We get asked this a lot! We hope this brief explanation helps.
The most important thing to understand is that we aren’t in competition with one another. We are two separate organisations, serving different audiences, but a lot of us work for both.
Next, a bit of history. In 2017 the Oxford Latinitas Project was founded by Guenevera (Charis Jo) as a student society to introduce Oxford students and teachers to the joys and benefits of teaching and learning Latin through the active method. The Society quickly built an enthusiastic following in Oxford, and by 2020 was offering classes every day in termtime, as well as organising occasional Dies Latini and annual Septimanae Latinae. When the pandemic struck, those classes went online, and suddenly we had a whole new audience as people all over the world started signing up for courses. This was great, and it made us realise what an appetite there was for learning Latin and Greek actively, but with our limited resources we couldn’t afford to go on giving away free classes to large numbers of people. So in 2020 we set up Oxford Latinitas Ltd, which supplies private tutoring, online classes, and study weeks and fortnights in classical locations; and finally in 2021 we established OALS as the new student society.
What does all this mean for you?
If you are an Oxford university student or teacher you can access any OALS classes for free, though we do ask for a £5 termly membership fee if you can afford to pay; you can also of course take any OL courses that appeal to you (many colleges have small funds that can be applied to for help with the costs of these).
If you aren’t an OU student or teacher, please go to Oxford Latinitas Ltd to find courses you can take.