We estimate that the annual cost of living in Oxford (including rent, food, travel and reasonable entertainment costs) in 2022-23 will be between £10,935-£15,795 for 9 months (October-June). People often think that living and studying at the University of Oxford is more expensive than at other universities. We think that the various sources of financial support available means that this isn’t the case. For more information about estimated living costs and how they are calculated, see the University website: ox.ac.uk/uglivingcosts.

There are three sources of funding available to UK/Republic of Ireland students who come to Oxford:

1. Government support via the Student Loan Company: maintenance loans (UK students with home fee status only), and tuition fee loans (Home/Republic of Ireland students only)
2. Oxford bursaries which are funded jointly by the colleges and the University (students with Home/Republic of Ireland fee status who meet residency requirements)
3. Parental support: there is the expectation that parents or guardians will provide some level of support. The government makes some assumptions about how much parents and guardians should be able to contribute according to their “household residual income”

The Government and Oxford funding may also be available to EU students with settled or pre-settled status, eligible for home fee status who meet residency requirements. For more details see the University’s website.

Students can reasonably be expected to take full advantage of all the financial support that is available to them. But we recognise that some students may still not have enough to meet the cost of living (£10,935) and so for students from households with annual incomes lower than around £52,000 we will aim to fill the gap with an Old Members’ Trust Bursary.

There are two other ways in which the College may be able to help. First, the government’s student support arrangements, added to the Oxford Bursaries, mean that some UK students will already have access to more than the £10,935 minimum 9-month cost of living. However, these students may additionally be eligible for support from the Old Members’ Trust Bursary scheme, which will help meet living costs during the Long Vacation (July-September). These supplementary vacation bursaries will allow students to spend more time over the summer on their academic work, or to undertake unpaid internships, rather than take on paid employment. Undergraduates in their final year, who already have access to the minimum 9-month cost of living, will not be eligible for an Old Members’ Long Vacation Bursary, but may be offered additional vacation residence during the Easter Vacation, allowing them to prepare for Finals. Secondly, both UK and non-UK students who run into unexpected and unforeseeable financial hardship are eligible to apply to the College for an award from the Student Support Fund.

The College can afford to offer such generous levels of support because former students (known as Old Members) have donated money over many years to help students meet the costs of studying and living in Oxford. This money is looked after by the Old Members’ Trust, which takes decisions about the best sort of bursary to offer. One of the other goals of the Old Members’ Trust is to encourage pupils to apply to Univ from schools and communities that have not traditionally sent students to Oxford.

Univ is proud to offer the Dr Andrei Klein Czech Scholarship. The Scholarship offers financial assistance for two on-course students who normally reside in the Czech or Slovak Republics. It supports the cost of studying in Oxford through providing a grant of £9,000 towards the student’s academic tuition fees or living costs.

In September 2020, Univ was very excited to welcome to its student body the first two Andrei Klein scholars, Karolina and Hana. Meet them in this video:

“My advice would be, for everyone thinking about applying to Oxford, to just give it a go, to try it, because you never know how it is going to end.”
Hana Bernhardova (2020, Biochemistry) – Gymnázium Františka Palackého, Valašské Meziříčí

To find out more about the Scholarship please contact Joshua Newman, Admissions Manager, University College, High Street, Oxford, OX1 4BH – E: Joshua.Newman@univ.ox.ac.uk 

Established by The Swire Educational Trust for undergraduates tenable at University College.

Eligibility

The College is proud to offer ten undergraduate bursaries through the Univ Beacon Programme.

This major new initiative was launched in October 2021 to drive participation and inclusion in education and research. Ten new undergraduate bursaries are offered through the programme to students who come from backgrounds and communities which are priorities for widening access at the University of Oxford. These include UK citizen (or Irish citizen or EU citizen with settled or pre-settled status) students with Black African, Black Caribbean, Bangladeshi or Pakistani heritage, members of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, care-experienced students, asylum-seekers, and refugees.

For full information about the programme, including eligibility and how to apply, please see our Univ Beacon Programme page.