College preference

Guidance on indicating a college preference on the application form.

Early morning sun over Merton College. Credit: Steve Langton / Graduate Photography Competition

What is a college?

‘College’ and ‘colleges’ refers to all 43 of the University’s colleges, including those designated as societies and permanent private halls (PPHs). Our Colleges section provides an introduction to the college system at Oxford, a profile of each college, and guidance on how to choose a college.

All ‘matriculated’ students belong to a college. Matriculation is the formal process of becoming a member of the University, for students who are enrolled at the University on a degree-level course.

Not all colleges accept students for every course. The Courses section of each college page will show you a list of all the courses for which that college accepts students, and the Colleges tab of the relevant course page will show you which colleges are available for that course.

Your college options may also differ depending on whether you are applying for full-time or part-time study.

Non-matriculated courses

Students on non-matriculated courses don't become formal members of the University and aren't members of a college.

If a course is non-matriculated, this will be stated on the Colleges section of the course page. When making an application to one of these courses, you won't be able to select a college preference on your application form.

Indicating a college preference

On the Course tab of the application form, you should select either:

one preferred college, from the available list; or
‘I have no college preference’.

The application form will only display the colleges that accept applicants for your chosen course. You may indicate one college preference.

If you wish to change your college preference, or indicate a preference if you originally did not indicate one, the request must be submitted within one week of the date you submitted your application. You will only be permitted to make one change.

Graduate students are first admitted by a University department. Stating a college preference will not affect how an academic department considers your application or whether you will be offered a place.

If you receive an offer from an academic department, you are also guaranteed to receive a college place if you are studying for a matriculated course. If your preferred college isn't able to offer you a place, you will be offered a place at another college. Once you receive an offer from a college, you won't be considered by any other colleges. You must accept this college offer in order to take up your place on the course. You must not contact other colleges once you have received a college offer.

If you decline the college offer made to you, you are also declining the offer of the place on your course.

For information about the timeline for getting a college place after you receive an offer from your department, visit our Decision timeline page.

Further information

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If you would like to remain at your current Oxford college, you should check whether it accepts applications for the course to which you are applying. If it does, you can indicate this preference when you apply. If not, you should contact your college office to ask whether they would be willing to make an exception. For a small number of courses, it will not be possible to stay at a college that does not accept applicants for that course; this will be stated on the course page.

If your college indicates that it is willing to consider your application for a course it doesn't usually accept, or if you are a fellow of All Souls College, please select the college preference option ‘I have no college preference’ on the application form. Once you have submitted your application, please immediately contact Graduate Admissions requesting that your application to be assigned to the college which has provided agreement. Please also attach evidence of the college’s agreement to your email.

If you wish to stay at your current college but apply for scholarships at other colleges, you must choose your current college as your college preference unless you are applying for a scholarship that explicitly requires you to choose a specific college as your preference as a requirement of the scholarship application. Your application will be available to other colleges for scholarship consideration, even though your current college is indicated as your college preference.

If you choose a college other than your current college and you are not accepted by that college, your application will go through the same college allocation process as all other applications. It will not automatically be sent to your current college and you cannot request to be routed back there.

If you are applying for a scholarship that explicitly requires you to choose a specific college as a requirement of your scholarship application and you are not awarded the scholarship, your application will go through the same college allocation process as all other applications. It won’t automatically be sent to your current college and you cannot request to be routed back there.