A quad in Lady Margaret Hall on a sunny day
Lady Margaret Hall
(Image credit: Greg Smolonski).

Lady Margaret Hall

About the college

Lady Margaret Hall has a thriving graduate community, welcoming students from all over the world.

The college is a vibrant, interdisciplinary community that balances student wellbeing with academic excellence. The college provides an inclusive experience to students from diverse backgrounds and from across the world.

As the first women’s college in Oxford, LMH is proud to continue its emphasis on equality and increasing diversity in Oxford. The college created a pioneering ‘Foundation Year’ to bring disadvantaged students to Oxford as undergraduates, which has been adopted by the University as the Astrophoria Foundation Year. LMH is proud to be associated with the Oxford Pakistan Programme which provides scholarships to Pakistani and British Pakistani students who would otherwise not be able to study at Oxford.

LMH admits students across a range of subjects, and aims to integrate graduate and undergraduate students, which provides opportunities for research students to gain some experience of mentoring and tutorial teaching. The college has a particular strength in Law, with an active Law society and strong connections to the Refugee Studies Centre (which was founded by an LMH alumna). LMH is particularly interested in applications related to addressing disadvantages. LMH is the college associated with the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and also welcomes applications from students interested in broader issues of conservation and climate change.

The college features an eclectic collection of modern art, including a room of Canadian art.

Since 2022, LMH has held an NUS Green Impact ‘Beyond Gold’ Award for its efforts in promoting environmental sustainability. The college is also proud to be a Fairtrade college. LMH also holds a Gold Investors in People award for the LMH support staff, the only Oxford College to have achieved this.

College tour

College facilities

Library and IT services

The college has a well-stocked library, open 24/7 with a self-service system. The collection covers all areas studied in the college, and has a generous book purchasing policy which includes buying books to support the research interests of individual students. The entire collection is on the same library catalogue as the central university libraries, SOLO. The library has ample seating, with wired network connection points in every bay. 

The library also houses a computer room with a photocopier, printers, and computers. 

There are wired network connections in all rooms. Wi-Fi access is available across the college site, including the MCR and library.

Sport, music and college facilities

Lady Margaret Hall has a strong musical tradition, supported by an excellent organ and chapel choir, active musical society and several rooms with pianos. Chapel music is led by the Director of Music and supported by the organ and choral scholars. Choral scholars are appointed post-admissions, but all who want to sing are welcome.

Sports facilities include an on-site punt house and river sports club, tennis courts and fitness room. Lady Margaret Hall and Trinity College share a boathouse on the Isis, and a sports field is shared between Trinity College, St Catherine's College, and LMH, which is located on Marston Road with space to play rugby, football, hockey and cricket.

Facilities for disabled students

The dining hall and some teaching rooms on the ground floor have wheelchair access and there are level pathways/stair lift to main meeting/function rooms elsewhere in the college, including a stair lift and ground floor access to the Library. Many routes around the site feature automated doors to enable independent access.

There is ground floor access to the library and a managed service for book access on other floors via the librarian.

Car parking can be made available close to the main building entrances for student drop-off and collection. Some fully accessible en-suite rooms are made available as part of the graduate room allocation process, though due to limited availability we cannot guarantee accommodation to all who apply. 

Four induction loops have been fitted in the college (chapel, lecture theatre, porters' lodge and Talbot Hall) and a number of student rooms have wired vibrating/visual fire alarms, whilst portable devices can be used in others.

Please contact the college about any accessibility requirements. 

Welfare

LMH is passionate about nurturing a supportive and healthy environment for our whole community. We have a team of health professionals, tutors, support staff and students, led by our Heads of Wellbeing, dedicated to providing help and advice. Details about our Welfare provision may be found on the College website.

MCR

All graduates are members of the LMH Middle Common. The purpose-built common room offers members free tea and coffee in a spacious dining area with access to a large and fully equipped kitchen, and an external terrace with barbeque. There is a spacious TV room with a DVD library, XBOX, Wii and other games consoles, and table football. The MCR Committee (elected by students) also arranges a wide range of social and welfare activities for all graduate students. 

Accommodation and meals

Accommodation

The college accommodates its graduate students in single study bedrooms at Lady Margaret Hall’s main site in North Oxford. In recent years, LMH has offered additional off-site accommodation/housing through the University Nomination programme in other areas of Oxford. The college is not able to offer accommodation for families, but those with families may apply for University accommodation.

The Clore Graduate Centre opened in 2016 and provides a number of en-suite study bedrooms for graduate students. Further accommodation is available in the college's houses near the main college site, and in other historic buildings within the grounds. All on-site accommodation is located within a couple of minutes' walk of the college library, MCR and dining hall.

When allocating graduate rooms, the priority for the college is to house students in their first year of studies. Priority is given to disabled students and those from overseas. For students returning after their first year of studies, accommodation is normally only available for a small number of students active in college life who have been elected as Middle Common Room (MCR) officers. Accommodation for other returning graduates is subject to availability.

More information about accommodation at Lady Margaret Hall is available on the college website. 

Meals

For ten weeks each term, breakfast, lunch and dinner are served in the college's dining hall from Monday to Friday, with brunch available on Saturday. The dining hall is closed on Sunday. All graduate residents have access to shared self-catering facilities within their accommodation buildings. Outside term time a reduced catering service is usually available. The college offers graduates some free formal dinners to ensure that everyone can have that quintessentially Oxford experience.

The cost of meals in the dining hall is not included in the accommodation charge and they are offered (at subsidised costs) on as pay-as-you-go basis using a cashless payment system.

Courses

This college accepts graduate students for the following courses:


Please note that not all subjects areas or streams of a particular course may be offered by this college. Please see the college information on the relevant course page for further details. For a comprehensive list of all graduate courses available at the University of Oxford, please refer to our courses A-Z listing

Location

The college is located on a beautiful 12-acre site bordered by the University Parks and the River Cherwell (it has punts on site). It is adjacent to the Department of Education.

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