Access and Widening Participation
Nuffield College engages in a range of activities — including specialist access programmes and targeted Oxford University scholarships — that aim to support historically disadvantaged and underrepresented groups in graduate study in the social sciences.
Nuffield College seeks applicants of the highest academic merit, irrespective of background and personal circumstances. We are committed to ensuring that the financial cost of graduate study does not deter any prospective student from applying.
In line with this commitment, the College operates an underwriting scheme whereby all new students offered a place at Nuffield are guaranteed funding. This means that, if you are not successful in obtaining funding from other sources, we guarantee that we will provide you with funding (fees and living expenses) for your period of fee liability. Some of the funding awards we make may be joint with other funding providers or scholarship schemes.
Find more information about Nuffield funding here.
Nuffield College contributes to and participates in the UNIQ+ programme, which provides talented undergraduates from under-represented groups with a seven-week opportunity to experience postgraduate research and learn how to make more competitive applications to for graduate study.
The University has established a series of access scholarship schemes that aim to address underrepresentation and help improve equality, diversity and inclusion within the graduate student body.
The Academic Futures programme includes three strands:
- Black Academic Futures (for UK Black and Mixed Black students)
- Refugee Academic Futures (for refugees and people with lived experience of displacement)
- Care Experienced Academic Futures (for UK applicants who have experienced being in care in the UK)
Nuffield offers partnership funding for Academic Futures Scholarships.
AfOx is a cross-university platform based at the University of Oxford with the aim of facilitating equitable and sustainable collaborations between researchers based at the University of Oxford and African universities, as well as increasing the number of African students pursuing postgraduate degrees in Oxford.
The Africa Oxford and Mastercard Foundation scholarships scheme provides fully funded scholarships for African students to pursue masters degrees in Oxford, and Nuffield offers partnership funding for this programme.
Cara (the Council for At-Risk Academics) is a rescue mission for academics around the world who need urgent help to escape from discrimination, persecution, violence or conflict.