Academic futures
About
Academic Futures is a series of scholarship programmes that will address under-representation and help improve equality, diversity and inclusion in our graduate student body.
Academic Futures is a series of scholarship programmes that will address under-representation and help improve equality, diversity and inclusion in our graduate student body. Up to 50 full awards are available across the three programme streams, and you can find further information on each stream on their individual tabs.
The University relies on bringing the very best minds from across the world together, whatever their race, gender, religion or background to create new ideas, insights and innovations to change the world for the better.
The information on this page is provided in addition to information about the full range of options for funding graduate study at Oxford, which can be found in our dedicated Fees and funding section.
Funding partners
These scholarships are generously supported by:
- All Souls College
- Balliol College
- Blavatnik School of Government
- Bluebell Capital Partners
- Brasenose College
- Christ Church College
- Corpus Christi College
- Crankstart Foundation
- Department of Computer Science
- Department of Earth Sciences
- Department of Education
- Department of Materials
- Department of Psychiatry
- Exeter College
- Faculty of History
- Faculty of Law
- Faculty of Music
- Green Templeton College
- Harris Manchester College
- Humanities Division
- Jane Street Graduate Scholarships in Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science
- Jesus College
- Keble College
- Kellogg College
- Lady Margaret Hall
- Lifelines International Fund for Education Limited
- Linacre College
- Lincoln
- Magdalen College
- Mansfield College
- Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division
- Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Doctoral Training Centres
- Medical Sciences Division
- Merton College
- New College
- Next Economy Trust
- Nuffield College
- Oriel College
- Oxford Department of International Development
- Pembroke College and the Mathematical Institute
- Reuben College
- Saïd Business School
- School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography
- Social Sciences Division
- Somerville College
- St Anne’s College
- St Antony's College
- St Cross College
- St Hilda’s College
- The Queen’s College
- University College
- Valerie Moran
- Wadham College
- Wolfson College
- Worcester College
Black Academic Futures
The Black Academic Futures Scholarships offer UK Black and Mixed Black students financial support to pursue graduate study at Oxford.
These awards are made possible by the generous support of funding partners across the University and colleges, and the scholarships are open to all academic subjects.
Each scholarship will cover your course fees in full and will provide you with a grant for living costs. Awards are made for the full duration of your fee liability for your course.
Eligibility
These scholarships are available for applicants who are ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, who are of Black or Mixed Black ethnicity and who hold an offer for either a taught or research postgraduate degree, starting in the 2025-26 academic year. This includes all full-time and part-time DPhil and master’s courses.
You must have been Ordinarily Resident in the UK for three years before the start date of the course for which you hold an offer. 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.
These scholarships support students across the University and are open to all subject areas, with some funding dedicated to supporting students on specific courses.
Applying for the Black Academic Futures scholarships
To apply for the Black Academic Futures Scholarship, all you have to do is submit your completed graduate course application, including ethnicity information, by either the November, December, or January deadline (whichever is relevant for your course) and you will automatically be considered. You do not need to submit any additional documents and there is no separate scholarship application form for these awards.
If you are eligible for these scholarships, you will be considered automatically regardless of which college (if any) you state as your preference on your graduate application form. However, some of these awards are only tenable at specific colleges and successful applicants will be transferred to the relevant college in order to take up the scholarship if applicable.
What happens after you apply?
- Your application to your course will be considered by the academics working in your proposed field of study. The department will notify you with an outcome. See our decision timeline for more details.
- All applicants who receive a course offer and are eligible for Black Academic Futures will be assessed for the scholarship through a cross-divisional selection process, based on academic merit and potential.
- Successful candidates will be contacted with a scholarship offer. Final college placements will also be confirmed for awards that are tenable at specific colleges only.
- If you are offered, and accept, a Black Academic Futures Scholarship, this means your funding is now secure as long as you meet the conditions of your offer of a place to study at Oxford.
All successful applicants will be contacted by email and the majority of offers are sent out in May.
Refugee Academic Futures
The Refugee Academic Futures Scholarships offer financial support to pursue graduate study at Oxford to students who are refugees or other people with lived experience of displacement.
Thanks to the generous support of funding partners across the University and colleges, as well as support from the student members of the University of Oxford and the Oxford University Student Union, the University has been able to offer scholarships to refugees and other forced migrants since the 2016-2017 academic year. These awards have been offered through the Oxford Student Refugee Campaign and the Oxford Refugee Scheme, and have now been incorporated into the Academic Futures programme, through the creation of the Refugee Academic Futures scheme.
The scholarships are open to all academic subjects. Each scholarship will cover your course fees and will provide you with a grant for living costs. Awards are made for the full duration of your fee liability for your course. Scholars will be offered opportunities to receive mentoring and a bespoke programme of pre-arrival, on-course, and post-completion support.
The Palestine Crisis Scholarship Scheme is a separate scholarship programme and you can find full details on the dedicated webpage for this scheme.
Eligibility
The Refugee Academic Futures scholarships are available for applicants who have been displaced due to conflict, persecution, or other serious human rights violations or deprivations, whether within or outside their country of origin, and who hold an offer for either a taught or research postgraduate degree, starting in the 2025-26 academic year. This includes all full-time and part-time DPhil and master’s courses.
These scholarships support students across the University and are open to all subject areas.
Applying for the Refugee Academic Futures scheme
We will contact you to ask you to apply for these scholarships if you have:
- applied for an eligible course by the relevant November, December or January application deadline for your course and received an offer; and
- indicated that you are a refugee/displaced when you applied for your course.
Please note, if you do not tick the box on the application form to indicate that you have a displacement background you will not be invited to apply for the scholarship, even if you have mentioned this elsewhere in your application. If you are eligible but did not complete the question on your course application about refugee/displaced status then you can still email us (via academic.futures@admin.ox.ac.uk) by 4th April 2025 to confirm that you wish to apply.
If you are eligible for these scholarships, you will be considered regardless of which college (if any) you state as your preference on your graduate application form. However, some of these awards are only tenable at specific colleges and successful applicants will be transferred to the relevant college in order to take up the scholarship if applicable.
What happens after you apply?
All applications for the Refugee Academic Futures scholarship will be checked for eligibility and assessed by a panel of academics. The panel will review applicants' admissions application and Refugee Academic Futures application and will agree a priority ordering of candidates within the limits of available funding. All Refugee Academic Futures applicants will be contacted with the outcome of their scholarship application by email, usually by the end of June. Final college placements will also be confirmed for awards that are tenable at specific colleges only. If you are offered and accept a scholarship, this means your funding is now secure as long as you meet the conditions of your offer of a place to study at Oxford.
Contact
If you would like further information on the scholarship and the support programme it provides you can contact the Oxford Sanctuary Community via sanctuary@ox.ac.uk.
Care-Experienced Academic Futures
The Care-Experienced Academic Futures Scholarships offer financial support to pursue graduate study at Oxford to students who have experienced being in care in the UK to pursue graduate study at Oxford.
We spoke with graduate students Abed and Alexi about their experiences at Oxford and the impact that the Academic Futures scholarship programme has had on their pursuit of graduate study:
For the purposes of selection, ‘care experienced’ means someone who, at any stage of their life before the age of 18, and for any length of time, has spent time:
- living with foster carers under local authority care; or
- living in a residential children's home; or
- placed with your parents or other people with parental responsibility under a care order; or
- living with friends or relatives in kinship care – either through a formal arrangement (such as a Special Guardianship order) or an informal arrangement, without local authority support.
- This includes anyone adopted from care before the age of 18.
You do not have to meet the legal definition of being a 'care leaver' to be considered for this scholarship.
Support is being provided by funding partners across the University and colleges. These scholarships are open to applicants to all academic subjects and will provide funding packages to assist with course fees and living costs.
Eligibility
The Care-Experienced Academic Futures scholarships are open to applications from those who have been in care in the UK at some point in their life, and faced barriers to progressing their education. Applicants must hold an offer to commence a postgraduate degree, starting in the 2025-26 academic year. this includes all full-time and part-time DPhil and master's courses.
These scholarships support students across the University and are open to all subject areas. Available awards include the Oxford-Rees Graduate Scholarship, which supports Care-Experienced Social Sciences candidates.
Applying for the Care-Experienced Academic Futures scheme
We will contact you to ask you to apply for these scholarships and complete a separate scholarship form if you have:
- applied for an eligible course by the relevant November, December or January application deadline for your course and received an offer; and
- you have ticked the ‘care-experienced’ box on the graduate application form.
Please note, if you do not tick the box on the application form to indicate that you are care-experienced you will not be invited to apply for the scholarship, even if you have mentioned that you are care-experienced elsewhere in your application. If you are eligible but did not complete the question on your course application then you can still email us (via academic.futures@admin.ox.ac.uk) by 4th April 2025 to confirm that you wish to apply.
If you are eligible for these scholarships, you will be considered regardless of which college (if any) you state as your preference on your graduate application form. However, some of these awards are only tenable at specific colleges and successful applicants will be transferred to the relevant college in order to take up the scholarship if applicable.
What happens after you apply?
All applications for the Care-Experienced Academic Futures scholarship will be checked for eligibility and assessed by a panel of academics. The panel will review applicants' admissions applications and Care-Experienced Academic Futures applications and will agree a priority ordering of candidates within the limits of available funding. All applicants will be contacted with the outcome of their scholarship application by email, usually by the end of June. Final college placements will also be confirmed for awards that are tenable at specific colleges only. If you are offered and accept a scholarship, this means your funding is now secure as long as you meet the conditions of your offer of a place to study at Oxford.
Further information
Our dedicated Fees and funding pages provide further information about the full range of options for funding graduate study at Oxford.
Can't find what you're looking for?
If you have a query about graduate admissions at Oxford, we're here to help: