Oxford statement on government A-levels announcement

We recognise that this has been a period of extraordinary turmoil for our offer holders. The University is delighted to announce that we will honour our offer of a place to all applicants whose CAG meets their conditional offer, in addition to those to whom we have already awarded places.

Since results day, Oxford University and our colleges have been working hard to support offer holders from disadvantaged backgrounds who were disproportionately issued grades below their conditional offer. We felt this was an unacceptable situation, having previously shared our deep reservations about the algorithm approach with Ofqual. As part of our admissions process, and after carefully reviewing each applicant, we accepted over 300 students who missed their offers under the Ofqual algorithm.

With the change in the government’s A-level awarding policy, we now have many more offer-holders meeting their grades than in a normal year. As a result, Oxford does face significant capacity constraints both within our colleges and on our academic courses. We will need to ensure we minimise the risk to the health of our staff and students caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst also protecting the quality and the personalised nature of our teaching. We are now working to ensure everyone who has met their offer conditions under the new CAG policy can be admitted either this year or next. As such, we are reviewing the capacity on our courses and within colleges and will confirm the position to offer holders as soon as we can.

We warmly congratulate all our successful new students and look forward to welcoming them to Oxford.