St Hilda's College
About the college
St Hilda’s offers compelling reasons as a choice for graduate students: a commitment to excellence and equality, a stunning riverside location, a welcoming atmosphere, and a wealth of scholarships, grants and facilities. The college’s unique blend of upholding Oxford’s scholarly traditions while fostering a relaxed and accessible environment further distinguishes it as an exceptional institution.
The college is set in four acres of informal landscape gardens; this tranquil setting has many lawns that students can enjoy freely as well as river punts to borrow. St Hilda's is also the only college with circular tables in its dining hall, enabling friendly and informal mealtime gatherings. All these elements exemplify the distinctive approach of St Hilda’s, which with its dynamic community of fellows, staff and students, makes it an inspiring and vibrant college.
St Hilda’s offers extensive financial support for students, emphasising an inclusive environment conducive to success. This support extends beyond academic needs, providing assistance in navigating challenges as they arise. The college provides various opportunities, including fully-funded Clarendon-linked scholarships and direct awards for graduate study in the social sciences, and extensive support through its travel for research and study grant scheme. Furthermore, a diverse array of networks, established by former students, actively mentor and guide graduates as they embark on their career journeys.
College tour
College facilities
Library and IT services
The Kathleen Major Library, named in 2005 after a former librarian, historian and Principal of the college, has seven reading rooms over three floors, with seating for 158 readers; the library collection is one of the most extensive of all Oxford Colleges. The galleried main reading room, dating from 1935, looks out over the River Cherwell and the ‘dreaming spires’ of Oxford.
The library has a small rare book collection as well as special collections in law and medieval history. Together with the college archive, the rare books are kept in a state-of-the-art archive store, where temperature and humidity levels are closely controlled.
Internet access is provided free of charge in all student rooms and other areas within the college.
Sport, music and college facilities
The Jacqueline du Pré Music Building situated on the college site offers St Hilda’s students outstanding practice and performing facilities, as well as being the venue for prestigious concerts, recording sessions, and community music events. The Director of College Music helps students organise musical events and recital series, and conducts one of the student choirs.
The college has an on-site gym and facilities for association football, lawn tennis, and rugby. In recent years, St Hilda’s has had successes in a variety of sports, including rowing, netball, rugby, and football. St Hilda’s is also the closest Oxford college to the Oxford University Sports complex on Iffley Road, where facilities include a power-lifting gym, rowing tank, Olympic-sized swimming pool, and running track. The sports complex offers St Hilda's students a fantastic discounted annual membership.
Facilities for disabled students
St Hilda’s College welcomes applications from disabled students. The college has adapted rooms for students with mobility requirements, and the library has full disabled access. Candidates who are considering an application are advised to contact the college to discuss their requirements in confidence. The college has a Disability Fellow, a senior member of college who is there to offer practical help and support. Arrangements for assistance can be made on an individual basis, and the college aims to respond to the needs and requirements of all students.
Welfare
St Hilda’s offers strong welfare support, with a Welfare Officer, college nurse and counsellor on site each weekday in term-time, and a doctor here each week. Three Junior Deans take responsibility for welfare issues in the evenings and at weekends during term-time In addition, each graduate student has their own College Adviser, and senior college officers are happy to be contacted for advice and support.
MCR
St Hilda's Middle Common Room (MCR) is a lively community and is the place to make friendships, share ideas and have a great social life outside the limits of your own department or faculty. The MCR provides a large, and growing, range of events, conferences and workshops bringing together graduate students, early career academics and senior fellows. Our new front-of-house development providing an improved MCR space for graduate students, which overlooks the river and makes the most of our beautiful setting, opened in September 2020.
Accommodation and meals
Accommodation
Accommodation for new graduates is allocated on a first come, first served basis once funding has been confirmed. The college owns several graduate houses where rooms can be offered to most first- and second-year graduates who want them. All accommodation is single occupancy.
You will find some of St Hilda's graduate accommodation on the streets around the college near Cowley Road with its independent shops, restaurants and supermarkets. Other graduate accommodation is in the north of the city, close to the University’s science areas, a ten-minute cycle ride from the main college site.
Spacious and attractively decorated, all of the college's accommodation has well-equipped kitchens and communal areas. Most rooms are quite large. Scouts (housekeepers) clean rooms weekly, and empty rubbish bins and clean kitchens and bathrooms.
Meals
The college's Dining Hall offers a variety of food (including vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options) that is sustainable, local and seasonal.
It is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner in term-time Monday to Friday, with brunch on Saturdays and traditional Sunday dinners.
A range of dietary needs is catered for (including religious dietary constraints) with meat-free Mondays and meat-free meals throughout the rest of the week.
All students pay a compulsory catering credit each term, which is redeemed against food purchased in the dining hall. For those who want to cook their own food, kitchens are available in the accommodation. For a quick snack, the dining hall is open between meals.
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
St Hilda’s has one of the most beautiful settings in Oxford. The buildings and gardens stretch along the banks of the River Cherwell which flows under nearby Magdalen Bridge. From the lawns, you can enjoy one of the best views of Oxford’s dreaming spires.
The college is just off Oxford’s busy High Street, close to the University Examination Schools, with the Bodleian Library, museums, laboratories and departments just a short way beyond this. St Hilda’s is also two minutes from East Oxford, famed for its vibrant mix of independent shops, world cuisine restaurants, cafés and bars.
Key facts
St Hilda's College,
Oxford OX4 1DY
www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk
Founded
1893
| Students (total*) in 2023-24 | Full-time places in 2025-26 | Part-time places in 2025-26 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taught graduates | 105 | c. 90 | c. 10 |
| Research graduates | 135 | c. 94 | c. 0 |
| Undergrad. | 405 | N/A | N/A |
*Total across all year groups (see source data)