Colleges Guide
University of Oxford Colleges
All 30 undergraduate colleges at Oxford, how the collegiate system works, and how to choose.
How the collegiate system works
Oxford is a collegiate university made up of self-governing colleges. Every student belongs to a college, which provides accommodation, dining, small-group teaching (tutorials/supervisions), and much of day-to-day student life. Your degree, lectures, exams, and academic department are run by the university centrally.
When you apply you either choose one college or submit an open application with no preference. Your degree and teaching quality are identical either way, and a pooling system means strong candidates at popular colleges can be reconsidered elsewhere — so college choice does not materially change your chances.
Full list of Oxford colleges (30)
Colleges admitting undergraduates, listed alphabetically.
- Balliol College
- Brasenose College
- Christ Church
- Corpus Christi College
- Exeter College
- Hertford College
- Jesus College
- Keble College
- Lady Margaret Hall
- Lincoln College
- Magdalen College
- Mansfield College
- Merton College
- New College
- Oriel College
- Pembroke College
- Queen's College
- Somerville College
- St Anne's College
- St Catherine's College
- St Cross College
- St Edmund Hall
- St Hilda's College
- St Hugh's College
- St John's College
- St Peter's College
- Trinity College
- University College
- Wadham College
- Worcester College
How to choose a college
Useful factors include location (central or further out), size and history, overall atmosphere, accommodation and facilities, and whether the college regularly takes students for your course. The degree and teaching are the same everywhere, so if you cannot decide, an open application — where the university allocates you based on application patterns — leaves you no worse off.