Postgraduate Freshers

You will need to sign and return the Student-College Contract in advance of your arrival. Please return this document using the St Peter’s College Submission Portal (go to ‘Freshers’ and then 'Graduates and Visiting Students - College Contract 2023') as soon as possible. Please convert the document into a pdf before uploading. The Portal cannot accept Apple Pages format files.

The MCR Freshers' Guide contains a wealth of information and advice from current graduate students at the College.

It helps us in the College Office to have some key information about you and when you are arriving. Once your travel plans are confirmed, please complete the short form here. The form simply asks you to confirm your date of arrival in Oxford and to provide information about your dietary requirements.

You will have induction and Freshers’ week activities in your department or faculty. You should receive information from the department or faculty about this.

We will provide more detailed information in the run-up to Week 0 (the week starting on 1 October) but to help you with planning here are the key College events for Postgraduate Freshers:

• Wednesday 4 October 12noon-4pm (times TBC): Induction sessions in College including buffet lunch with College advisers
• Tuesday 10 October evening: Graduate Freshers' Dinner

We will be holding drop-in registration sessions for graduate students arriving in Oxford ahead of the start of October. These will take place on:

• Wednesday 20 September – drop in between 3pm and 4pm
• Wednesday 27 September – drop in between 3pm and 4pm

Members of the MCR will also be around to greet you. To collect your University card, you will need to bring some photographic ID (passport or driving licence, for example) with you and (if you are a non-UK/Irish student) to have provided us with the information we have requested in relation to your visa/immigration status. You will also need to have completed the online enrolment process in Student Self Service.

If you are not arriving in Oxford until the start of October, don’t worry, you will be able to collect your University Card from the College Office during week 0.

Please read the information here and contact accommodation@spc.ox.ac.uk where required.

The College is able to provide accommodation to a limited number of Postgraduate Freshers each year in the College’s offsite annexes.

You will need to sign a Tenancy Agreement before you access your room. You can read a generic copy of the Tenancy Agreement here. Please do not sign and return this version; you will be issued with an electronic personalised agreement for an electronic signature before you access your room.

More information about accommodation arrangements can be found in the Student Administrative Handbook. If you have any queries about accommodation not answered in the Handbook, please contact the Accommodation Office (accommodation@spc.ox.ac.uk).

Student meals begin with breakfast on Monday of week 0 (e.g. 2 October 2023 in Michaelmas term) and end after breakfast on Saturday of Week 8 each term. The Dining Hall is usually very crowded in the first few days of week 0 of Michaelmas term.

From the start of Week 0 you will be able to pay for meals via the Dining Hall’s pay-as-you-go system.

Postgraduate Students who are resident in College-managed accommodation will be charged £124 per term (if living in the College annexes) or £207 per term (if living on the main College site) on battels (College invoices) each term in 2023-24 as pre-payment for meals in Hall during the term. Each student will have their own account which is accessed via the Upay website and which you top up further as necessary. Further information about the pre-payment model for meals can be found on the Meals page of the website. There is no pre-payment charge for students who are not resident in College accommodation.

If you will be arriving in Oxford prior to Sunday 1 October and you would like to eat in the Dining Hall then you will be able to purchase a meal card from the lodge for £10 + £1 refundable deposit on return of the card.

The 2023-24 Finance Guide for Graduates summarises the key information you need about financial matters. You can find advice about managing your finances as a student on the University website.

If you have any queries about financial matters, please contact our Student Finance Officer.

Opening a bank account

For students coming from outside the UK, the University provides useful information here (on the tab labelled 'Finances and Banks').

Bringing money into the UK

The regulations on bringing money into the UK are explained on the UK government website.

Bank account details form

There will be times during your study when the College may need to make a payment to you (e.g. payment of prizes, returning deposits etc.) and holding your bank details enables this process to happen smoothly. If you can return this form before you start, it will save you filling it in in the future. However, if you don’t know your bank details yet, please don’t fill in this form. You can upload the completed form using the St Peter’s College Submission Portal (go to ‘Freshers’ Forms 2023' and then select 'Bank Details 2023').