also offers, through an obligatory dissertation, the first steps in actual research and the extended presentation of a scholarly argument.

You will study three options: a thesis and any two options from lists A and B. You will study one option in your first year and the other in your second year, and will work on your thesis across both years. List A comprises major literary texts and genres. List B comprises more technical subjects such as the textual criticism of Greek or Latin texts, papyrology, comparative philology and reception. These options are delivered in a variety of ways, often by (typically weekly) classes. Intermediate Ancient Greek or Latin may be taken if you have not studied both languages to a high level in the course of your first degree.