Education

COMMITMENT 1
To attract and admit students from all backgrounds with outstanding academic potential and the ability to benefit from an Oxford education

To maintain and enhance its intellectual strength, the University must recruit and support students of outstanding potential at all levels, whatever their background. To achieve this, we will strengthen and expand outreach activities, based on rigorous evaluation of their effectiveness.

We will work closely with colleges, academic departments and faculties to ensure effective coordination of outreach activity. We will enhance our undergraduate and graduate admissions processes to ensure equality of opportunity for all applicants, and to improve efficiency and quality of service.

We will review the collegiate University’s financial support packages to ensure that they are targeted in the most effective way. We will increase the funding available to support the most able postgraduate taught and research students, and increase the proportion of fully funded graduate studentships.

COMMITMENT 2
To offer an excellent academic experience for all our students and ensure that Oxford fully equips graduates to excel in whatever they choose to do

We will maintain the tutorial system at the heart of Oxford’s distinctive approach to undergraduate teaching, and will ensure that ongoing support from a senior academic also continues to underpin our approach to postgraduate study. We will ensure that teaching and assessment at Oxford provide an equal opportunity for all students to achieve and demonstrate their full academic potential. We will work to reduce continuing gaps in attainment and encourage greater diversity in assessment.

Supporting student wellbeing is at the heart of our approach to providing the greatest opportunity for all our students to excel. We will work to strengthen the partnership between colleges, academic departments and faculties, and central services to provide the welfare support that our students need to flourish.

We will provide opportunities, through and outside the curriculum, for our students to develop the personal and transferable skills to succeed in a global workplace. We will expand the number of funded internships and work-placement opportunities in the UK and overseas.

We will also provide opportunities for skills enhancement and career preparation for all our research students.

COMMITMENT 3
To retain and refresh the collegiate University’s rich academic environment

We will retain the best that Oxford has to offer in its teaching, including close personal supervision and support, access to world leading academics and unparalleled learning resources including our libraries and collections. We will also ensure that we respond to today’s opportunities and tomorrow’s challenges. We are committed to innovation and excellence in teaching, and will seek improved ways of demonstrating this in our academic staff recognition and reward processes. We will ensure that teaching is informed by best practice, an inclusive approach to learning and the opportunities for innovation offered by digital technology.

We will accommodate growth in student numbers that is strategically important to deliver the University’s core mission and academic priorities, whilst recognising our responsibility to preserve and protect nationally vulnerable subjects. We will continue to encourage the development of new and innovative courses and fields of study to ensure that our portfolio reflects advances in knowledge and meets the needs of today’s students.

EDUCATION PRIORITIES

1. Set ambitious targets by April 2019 to substantially increase by 2024 the number of undergraduate places offered to students from groups who are currently under-represented at Oxford.

2. Aim to create by 2024 an additional 300 graduate scholarships.

3. Set ambitious targets by April 2019 to reduce by 2024 gaps in attainment by gender, ethnic origin and socio-economic background.

4. Aim to increase by 2024 undergraduate student intake by up to 200 a year, with a focus on strategically important subjects areas including computer science, engineering, biomedical science and joint degrees in economics.

5. Aim to increase by 2024 postgraduate taught student intake by up to 450 a year and postgraduate research student intake by up to 400 a year, while maintaining quality.

6. Aim to offer by 2024 an additional 2,000 funded internships for students at all levels.

7. By 2024, in partnership with the private sector, to have started the construction of 1,000 additional graduate rooms including the establishment of at least one new graduate college.