About the UEP

The Ashmolean University Engagement Programme

The Ashmolean Museum’s University Engagement Programme (UEP) was established in 2012 with funding Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to further the partnership between the Ashmolean and the University’s faculties, and to enhance the impact of cross-disciplinary teaching and learning at Oxford. Building on the rich tradition of object teaching at Oxford in traditional subjects such as Archaeology and Art History, the programme’s Teaching Curators foster innovative course collaborations across a wide range of departments, teaching through objects from the Museum’s extensive collections to offer valuable additional perspectives to students as they develop critical understanding of their chosen topics. To date this academic year 2012-13, the programme has held teaching sessions at the Ashmolean for nearly 700 students from all four major divisions of the University.

In addition, the UEP is developing creative collaborations between university teaching staff, Museum curators, and students, through projects such as student-led gallery displays, cross-disciplinary postgraduate workshops, and independent research projects. The range of projects reflects the UEP’s mission to promote object-based learning, both formal and informal, as an enhancement of the teaching/learning environment at Oxford, and to work towards its integration in the pedagogical life at the university.