Admissions Procedure

Applicants must first have been accepted by a Department or Faculty of the University of Oxford before any college may consider them.

Applications are considered for any of the courses in which the College offers admission. Please consult the following list to see these courses, College Guide.

Applications are usually considered by the academic staff in the relevant subject area and the Dean of Graduates or the Senior Tutor.

Preference will normally be given to applicants whose area of study overlaps with the academic interests of the College’s academic staff and where there is good academic fit.

The College aims to admit a certain number of graduate students each year spread across the range of subjects in which it accepts graduate students, and this will determine the number of offers which can be made to applicants. Where there are more applicants than offers which can be made, the relative academic merit and potential of the applicants will be taken into account. It may not be possible to make offers to applicants whose applications are received late in the admissions round, when places are full.

The final decision on whether to offer a place in the light of the overall competition for graduate places and the spread of those places across subject areas is usually taken by the Senior Tutor and/or the Dean of Graduates.

Please note that any offer of a place will be subject to satisfactory financial evidence that the applicant can meet the tuition and living costs for the duration of their course. Please consult this guidance for more details, College Financial Guarantee.

Preference may be given to current or past students of the College who meet the selection criteria described above.

The relevant department or faculty will then assess your application during one of its predetermined admissions cycles.

If the admitting body decides to make you an offer, this may be conditional (e.g. dependent on your receiving a certain class of degree) or unconditional. An offer guarantees you a place at a college. Your application will then be passed on to your first-choice college for its consideration. Whether or not your first-choice college decides to make you an offer will depend on two factors: numbers (do we have places left?) and academic fit (will we be able to support you in your chosen subject of study?).

Before submitting an application, please read the guidance on the main University website carefully. Do bear in mind that there are strict deadlines for applying for courses, and also for applying for University, college, departmental, and other scholarships, bursaries, and other forms of financial support, which typically have only one single strictly enforced deadline (defined by reference to the date by which the application must reach the relevant office, not as reflected in the postmark on the application package).

All Graduate applications are now considered for the prestigious Clarendon Scholarships, however, to be considered applications must be submitted to the University by the January admissions cycle. Applications submitted later then the January admissions cycle will not be considered.