Fountain and pond in the main quad of Christ Church
A view across the fish pond in the centre of Tom Quad with a statue of Mercury in the middle.
(Image credit: Greg Smolonski / Oxford University Images).

Financial Statements of the Oxford Colleges (2011-12)

The financial statements of the 36 Oxford colleges, together with the aggregated accounts, are available as PDFs for the financial year from 1 August 2011-31 July 2012.

For accounting purposes, the colleges that do not have Royal Charters (Kellogg and St Cross) are departments of the University and their annual financial statements are included in the main University accounts.

The accounts are published under the accounting convention (SORP) developed by the Charity Commission for use by charities in the UK.

The colleges of Oxford University (apart from Kellogg and St Cross) are independent, self-governing and financially autonomous. Individual colleges have their own endowment assets, which amount to more than £2.9bn in total across the colleges.

Total annual incoming resources (including donations for capital projects or endowment) of the 36 colleges amount to about £370m. The biggest single source of income – roughly one-fifth – is from endowments. Academic fees and HEFCE funding, residential income from college members and gifts to meet current expenditure account for about one half. Trading income – largely from vacation conferences – accounts for most of the balance.

Total resources expended amount to about £314m a year. 84% goes on core activities, including teaching, research and residential services. The balance is split between the costs of fundraising, running the trading activities such as conferences and tourism, and investment management costs. 

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