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 on the main site as well as 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 at the Boathouse, all en-suite, with shared kitchen/common room.
• All graduates are normally offered at least two years’ accommodation and we aim to offer all a room on the main site for their first year.
• Limited flats 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 www.admissions.ox.ac.uk/fundingsearch.

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.