UNIQplus eligibility requirements
Eligibility criteria for entry in 2026
To be eligible for UNIQplus you must:
- have been ordinarily resident in the UK for three years before the start date of your undergraduate degree course. This residence must not have been for the main purpose of receiving full time education. An exception to this is if you have been temporarily resident outside of the UK for the purpose of taking up temporary employment and would have been resident in the UK but for the temporary employment; and
- be currently undertaking or have completed an undergraduate degree at a UK or Irish university; and
- have completed at least one full year of your undergraduate degree at the point of application if you have not graduated yet; and
- not have already completed or be currently studying a PhD/DPhil, or have an offer to start a PhD/DPhil (see the Who should apply? section of this page for advice if you have applied for PhD/DPhil study and are waiting to hear the outcome); and
- meet at least one of the following criteria:
- be in the first generation of your family to go to university (ie none of your parents, stepparents or guardians have attended university, or completed higher education qualifications); or
- be care experienced (for a period of more than 3 months); or
- have had caring responsibilities for 3 months or more which either have occupied more than 10 hours per week, or which have impacted on your education, health or wellbeing; or
- be estranged from your parents/guardians; or
- have been considered as statutorily homeless and qualified for assistance under your local authority’s ‘main homelessness duty’; or
- be a refugee, stateless person, or asylum seeker, or been otherwise forcibly displaced within or outside your country of origin; or
- be from a low-income background and in receipt of, or eligible for, more than the minimum levels of support detailed from your regional funding body in the most recent year during which you received finance for your undergraduate degree (see the Financial eligibility section of this page to find out how to check whether you meet this financial criterion).
Please note, to be eligible for UNIQplus PASS you need to be considering applying for postgraduate study at the University of Oxford in 2026-27 (to start in autumn 2027). This means you would currently be in your penultimate or final year of study, or have already graduated.
The University of Oxford is committed to increasing the participation of students from underrepresented backgrounds across all its programmes. We would strongly encourage applications from students of Black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnicity, who are underrepresented at Oxford, and from members of the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller, Showman and Boater communities, who are underrepresented across higher education as a whole. We would also strongly encourage applications from female applicants in projects in Computer Science, Engineering and Statistics, where women are underrepresented at Oxford and across higher education as a whole.
If you have previously completed a UNIQplus Research Internship at the University of Oxford, then you are not eligible to apply for another UNIQplus Research Internship. If you have previously completed a UNIQplus Research Internship, you are eligible to apply for UNIQplus PASS.
The Eligibility definitions section provides further details including how to ensure that you meet all the requirements (eg 'ordinary residence', 'care experienced' etc) and the Financial eligibility section of this page will allow you to check whether you meet the financial criterion (see above).
Eligibility criteria for Google DeepMind internships
In addition to meeting the UNIQplus eligibility criteria, to be considered for a Google DeepMind internship, you will need to be currently studying or have already completed an undergraduate degree in computer science, or an AI facilitatory related technical field.
Eligibility definitions
The additional information below provides further details about the definitions we use when assessing your eligibility.
Ordinary residence
Your country of ordinary residence is the country in which you are normally resident, out of choice and for a settled purpose, apart from temporary or occasional absences. It is not a country in which you are studying, working or living temporarily. You would usually have indefinite leave to enter or remain in the UK in order to be considered ordinarily resident. Those with a time limitation on how long you can stay in the UK (for example, a time-limited UK visa) would not usually be eligible for our programmes. To be eligible for UNIQplus, you need to have been ordinarily resident in the UK for three years before the start date of your undergraduate degree course.
Care-experienced student
We define ‘care-experienced’ as those people who have ever lived in public care under the age of 18, or been classed as a 'looked-after child', including:
- living with foster carers under local authority care
- living in a residential children's home
- being 'looked after at home’ under a supervision order
- living with friends or relatives in kinship care – either through a formal arrangement (eg a Special Guardianship order) or an informal arrangement without local authority support.
To be eligible for UNIQplus, your care experience should have been for more than three months.
Caring responsibilities
As well as caring for children, we define a carer as anyone who has a commitment to providing unpaid care to a family member or friend because of ongoing illness, disability, a mental health condition, or substance misuse. To meet this eligibility criterion, your caring responsibilities should have been for three months or more and occupying more than 10 hours per week, or which impacted on your education, health and wellbeing.
Estranged student
We consider an estranged person to be someone under the age of 25 who has not communicated with their parents/ stepparents/ guardians due to a breakdown in their relationships, and has had no physical and financial support from them for at least 12 months. Estranged persons may also have been assessed as independent by Student Finance during undergraduate study.
Refugee
We include those who are now in the UK and have ever been a refugee, stateless person, or asylum seeker, or been otherwise forcibly displaced within or outside their country of origin. This could include those with discretionary leave to remain in the UK, and those granted other forms of humanitarian or human-rights related protection in the UK.
Financial eligibility
The information below is provided for applicants who would like check whether or not they meet the financial eligibility criterion (‘be from a low-income background and in receipt of, or are eligible for, more than the minimum levels of support detailed from your regional funding body in the most recent year during which you received finance for your undergraduate degree’).
If you completed a part-time undergraduate degree during this period, please contact us using our online form (or by email: [email protected]) for information on eligibility thresholds.
Applicants who received, or were eligible to receive, at least the following levels of support from their regional funding body in the most recent year during which they received finance for their undergraduate degree, will meet the financial eligibility criterion for UNIQplus (including alternative evidence that may be accepted in place of a letter from your regional funding body).
England
Students who received at least the following levels of maintenance loan:
| Minimum qualifying support level | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studying outside London, not living with parents | Studying in London, not living with parents | Living at home | |
| Final year maintenance loan in 2021-22 | £7,615 | £10,091 | £6,171 |
| Final year maintenance loan in 2022-23 | £7,791 | £10,324 | £6,314 |
| Final year maintenance loan in 2023-24 | £8,010 | £10,614 | £6,492 |
| Maintenance loan in 2024-25 (not final year) | £8,766 | £11,863 | £7,163 |
| Final year maintenance loan in 2024-25 | £8,211 | £10,882 | £6,655 |
| Maintenance loan in 2025-26 (not final year) | £9.038 | £12,231 | £7,387 |
| Final year maintenance loan in 2025-26 | £8,466 | £11,219 | £6,863 |
If you completed your degree prior to the academic year 2021-22 and believe that you were in receipt of, or eligible for, the maximum loan from Student Finance England, please contact us by email ([email protected]).
If you are currently on a placement year and only eligible to receive a non-means tested level of loan, or on a year abroad/interrupted year, please refer to the maintenance loan in 2024-25 and upload both your placement year finance letter and your 2024-25 finance letter as part of your application.
If your rate of maintenance loan is lower in your current / most recent year than it had been previously, you can choose to upload a supporting statement explaining why this is, alongside the upload of your current / most recent finance letter (please note: this is not compulsory).
Scotland
- Young Student bursary of at least £500; or
- Independent Student loan of at least £9,900 in 2025-26 or 2024-25, £7,500 in 2023-24, £6,600 in 2022-23 or at least £6,250 in 2021-22 or earlier.
Northern Ireland
Maintenance grant of at least £689.
Wales
Students who began their undergraduate course from 2018-19 minimum qualifying support levels:
- Studying outside London, not living with parents: Maintenance grant of at least £5,208
- Studying in London, not living with parents: Maintenance grant of at least £6,408
- Living at home: Maintenance grant of at least £4,488
Students who began their course from 2012-13 to 2017-18 inclusive:
- Grant of at least £1,142
Who should apply?
We are looking for proven and potential academic excellence. Applicants would usually be on track to achieve or have achieved a final undergraduate degree grade of a strong 2:1 or First, in a subject area related to the listed projects that you are interested in. If your transcript shows year on year grade progression towards the upper range of a 2:1 or above, then we’d encourage you to apply for the programme.
We encourage students at non-Russell Group institutions to apply. You can check if your institution is a member of the Russell Group.
You should consider applying for the UNIQplus Research Internships if you would like to experience postgraduate research at Oxford. You will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the Oxford research environment for seven weeks, meet academic researchers, current students and your fellow interns, and produce a piece of research.
You should consider applying for UNIQplus PASS if you are considering applying for a graduate course (either taught or research) at Oxford to start in autumn 2027, and would like to develop relevant research skills that will enhance your application. As this programme is remote and takes place online in the evening, it is designed to be completed alongside other commitments. All participants who complete the programme will be invited to visit Oxford and offered a paired mentor to support them through the application process.
Our After you apply page provides information about the criteria we will take into consideration when selecting applicants. These include academic merit and potential, socio-economic information, and contextual information.
