Oxford for London

• UNIQ Oxford - UNIQ is the University of Oxford's flagship access programme. UNIQ is a free programme and is open to Year 12 students attending UK state schools who are applying to university next year. Selection considers students’ school grades and their socio economic and educational background. UNIQ 2021 will be delivered online and has been extended to better support the needs of students whose education has been disrupted by pandemic restrictions. Every year around a third of UNIQ students who apply to Oxford get offered a place.
• Target Oxbridge - Target Oxbridge is a free programme that aims to help black African and Caribbean students and students of mixed race with black African and Caribbean heritage increase their chances of getting into the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge. The programme includes mentoring of Year 12 students by black or minority ethnic Oxbridge graduates, as well as many tailored sessions throughout the year and usually includes a residential. In 2020 alone, Target Oxbridge helped 74 students to secure Oxbridge offers.

Access conferences

• Annual Access Conference for students with African and Caribbean heritage - This Annual Access Conference is for high-performing Year 12 students with African and Caribbean heritage in state-maintained education, and is delivered by the African and Caribbean Society in partnership with the Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach office.
• Oxford and Cambridge Sikh Access Conference - The annual Sikh Access Conference is run collaboratively by the Oxford and Cambridge Sikh Societies with support from Christ Church, Oxford. Participants learn about student life at Oxford and Cambridge from current students, and about admissions from Christ Church staff.
• Year 12 Women in Sciences Day - This annual event is run in Oxford by Jesus, Trinity and Wadham colleges. Each year the colleges host about 100 young women scientists from state schools in London, the North East, Oxford, and Wales. The event offers exploration of a variety of science topics from life on other planets to bioengineering.

Sustained targeted programmes

• Thinking Black - Thinking Black was established by Oxford student, Hope Oloye, with sponsorship from Pembroke College and the David Tyler Trust. Thinking Black offers Black Year 12 students from London, skills workshops, an essay competition, and a celebration day at Pembroke College. It now also provides longitudinal academic support to Black students from year 8 to year 12 across the UK. Christ Church college is supporting Thinking Black in expanding the programme further to provide guidance with the university applications.
• British Bangladeshi and Pakistani Year 12 Access Programme - To help improve representation of British Bangladeshi and Pakistani students at top universities, Jesus College's access programme intends to support students in making competitive applications to universities like Oxford. The online programme includes a variety of information sessions, panel discussions, application support sessions, Q&As, academic lectures and competitions.
• Christ Church and the Computer Science Department are soon to launch a sustained engagement programme for Black and Mixed Heritage Year 11 students who identify as women and are interested in Computer Science. The participants will attend monthly online sessions, during which they will be working towards completing coding tasks, guided by Christ Church’s Computer Science tutors. They will also have a chance to meet current students and Computer Science alumnae, as well as learning about how A-level choices link to their options at University.

Study programmes and summer schools

• English and Engineering study residentials - St Peter’s College runs an annual English Study Residential, aimed at prospective Year 12 applicants attending state schools from across the UK. As well as providing a taster of Oxford University life, the residential enables students to meet tutors and current undergraduates, receive top tips for the application and experience taster seminars. Students attending the engineering residential also experience an engineering tutorial.
• Biology and Human Sciences, Modern Foreign Languages and Classics Summer Schools - Wadham College runs three five-day residential summer schools for Year 12 students.
• Pembroke College also runs a number of residential study courses for students attending their OXNET programmes.

For information and contact details of the Oxford college linked to your school or college, please select your local authority from the list below.  

Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, City of London,  Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham,  Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham,  Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth, Westminster