Eleanor Hamilton Clark, Undersecretary General for Content
Oxford University is made up of 43 colleges spread out across the city. Being a student at Oxford means you are a member of a college, as well as your subject’s department. Each college will have its own character and unique elements, but all have a porters’ lodge (staffed reception), dining hall, library, tutor’s teaching rooms, music rooms, laundry, green spaces, and a common room to socialise in.
Community support
Colleges also have a welfare role, and trained welfare officers to support you. Students find that their college environment is like a second family, and many welfare events such as walks, ice cream trips, and peer support sessions are available. More information on what the colleges provide is here.
College teaching
Each college offers a variety of different subjects, and there are brilliant tutors at all the colleges. There is no ‘best college’ for your subject, but it is important to check your college does offer your course before applying. Your course will be taught both by your department (lectures, seminars, workshops, field trips) and regular tutorials in your college (small group lessons with a college-based tutor), so your academic experience will be similar to any other student studying your course.
Choosing a college
When you apply through UCAS, you can specify the college you would prefer to go to, but to make sure all the best applicants get a place at Oxford, you may be reallocated to a different college. Roughly one third of successful applicants are offered a place at a different college to the one they applied to. You can also choose to make an ‘open application’ in which you do not choose a college, and you will be assigned to a college that had fewer applications in your subject that year.
The process for selecting a college on UCAS is here.
Colleges perform the same role whichever you go to, and everyone ends up thinking their college is the best, but here are a few things to consider that vary between them: physical size, age, student body size, location, accommodation, price, and accessibility. Some colleges tend to achieve higher academically than others and are ranked in the annual Norrington table.
More information on the Norrington table can be found here.
You may also prefer the magical old buildings of Merton, University College, Balliol, Magdalene, Exeter and Oriel as the oldest Oxford colleges, or the classical grandeur of Queens or Worcester, or a modern look at St Catherine’s. The choice is yours!