Bostridge studied at Westminster School and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where he read history and philosophy. He received his doctorate from Oxford, on the significance of witchcraft in English public life from 1650 to 1750, in 1990, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, before embarking on a career as a singer, having won the 1991 National Federation of Music Societies Award and support from the Young Concert Artists' Trust.
