Hodgkin went up to Somerville in October 1928, with an allowance from her aunt Dolly of £200 a year. She read for the B.A. Honours Degree in Chemistry and was able to specialise in X-ray crystallography for her 'Part II' thesis under the supervision of H.M. Powell. After an important period in Cambridge 1932-1934 with J.D. Bernal, she accepted the offer of a Fellowship at Somerville and remained at Oxford until retirement. Before taking up residence at Oxford in 1928, however, Hodgkin had spent the summer months with her parents on an archaeological expedition at Jerash in Jordan. She undertook the task of recording the mosaic designs of the excavated church pavements, which she completed, along with tesserae from later excavations (Ferry pp.36-40, 52-54) during her undergraduate days. This contribution to archaeological research at an early age is recorded at MS. Eng. c. 7924/3. See also MS. Photogr. d. 179/16-17.