• 31 May – deposit deadline (MPP and MSc students only)
• 31 May – English language and academic conditions deadline (submitting official transcripts)
• July – Pre-Arrival Questionnaire due (you will be sent this after your offer becomes unconditional)
• 29 September – MPP starts
• 6 October – MSc and DPhil start

In order to meet your academic offer conditions, we will need to receive secure digital copies of your final transcripts and certificates for all your completed degrees. The deadline for us to receive these is 31 May, as stated in your formal offer letter.

You will need to provide a secure electronic copy of your final transcripts and certificates sent directly by your awarding institution. Alternatively, we are also able to accept a hard copy original or certified copy of transcripts. Hard copies can be posted to the School – the address is: 

Blavatnik School of Government
University of Oxford
Radcliffe Observatory Quarter
Woodstock Road
Oxford
OX2 6GG

If your transcripts and certificates are not in English, please include original and official translations of your documents, as per the guidelines above.

If your transcript confirms the date the degree was conferred and the overall grade along with your results for all the modules you have completed, this alone will be sufficient; if not, we will also require your final degree certificate. You should make sure that all transcripts from study abroad/exchange programmes and transfer credits are included.

If you are still completing an undergraduate or master’s degree and do not anticipate being able to provide us with an official academic transcript by 31 May, please contact us in the week preceding this date to inform us of your situation and expected degree end date, attaching a copy of an up-to-date interim transcript, and we will provide you with further instructions.

If your offer is conditional upon English test scores, you will need to provide us with these by 31 May. 

You can view the minimum scores required and further information about the tests on the English language proficiency page.

Test results must meet the University’s higher-level requirement, and we cannot accept any test score that is more than two years old, relative to the course start date (ie obtained before September 2023 for the MPP, or before October 2023 for the MSc and DPhil).

You should note that test centres often have long waiting lists for test dates, and results usually take a couple of weeks to reach you, so it is important that you book a test date as soon as possible. Taking the test early also means that you may have time for a second chance at achieving the scores before the deadline if you are not quite there the first time around! Once you’ve got a confirmed test date, please do let us know, so that we can make a note when to expect your scores.

IELTS/TOEFL: Once you have received your scores, you should send us a copy of your test report form as a PDF attachment in an email to admissions@bsg.ox.ac.uk, making sure your full scores and the test number are included. We will then verify your scores online and confirm that you have met this element of your offer conditions. There is no need to request the test providers to send us your scores, as this can take longer to reach us and we are keen to help you receive an unconditional offer as soon as possible!

CAE/CPE: If you have sat one of the Cambridge tests, you will need to send us the original certificate, as per the guidelines above for submitting academic transcripts, as we are unable to verify your scores online. Please find further information on the English language proficiency page. 

We know that not all of our outstanding candidates will be able to afford an Oxford graduate education at the Blavatnik School of Government and that taking out loans may not be an option. We want to help, but it’s important to be proactive and make securing your funding a priority.

University scholarships: For University funding (scholarships such as Felix, Clarendon, etc.), you will automatically be considered for all schemes for which you are eligible. Decisions will be made over the coming weeks – if you don’t receive an offer of funding straight away don’t be disheartened, some scholarships could be awarded as late as June. Decisions depend on multiple factors and the Blavatnik School is not involved in the administration of these awards, so we will not be able to provide you with any information other than what is publicly available, but if we are made aware of any updates we will let you know.

Blavatnik School funding: The main thing to remember is that the School has a very limited amount of funding that relies solely on the generosity of our supporters. Our financial awards range in value from full scholarships, some which will include a contribution towards your living expenses, to partial awards which will cover only a portion of the tuition fees. For these reasons, you should ensure you are not relying on the School as the main funder of your studies, but rather as a potential supplement to other sources of funding. All offer holders will have received a link with their offer letter to our Scholarship Questionnaire. As long as you have completed this questionnaire by the deadline given in the email, you will be considered for all Blavatnik School awards you may be eligible for. We hope to release most funding decisions within four weeks of this deadline and will let you know as soon as possible if you have been successful in winning an award.

Other sources of funding: In the past, MPP students have been successful in obtaining funding such as Chevening scholarships, Rotary Foundation grants and support from the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust, amongst many others. Some students will also be funded by their employer or their national government, or be eligible to study in the UK on ‘study abroad’ scholarships available in their home countries, so start to think about whom you may approach to request financial support for your studies. Even piecing together several smaller amounts could prove successful, so don’t leave any stones unturned! If you are applying to receive external funding, please keep the Admissions Team up to date with how your applications are progressing. In previous years, we have been able to assist with tuition deficits, so please do not let potential funding bodies dismiss your application due to the Blavatnik School’s fees. Put them in touch with us!

For further inspiration, read MPP alumna Nina Bengtsson's story on how she managed to get funding and may give you some ideas for funding your own studies. Also, read our student experience pages.

Payment of the tuition fee deposit (MPP and MSc only)

In order to meet this element of your offer conditions and secure your place on the programme, you will need to pay a deposit towards the course fees. For the MPP, this is a payment of £8,000. For the MSc, this is a payment of £6,190. The payment is due by 31 May.

You can find instructions on making the payment, the conditions under which this is refundable, and the link to complete the payment, in your conditional offer letter. If you have any technical payment queries, please contact deposits@bsg.ox.ac.uk.

If you have secured a scholarship or other external funding source equal to a minimum of the full tuition before 31 May, we are willing to waive the deposit requirement on the understanding that the fees will be paid on your behalf at the start of the Michaelmas Term. In order for us to grant a deposit payment waiver, please email us a copy of your scholarship offer letter or confirmation of funding to admissions@bsg.ox.ac.uk, and we will confirm with you when this condition is fulfilled. 

If, by 31 May, you have not been successful in securing funding, you will need to pay the deposit to secure your place – however please be reassured that we are able to refund this to you if you later secure full funding! For students who are still waiting to hear decisions on scholarships you have been shortlisted for, please let us know as soon as possible – in exceptional circumstances, we may be able to extend the deadline for a short period.

Your college or hall will offer pastoral care, additional facilities and the chance to be part of a strong academic community. There is a lot of information (including an explanation of how the University of Oxford is organised) on the University's website. You will be contacted by your college in due course. Please do not worry if you have not yet received a college offer – all students will be offered a place in one of the colleges! If you listed a preference on your application, this will be taken into account when allocating your place, although we can’t guarantee you’ll be accepted by that college. If you made an open application, you will be allocated a place at random. The Blavatnik School is not involved in the college allocation process, and we therefore are not able to provide you with information on your college offer.

Please remember that having a college place doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed accommodation – this is a separate process. If you wish to live in college accommodation, your college team will provide you with further information once you have accepted your college place. Don’t forget that the city of Oxford is home to a huge number of students each year so there are a lot of opportunities around if you cannot secure a room in your college! You might want to explore different avenues – some people like having their own student room within college- or University-owned accommodation, some others prefer sharing a private house with other students. Whatever is right for you, the University of Oxford’s Accommodation Office has a lot of information on University-owned accommodation and also on short and medium-term private accommodation within Oxford.

The simple answer is: when both your department offer conditions AND your college offer conditions are met.

For your academic conditions, the deadline to provide academic transcripts and English language requirements is 31 May, although if you are able to send your documents ahead of this we would recommend doing so as soon as possible! To meet your financial conditions, you must pay the deposit by 31 May (MPP students only).

You will also need to meet the financial conditions issued by your college or hall, as explained in your offer letter. Once you have been assigned to a college or hall and have received an offer from them, you will receive a ‘welcome pack’ from your college or hall, which includes a copy of your financial declaration. This will outline what you need to do and relevant deadlines to meet your financial condition.

Remember that colleges have their own processes and are separate from the Blavatnik School, so any questions about your financial conditions (other than your deposit) should be directed to them. So please be patient - you will soon hear from your accepting college or hall! Your college or hall will confirm with us directly when you have met their conditions, so there is no need for you to forward us your confirmation.

• First of all, once your offer is truly unconditional, we will send you your Completion of Conditions letter, also known as an unconditional offer letter.
• This will include the link to the Pre-Arrival Questionnaire, which you will need to submit by July so that everyone at the School can learn more about you in preparation for your arrival.
• You must also complete a University Card form, and return this with a passport-style photo. We at the Blavatnik School are not involved in University Card form processing, so do ensure you are sending it to the address mentioned in the form. Do not send your card form to us.
• Once you hold an unconditional offer, we will get in touch with you about your CAS, which you will need to add to your student visa application if you require this to study in the UK.

If you require a visa to join us, we will issue you a CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies), which is a reference number you will need to add to your visa application before submitting it. We are unable to issue your CAS until your offer is unconditional, so it is in your best interests to ensure all your conditions are met as soon as possible! This includes academic and financial conditions, as well as your college conditions.

For CAS numbers, we will initially be working on a priority list for applicants from countries with a long visa application process. We do ask you to please be patient with us during this time – we are working towards a group of around 150 students across the three programmes, the majority of whom will be applying for visas! Even if you are from a country on our priority list, it is unlikely that your CAS number will be created immediately. Keep in mind that sending us emails will only delay our processing, so please be patient and avoid emailing us to ask for your CAS as we will do this for all applicants as soon as we are able to.

You will be sent a draft of your CAS via email, which you will need to check thoroughly, as this is the information that will appear on your visa. Once we are sure that everything is correct we will request your final CAS number, which will be sent to you directly by email from the UK Home Office, and you will need to add this to your visa application. Once you have received this number, you will need to direct all further visa-related queries to the Student Immigration Team, as this is the extent of our role in the process.

Please note that issuing your CAS number is the only part of the visa process in which we are involved, and we therefore cannot provide advice on any other general or specific immigration queries.

You can find further guidance on the student visa process on the University's website, which also contains contact information for the Student Immigration team who will be happy to provide assistance if needed. For an overview of the student visa process, visit the student visa webpage on the UK Government website.

Can I do anything to help get my visa now?

The most important thing you can do is to check that you hold a valid passport. We will have your passport details on record from your application. If your current passport is valid for the entire duration of your stay, then you do not need to take any further action. However, if your passport will expire before you enter the UK, you must renew this as soon as possible! We cannot issue your CAS until we have your new passport information, so please email this to us at admissions@bsg.ox.ac.uk as soon as you can. If your passport is valid past the start of term in September/October but will be expiring whilst you are on the course, this is not necessarily a problem, as we can still issue your CAS valid for entry to the UK. However, your visa will be linked to your current passport, so if you renew your passport whilst you are in the UK, you will need to make sure you carry both the old and the new passport with you! We would therefore really recommend renewing your passport now so that when we issue the CAS it will be linked to your new passport straight away.

You should aim to meet your conditions as soon as possible and by no later than the academic conditions deadline of 31 May! You should also start drafting your visa application early so that once you receive the CAS number from us, it’s all ready to go. You may need to show evidence of funding in your visa application, so make sure you have original copies of any scholarship confirmation letters, relevant bank statements, letters from employers etc.

The Student Information team and the Oxford Student Union coordinate a series of welcome events and resources for all new students (UK and non-UK) starting in October. 

Freshers’ fair – Oxford Student Union: there will be stands at the Oxford Student Union Freshers’ fair for international students including a visa and immigration stand, a student information stand for advice about settling into life as a non-UK student as well as a huge range of international student societies and a range of other sports, social, and cultural stands. The fair takes place in October and your college will be allocated a morning or afternoon slot for all its students to attend. 

Pre-arrival resources: there is not a separate orientation event for international students as it is integrated with the Freshers’ fair. However, the webpages for new students have a separate section for international students with a wealth of advice. 

Student life

To start getting acquainted with student life in Oxford, read some of our student experiences, as well as tips on living in Oxford and the University's page, 'Why study at Oxford?'. These may help address any questions or doubts you may have.

Social media

If you use social media, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – where you can see what life at the School is like and get a taste of what's to come!