Univ has a large and vibrant graduate community right at the heart of the College. It’s our aim to ensure that our graduate students enjoy a happy, enriching and successful time in Oxford. The provision of high-quality accommodation, generous studentships for fees and maintenance, extensive travel bursaries, and an active graduate common room are all central to the College’s educational mission.
About Postgraduate Study at Univ
Univ currently has some 200 graduate students reading for taught Master’s, Master’s by research, and Doctoral degrees. Graduates form about 40 percent of our overall student body. This is a large enough number of graduates to create a stimulating environment, but also small enough to ensure a sense of community. Graduates come to Univ from across the world, and we are very pleased to have so international a group of scholars working in the College and participating in its social life.
Funding for graduates is a high priority for the College. We offer a large and increasing number of competitively awarded financial packages to graduates, some 30 in each year. Indeed, Univ is arguably one of the most successful of Oxford’s colleges in raising and offering graduate financial support. Most of this consists of fully-funded studentships created through joint initiatives between the College and various University departments and faculties. We offer book, travel and conference grants to all graduate students, whether or not they are in receipt of a College scholarship. We are very grateful to the many benefactors who support graduate funding at Univ so generously.
Univ has a thriving graduate centre, known as the Weir Common Room, of which all graduate students are members. The WCR offers a meeting place and College base that is managed by and for our graduate students. Amongst many other academic and social events, new graduate students are invited to a welcome dinner at the start of their course, and are provided with a bespoke academic and social induction programme.
All of our graduate students have a College Adviser, a senior academic in a relevant field associated with the College, who can support them in their work. Each research student meets with the Master, the Tutor of Graduates and their College Adviser at least once each year for an Academic Review. Should any problems arise during your studies in Oxford then the College is well placed to offer support and advice.
Univ has tutorial and professorial Fellows in most subjects, as well as six statutory chairs (in Jurisprudence, Chinese, Earth Sciences, Bioinformatics, US Politics and Political History and Neuroimaging) and some five Junior Research Fellows. Most Fellows act as supervisors to their own graduate students, and several have large departmentally-based research groups.
Meet our academics on our Academics A-Z pages
Postgraduate Applications
Applications for graduate study at Oxford are processed in the first instance by the University, not the College. Only once you have been accepted onto a graduate course is your application considered by your chosen College. Full details are available at graduate.ox.ac.uk
Univ welcomes applications for any of the courses in which the College offers admission. To check if Univ offers the course you’re interested in please select the “Courses” tab at ox.ac.uk
Univ makes available a large number of graduate studentships for the support of our students. There is no separate application system for the vast majority of our many studentships. Most of our fully-funded studentships are linked to departments and faculties. Simply apply to the department or faculty of your choice and you will automatically be considered for any Univ-linked studentship for which you are eligible, even if you do not list Univ as your preferred college.
Funding
The College expects to offer approximately 30 fully-funded studentship packages in each year of entry. This represents an extraordinarily strong commitment on the part of the College to graduate study. Some of our studentships are for Masters programmes and some for Doctoral programmes. They are intentionally spread across academic disciplines and course durations. These studentships cover all costs for your study (Course fees) plus a maintenance (living cost) stipend, and are awarded by departments, faculties and the academic divisions to the most academically excellent applicants. Please note that the University’s main December and January online applications deadline is the one used for the award of almost all of these fully-funded studentships.
For most of our studentships and scholarships, we will consider all eligible applicants to Oxford, regardless of whether or not you choose University College as your preferred college. If we offer you a University College scholarship or studentship we will also offer you a place at University College, which will take the place of any earlier college offer you may have received. There is no separate application process for these scholarships.
A small number of our awards require that you do select University College as your College of first choice, and that you subsequently receive an offer of a College place from University College. This requirement is indicated on the individual studentship/scholarship listings which you can download below.
Details of the full range of studentships currently available, including all partnerships with University Departments, Rhodes House, the Clarendon Scholarship Scheme etc. are available to read or download in our Studentships and Scholarships 2025-26 PDF.
Information on loans for US students studying at Oxford can be found here.