Blackfriars Hall is one of the forty-five Colleges and Permanent Private Halls of Oxford University, and is located right in the heart of the city. We are a small, supportive and international academic community who welcome postgraduate and undergraduate students (male or female, aged 21 or above), as well as researchers, all of whom, from different backgrounds and religious traditions, value our distinctive ethos.

Among our faculty, student body, and alumni are found eminent religious leaders and policy makers, pastors and entrepreneurs, academics and teachers, contemplatives and activists from across the globe. Recent and forthcoming contributors to the Hall's lectures and educational work include Lord Patten (Chancellor of the University), Professors Alasdair MacIntyre and David Solomon from Notre Dame, Lesley Ann Knight from Caritas Internationalis, the Dalai Lama, the Director General of the BBC. As a Catholic institution we regularly welcome Church leaders and intellectuals, including the Papal Theologian, Cardinals, and Bishops from four continents.

WHAT CAN YOU STUDY?

At Blackfriars you can study for undergraduate Oxford degrees in Theology and Philosophy; as well as Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE). Additionally we offer English, Classics, and British History for those taking part in our overseas visiting student programme.

We also welcome postgraduates in Theology, and Philosophy, Politics, and the wider Social Sciences. We especially welcome students applying for postgraduate studies in the fields of human rights, social policy, refugee studies, NGO studies, international relations, faith-based studies and related topics. Postgraduate students will normally either be working in the Hall's specialist areas of Theology and Philosophy, or closely associated with the research and activities of the Las Casas Institute on Ethics, Governance, and Social Justice.

OUR ETHOS

Blackfriars Hall is a Permanent Private Hall, where academic study is informed by a common life of friendship alongside the Dominican community of Blackfriars Priory. As such, it continues the historic mission of the Dominicans, a religious order of the Catholic Church, to engage with contemporary thought by participation in the life and work of a modern university that is committed to excellence in teaching and research. We work closely with universities in the USA, SE Asia, Central, Eastern and Northern Europe, and we sustain a global vision because of our integral links with the international Dominican family. Our Aquinas Institute specializes in the thought of St Thomas Aquinas and its modern relevance.

The establishment of Blackfriars Hall on 1 January 1994 was not the beginning of Dominican involvement in the life of Oxford University. This began not long after the first priory was founded in 1221, when Robert Bacon, a Regent Master of the University, joined the Order. Dominicans, along with friars of other Orders, came to hold a pre-eminent position in the University's Faculty of Theology. Distinguished Dominican academics at the medieval University included Robert Kilwardby (later Archbishop of Canterbury), Richard Fishacre, Robert Holcot, Nicholas Trivet and Thomas Walleys.