University College

University College is very proud of its outstanding, lively and international graduate community. As a graduate at University College you get to participate in a wide range of intellectual, social and sporting activities within the College.

Endowed in 1249, University College has a claim to be Oxford’s oldest college. It combines academic excellence with an atmosphere that is friendly, relaxed and welcoming. Our students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and over 35 different countries.

Distinguished alumni include Presidents Bill Clinton (USA) and Festus Mogae (Botswana); Prime Ministers Clement Attlee (UK), Bob Hawke (Australia) and Kofe Abrefa Busia (Ghana); physicist Stephen Hawking; the poet Shelley, Nobel Prize winning writer VS Naipaul, Poet Laureate Andrew Motion; and figures in the media such as Paul Gambaccini and Armando Iannucci.

Facilities for students with disabilities

• Three adapted rooms: two on the main site and one in the Staverton Road complex.
• Limited parking on the Staverton Road complex.  No parking on the main site.
  
• The Hall, Library, Bar and Buttery are wheelchair accessible.

Library resources

• Excellent libraries, including a specialist Law reference Library, open 24 hours a day during term.

Computing resources

• Excellent computing facilities including one computing suite reserved for graduate use only.
• Dedicated IT support to ensure facilities are constantly updated and functioning smoothly.

Art, music, drama and sport

• College sports ground on the Abingdon Road catering for traditional field sports.
• Award-winning new Boathouse (including dedicated ergo gym for rowers).
• Squash court on the main College site.
• Music practice room.
• Beautiful 17th century chapel, accomplished choir and an active Music Society.
• Students may use the University Sports Centre and Swimming Pool free of charge.

Other facilities

• The Martlets Society gives graduates a special forum for presenting their work and ideas to Fellows and other graduates.
• The College has a number of research centres and a graduate hub in Merton Street.
• Graduates may attend the College’s New Durham Club lectures at which Fellows present their work.

Accommodation is located on the main site as well as in a modern accommodation centre in North Oxford, twenty minutes’ walk from the College, with lovely gardens, computing facilities refurbished bathrooms and good cooking facilities.

Six rooms are available at the Boathouse, all en-suite, with shared kitchen/common room.

Limited flats are available for graduates with partners, usually for the duration of their course.

All student rooms have a telephone line and an internet connection.

Graduate students receive book grants, and can apply for travel and research-support (workshop and conference) funds. The College also offers a number of scholarships.

For more information, please see the College website and the Oxford Funding Search.

The graduate common room (the Weir Common Room or WCR and the equivalent of a MCR in other colleges) is on the main site and provides a social centre for graduates and their partners; an alternative to the busy college bar.

There is a comfortable area for social gatherings or for simply catching up on the newspapers, as well as a recently modernised kitchen and a TV room.