Personal Circumstances and Contextualisation

individual circumstances

A student’s success at school can be influenced by their educational, social, economic, and personal family circumstances. Tutors can only assess an applicant’s ability and potential accurately by having all of this information to consider. The History Faculty uses contextual data to better understand an applicant’s achievements in the context of their school, neighbourhood, and experience in the care system.

We recommend that you declare any disabilities on your UCAS application. If we know about your individual requirements, we can provide appropriate adjustments to the History Aptitude Test or interviews.

If your education has been affected by extenuating circumstances, your teacher might wish to mention this in your UCAS reference. If you or your teacher would rather provide this information separately, we advise you to contact the college that is assessing your application once the college has confirmed receipt of your application. Tutors assess each application individually and always seek to consider such extenuating circumstances.

We welcome applications from mature students. Tutors need to see evidence that you have studied for formal academic qualifications in the last three years. You might be interested in completing the Foundation Certificate in History, which is a two-year part-time course offered by Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education. Successful students may apply to join the second-year of the BA History course.

All admissions decisions are made on academic grounds alone.