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Faculty of Classics

 

The Faculty of Classics welcomes academic visitors, and is happy to accept applications for Official Visitor status in the Faculty. This entitles visitors to use the Faculty building out-of-hours, and in particular to use and to borrow from the Faculty library. Please note that the Faculty is not able to arrange an affiliation with a College. Visitors to the University are able to use the network; those staying for more than 4 weeks will be able to apply for a University ID card and email account, and will have access to electronic resources, photocopying and printing. if you wish to apply for an ID card pleaase ensure that you follow the University guidance on photo images

There are two categories of Official Visitor:

(1) Visiting Scholars hold a doctorate, and usually hold a teaching position in a university elsewhere. Visiting Scholars pay a fee of £600 per term; visitors who come for less than a term pay £75 per week. Out-of-hours access to the Faculty Building and the library will not normally be granted for periods of less than 4 weeks. An application for an exception to this rule may be made to the Chair of the Faculty Board, who will also determine the fee payable. The fee is inclusive of VAT. Visitors who are suffering hardship may apply for exemption from the fee to the Chairman of the Faculty.

Complete the application form (which must be sent at least one month before the start of the proposed visit), attach it to an email together with a short Curriculum Vitae and a .jpeg image of yourself, and send the whole to visitor.applications@classics.cam.ac.uk. We also require two confidential signed references (written in English) to be sent by the referees themselves to this same email address, by the same deadline. It is the applicant's responsibility to ask the referees to send references: the Faculty will not contact referees to ask them to write, and will not consider applications until the references have arrived.

Visiting Scholars who have been here within the last four years only need to send a new application form and updated CV to . We do not require a new photo or references.

(2) Visiting Postgraduate Students are students currently undertaking a course of postgraduate study in a university outside the United Kingdom (postgraduates from UK universities may be accepted only in exceptional circumstances, for example when access is needed to resources uniquely held in Cambridge). If you wish to come to Cambridge as a Visiting Postgraduate Student you need to request Visiting Postgraduate Student status in the Faculty of Classics. There is a fee of £500 per term (visitors who come for less than a term pay £60 per week) payable in full in advance or (at the latest) on arrival in Cambridge. The maximum period of stay for a visiting Postgraduate student is six months. Students will be allocated a supervisor (academic contact) during their stay.

Complete the application form (which must be sent at least one month before the start of the proposed visit), attach it to an email together with a short Curriculum Vitae, a .jpeg image of yourself, a scanned copy of your passport, and an official letter from your home institution that confirms that you are a registered student there, and send the whole to:  visitor.applications@classics.cam.ac.uk. We also require two confidential signed references (written in English) to be sent by the referees themselves to this same email address, by the same deadline.  It is the applicant's responsibility to ask the referees to send references: the Faculty will not contact referees to ask them to write, and will not consider applications until the references have arrived.

Language Requirement: Visiting postgraduate students are normally expected to meet the university's English language requirements (IELTS: overall band score of 7.5 with not less than 7.0 in individual elements).

If you require a visa to come to the UK, please first check the UK Border Agency's website for the rules that apply to your own situation:  http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/ . You will need to include in your email to the Faculty a full and explicit list of what the Faculty will need to say in its letter of acceptance. Please note that the office is very busy and that it may be difficult or even impossible to issue a revised letter within the period required for your application to be processed.

Accommodation: The University has an Accommodation Service that may be able to help you.

Privacy Notice 

The Faculty uses your personal information to deliver the service you have requested, to keep in touch with you about your application and to improve our service. We use anonymised data only for reporting our visitor statistics to the University. We do not share your personal data with any third parties.  We will only add you to our e-list on request. We destroy the record of your personal information one calendar year after the date of your visit has passed. For more information about how we handle your personal information and your rights under data protection legislation, please see: http://www.information-compliance.admin.cam.ac.uk/data-protection/general-data

Latest news

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The Faculty is pleased to announce that Professor Nicholas Zair has been awarded a 3 year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship from 2026-2029 for his project Understanding Oscan. The Fellowship will allow Nick to spend the next three years working on Oscan, which was spoken widely across Southern Italy between the fifth...

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The Faculty is seeking to appoint two Assistant Professorships in Classics (Greek Literature) from 01 September 2026 (or as soon as possible thereafter). Informal enquiries may be directed to Prof. Timothy Whitmarsh, Regius Professor of Greek . Closing date 19 January 2026. Further details are availble here

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The Faculty is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Ben Gray ( Birkbeck, University of London) as Assistant Professor in Classics (Ancient History) from 1st January 2026.

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