What’s a graduate-only college?
Explore Oxford’s all-graduate colleges and what they offer.
Being part of a college is a special, nearly unique aspect of Oxford’s student experience. There are 43 colleges (including those designated as societies and permanent private halls) around the city. One of the most common questions we’re asked about them is how to choose.
You don’t have to choose a college, and about a third of grad applicants don’t. You’ll share the same classes, teaching and course content with students from other colleges. Your choice won’t limit your access to supervisors or teaching staff if you’re applying for DPhil/PhD.
If you do want to choose, you might want to think about whether you want to be in a mixed college with undergraduate students, or at a college just for graduate students.
Introducing our graduate-only colleges
Some of our colleges are for graduate students only, which means that their facilities, accommodation and services are all specifically designed for postgrads.
Our quick introduction to some of our graduate-only colleges will help you get to know them better.
Kellogg College
Kellogg College is a supportive community of both part-time and full-time students, well known for its specialised support for flexible learning and part-time study.
You can find it in the gorgeous Norham Manor Victorian conservation area, just north of the city centre, near the Careers Service and University Parks.
St Antony’s College
St Antony’s College houses seven research centres focusing on specific regions and five different libraries (one in a gothic revival chapel). One of the newest and most distinctive buildings around the University of Oxford wraps through the middle of the college, a shimmering tunnel designed by Zaha Hadid which houses a modern library and lecture theatre.
St Antony’s is near the China Centre, the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology and several other colleges in the north of Oxford, like St Anne’s and St Hugh’s.
St Cross College
St Cross is a very international college community of about 600 graduate students.
The college is right in the centre of town, just up the road from the Ashmolean Museum and the Taylorian Library and opposite the Oxford Internet Institute.
Linacre College
As Oxford’s first carbon-neutral college with fair trade status, Linacre has sturdy green credentials.
Linacre is right next to the University’s Science Area, overlooking the gorgeous University Parks.
Nuffield College
Nuffield was actually our first graduate-only college, specialising in social sciences. You’ll find Nuffield opposite the Oxford Castle, near the city’s rail station and the Saïd Business School.
Nuffield recently made a commitment to underwrite funding for all new students accepted for graduate study there and started a graduate access summer school, NUSI, for UK undergrads thinking about graduate study.
Wolfson College
Wolfson is one of the largest graduate colleges with over 600 students, including over 400 DPhil students.
Wolfson is just north of the city centre, set in peaceful wooded grounds by the river (it has its own punt harbour) and J R R Tolkien’s old house. It’s a ten-minute bike ride into the centre of town.
Campion Hall
Campion Hall is a hub for the University’s international Jesuit academic community, but it has always accepted other students and scholars from many different traditions and disciplines, both secular and religious.
Campion Hall is right in the middle of Oxford’s historic centre, between Christ Church and Pembroke College.
Reuben College
The University’s newest college welcomed it’s first cohort of students in autumn 2021. Reuben is dedicated to interdisciplinary research and exchange around four themes:
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- Cellular Life
- Environmental Change
- Ethics and Values.
Located in our science area, Reuben is next to the Museum of Natural History and, once refurbishment is complete, will share a building with the Radcliffe Science Library, our main teaching and research science library.
Want more about colleges?
If you still want to find out more about individual colleges, including Blackfriars Hall and Green Templeton College which also only accept graduate students, take a look at our Colleges webpages.
