Funding decisions and college membership

Funding and scholarships

Funding for graduate courses is competitive, but the University of Oxford offers a number of full or partial graduate scholarships. For further details about searching for funding as a graduate student visit our dedicated Funding pages, which contain information about how to apply for Oxford scholarships requiring an additional application, details of external funding, loan schemes and other funding sources.

When will you be notified of your scholarship?

Most Oxford scholarships are awarded between late February and June – for example, Clarendon Fund offers are usually sent out by early April. You can find notification dates via the Fees, Funding and Scholarship A-Z listing. 

An offer of funding can be made along with your departmental or college offer, or separately at any time afterwards. 

The University only notifies successful scholarship applicants and offers are usually sent by email.

Competition is very strong but the University expects to be able to offer over 1,000 full or partial graduate scholarships for new students starting in 2025-26.

Your college place

College membership is a special part of Oxford’s student experience. There are 43 colleges (including those designated as societies and permanent private halls) around the city. 

If you are applying to a course with college membership and have been accepted by the academic department, you are guaranteed a college place. You can see whether there are colleges associated with your course on your course page. 

The process of college placement will begin automatically once your academic department accepts you, and you do not need to contact colleges yourself. 

When will I find out which college I will be a member of?

You will usually find out which college will be part of your offer around 8 to 10 weeks after receiving your offer from the academic department. Once you are accepted by a college, you will not be considered by any other colleges.

Tracking your college place

If you have been accepted on a course with college membership, and accepted by a college, you will be notified directly by that college by email. College decisions will not be displayed in Graduate Applicant Self Service.

If you stated a preference for a particular college in your application and that college is not able to accept you then you will be notified as early as possible, often around 4 to 6 weeks after the departmental decision date, and you will be automatically considered by other colleges.

More information on the progress of individual applications through college placement is not available before a final college offer is made and further college preferences cannot be taken into account, so please wait until you are contacted by your accepting college.

If you have queries about the college system in general, please contact Graduate Admissions. 

College scholarships

Many colleges offer their own scholarships. For the majority of college scholarships, it doesn’t matter which college, if any, you state a preference for in your application. If another college is able to offer you a scholarship, your application can be moved to that college if you accept the scholarship. Some college scholarships may require you to state a preference for that college when you apply, so check the eligibility requirements carefully.

Finding out more about colleges

Once you have a college place, you may want to find out more about what your college has to offer. There is a detailed summary of each college, including links to college websites and contact details, in our Colleges section.