How to Apply

You can apply for an undergraduate course at Oxford between 5 September and 15 October 2024 for entry in 2025 or deferred entry in 2026.

Applicants must complete a UCAS application before 6pm UK time on 15 October.

You should ensure that you allow your school or college plenty of time to complete the reference section before the deadline.

We will only accept late applications if there are exceptional circumstances.

More information about making a UCAS application can be found on the Oxford undergraduate admissions website.

Choosing a Course

Oxford offers just under 250 different courses from 30 faculties and departments. Each course allows both breadth and depth, ensuring that students can gain a wider understanding of their subject while also specialising in the areas that interest them most.

Each course is structured, taught and assessed differently, so it is important to research the courses you think you might enjoy so that you can pick the one that best matches your interests and abilities. Our courses are very challenging, and whilst we provide a lot of academic support for our students, they need to be motivated and willing to work hard in order to do well.

You can find out more about the range of subjects that Oxford offers on the main University website ‘Courses’ section. Mansfield, as a smaller college, does not offer every course. You can find out more about the subjects we offer on the Mansfield Subjects page.

Choosing a College

Undergraduate students at Oxford are members of the University, of their department, and of one of the colleges. Colleges are small communities within the University, made up of undergraduates, postgraduates and tutors. They have an academic focus as well as being the place where our students live, eat and socialise. Mansfield is one of 30 undergraduate colleges in the University.

Applicants to Oxford can express a preference on their UCAS form about which college they’d like to be a member of. Your application will be considered by all colleges that offer the course you have chosen, to ensure that no one is disadvantaged by choosing an oversubscribed college, but around two thirds of applicants who receive an offer will be given it by their first choice college.

If you don’t want to choose a college, you can make an ‘open application’, which will mean that a college is assigned to you. The college you are assigned will depend on application patterns for your choice of course that year, but there is no advantage (or disadvantage) to making an open application in terms of your likelihood of being made an offer. The tutors are looking to admit the best candidates from across all colleges, and so won’t be concerned about whether or not you chose their college.

You can find out more about how to choose a college on the ‘Do you choose a college?’ pages of the Oxford admissions website.

Key application dates

15 September: deadline for registering for the LNAT admissions test for law
19 September: deadline for registering for the UCAT admissions test for medicine
26 September: last day on which the UCAT may be taken
4 October: deadline for registering for other admissions tests
15 October: last day on which the LNAT may be taken
15 October: deadline for submitting UCAS forms
Late October: acknowledgment emails sent
21-31 October: admissions tests to be sat in Pearson VUE test centres
10 November: deadline for written work to arrive at the College
Late November to early December: shortlisting decisions sent out by email, subject by subject
9 December: interview period begins
19 December: interview period ends
14 January: decision communicated by email and UCAS
15 February: deadline for requesting individual feedback

Step 1. Admissions tests

All admissions tests will be online, delivered in partnership with Pearson VUE via its established network of test centres. Please see the University of Oxford website for more information.

Step 2: UCAS application

Submit your application by 6pm UK time on 15 October

Make sure you leave your school or college plenty of time to complete the reference section before your deadline. We’ll only accept late applications if there are exceptional circumstances.

How to select Mansfield as your preference

To select us on your UCAS application, include the following codes:

Institution code name: OXF
Institution code: 033
Campus code: E

Step 3: Written work

Complete any required written work by 10 November

For English, History, Philosophy & Theology, and Theology & Religion, we ask you to send us written work as part of your application. This should be part of your normal school or college work – something marked by a teacher, and a maximum of 2,000 words. We use this to assess your writing ability, critical thinking skills, and the support you’re receiving in school.

How to submit your work

Send your piece as one multi-page PDF (including the cover sheet we provide) to admissions@mansfield.ox.ac.uk, Or, if you’re unable to scan and email your written work, you can submit a hard copy (single-sided and not stapled) to the Admissions Office, Mansfield College, Mansfield Road, OX1 3TF. Please make sure you use adequate postage, and bear in mind work we receive by post can’t be returned to you.

Here’s guidance from the course faculties:

English

History

Please send an ordinary essay on a historical topic, not a structured question, nor a source-based response, nor a personal study. Your written work should be about 1500 words long, and not longer than 2000 words. Note that in selecting work for submission you should choose a piece which has enthused you and on which you are willing to talk. Do not worry if you have changed your mind on the topic since writing it. Tutors are impressed by candidates who remain intellectually engaged with their work.

Philosophy & Theology, Theology & Religion

Please send work in Religious Studies if you are studying this subject to A-level (or equivalent). If you cannot submit a sample of work in Religious Studies, please submit work in a related area. You may send an essay or an examination or test answer to an unseen question, which has been supervised and marked by your school or college. Please ensure that work is not overly long, as tutors want to evaluate the succinctness and pertinence of your work.

Step 4: Shortlisting

As part of the admissions process, we shortlist for interview any candidate who we believe shows aptitude for their subject and fits the selection criteria for their course. Unfortunately we’re not able to interview all applicants, but we shortlist on average around 60% of applicants for interview, with variations from subject to subject. Shortlisting is coordinated by each individual department, to ensure that no candidate is disadvantaged by applying to an oversubscribed college. A small amount of reallocation between the colleges takes place during the shortlisting process, though not in every subject.

When will you be notified?

All applicants for each subject will be notified at the same time – whether you’ve been shortlisted for interview or not. This will be in late November or early December, depending on the subject. Dates for each subject will be published here nearer the time. Please also check your inbox and junk inbox for emails if you have not heard anything by the published date for your subject.

If you haven’t heard from the College by a week before the scheduled interview date, please contact us on admissions@mansfield.ox.ac.uk or 01865 282920.

Step 5: Your interview

The style of the interviews will be academic in focus, intellectually challenging, and will combine existing knowledge with new material. Discussions may focus on your personal statement, written work, material studied in school, texts/pictures/problems given during the interview, or completely new material.

During the interviews, we are looking to see that you would benefit from what we have to offer, in terms of both the course content and the way that we teach it. Part of this involves assessing whether you would benefit from studying in the tutorial system, where the focus is on discussion in very small groups. We also want to see that you’re able to think critically and independently about the questions we ask you, and that you can engage with material that you haven’t encountered before.

What the interview might be like

How much does the interview count for?

While interviews are a significant part of our selection procedure, it’s important to remember that no individual part of your application is considered in isolation – including the interview. Tutors will also be looking at your exam results and predicted grades, your personal statement, your teacher’s reference, admissions tests, written work (where applicable), and any contextual data that you provide. Each of these elements will be considered when we decide which candidates to accept.

We’ll make your interview experience as comfortable as possible

We expect candidates to be a bit nervous during the interview period, but we’ll do everything we can to make sure you are put at ease. Your interviews will be challenging, as we want to test the limits of your abilities, but remember that the tutors want you to succeed as well, as they’re looking for candidates they will enjoy teaching on the course.

Practice interviews

Step 6: Decisions and feedback

Tutors will make their decision based on how well they think the candidate would perform on the course they’ve applied for, using the selection criteria for that subject, and how much they would benefit from what we have to offer. Each department will coordinate the decisions for their subject across all colleges, ensuring that the best applicants are made offers regardless of which college they applied to. A number of candidates will be reallocated to a different college, either after having an additional interview there, or after the tutors there have considered their application material.

Candidates for 2025 entry will be told whether or not their application has been successful on 14 January 2025. Decisions will be released via UCAS early in the morning. This will be followed by direct communication from the college considering your application. No decisions will be given out over the phone.

Application feedback

The deadline for requesting individual feedback via the Feedback Request Form is 15 February 2025.

Individual feedback

No feedback will be given before 14 January 2025. Any requests received before that date will be answered within 20 working days of 14 January.

Applicants who email to ask for feedback will be directed to fill out the form. Please note that we can only accept feedback requests from applicants – we’re not able to respond to feedback requests from parents, friends or teachers.

What will be in my feedback?

Why can't I receive feedback before 14 January?

Can my school or college receive my feedback?

What should I do if I have follow-up questions after I have received my feedback?

Feedback for the 2023-24 cycle

Mansfield made 84 offers for 2024 entry, including three deferred from the previous admissions cycle. One offer was also made for 2025 entry.

The following figures include offers for 2024 entry only. Figures also include students progressing from the Astrophoria Foundation Year.

Subject Breakdown

Gender

Domicile

School Type (UK only)

The following figures refer only to UK residents who are being or have been educated in the UK.

Overall:

State sector: 97.2%
Independent sector: 2.8%

Breakdown (school type):

15.3% Comprehensive School
54.2% Academy or free school – non-selective or N/A
18.1% FE Sector Institutions
6.9% Academy – selective
2.8% Grammar School
2.8% Independent School

Breakdown (school selection policy – state sector only):

90.0% non-selective or N/A
10.0% selective

Office for Students Targets (UK only)

The following figures refer only to UK residents who are being or have been educated in the UK.

The University of Oxford has an agreement with the Office for Students that it will aim to meet certain targets relating to the admission of students from under-represented groups, identified by indicators of educational and socio-economic disadvantage. More information can be found in the University Access and Participation Plan 2020-21 to 2024-25.

As the targets relate to intake rather than offers, these figures are only preliminary.

Target 1: to reduce the gap in participation rates for disadvantaged students (ACORN) to 3:1 by 2024-25.

Mansfield offers for 2024: 2:1

Target 2: to reduce the gap in participation rates for under-represented students (POLAR4) to 8:1 by 2024-25.

Mansfield offers for 2024: 7:1

(Note: Target 3 is not reported here. Ethnicity data is not available until the end of the admissions cycle.)

Subject Feedback

Subject specific feedback for the 2023-24 cycle is available below.

Engineering Science feedback

English Language and Literature feedback

Geography feedback

History feedback

Law (inc. Law with Law Studies in Europe) feedback

Materials Science

Mathematics (inc. Mathematics and Statistics) feedback

Philosophy, Polities and Economics feedback

Physics feedback

Theology & Religion and Philosophy & Theology feedback

Aimee Hunter, English Language & Literature student

Ready to apply to Mansfield?

You’ll need to apply through UCAS by 6pm UK time on 15 October. You may also need to complete an admissions test – which you’ll need to register for by 4 October (or 15 September for Law) – and/or written work.

UCAS Codes:

Institution code name: OXF
Institution code: 033
Campus code: E

Contact the Mansfield Admissions Team

Registrar and Director of Admissions: Helen Brooks

Academic Officer: Sarah Terry

We look after the whole admissions process at the College – from when you send in your UCAS form, all the way through to when successful students arrive at Mansfield to start their course. Below is our step-by-step guide to your application, though if you have any questions about applying to Mansfield – or about the College itself – please get in touch with us.

– Email: admissions@mansfield.ox.ac.uk
– Phone: 01865 282920
– Address: Admissions Office, Mansfield College, OX1 3TF

Undergraduate

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