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 Forms' 2026’ and then ‘Graduates and Visiting Students - College Contract 2026) as soon as possible. Please convert the document into a .pdf before uploading. The Portal cannot accept Apple Pages format files. If you have difficulty accessing the portal please instead attach your documents to an email to college.office@spc.ox.ac.uk.

University Card forms are currently being processed by the University Card Office. When your form has been processed, you will receive an email from the central University IT team titled ‘SSO username activation email’ (or similar) which will tell you your SSO (Single Sign-On) code (usually in the format spetXXXX). This will enable you to set up your IT access and access your ox.ac.uk email.

If you have not received your ‘SSO username activation email’ by Thursday 24 September please contact college.office@spc.ox.ac.uk so we can investigate.

Once you have set up your University IT access, please do the following:

• complete the University’s online Harassment and Sexual Misconduct training.
• complete the University’s online enrolment forms in Student Self Service.

It helps the College Office team 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 (we need to know these for meals in Freshers’ week).

We will be holding drop-in registration sessions for students arriving in Oxford ahead of the start of October. These will take place regularly (two or three times a week) from Thursday 17 September onwards and you can book a 5-minute slot to complete your registration in person and collect your University card.

Please do not book a registration slot until you have:

a.    completed the online enrolment process in Student Self Service; and

b.    (if you are a non-UK/Irish student) provided us with all the information requested in this document.

You will need to attend in person and to bring some photographic ID (passport or driving licence, for example) with you. You can book a registration session here.

If you are arriving between Friday 2 and Sunday 4 October you do not need to book a registration slot in advance. The College Office will be open on the afternoon of Sunday 4 October and no appointment is required.

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

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 Sunday 4 October) but to help you with planning here are the key College events for Postgraduate Freshers:

• Wednesday 7 October 12.30pm onwards: Induction sessions in College including buffet lunch with College advisers
• Tuesday 13 October evening: Graduate Freshers' Dinner (booking in advance required)

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 should know if you have been allocated a room by the College; please do not assume you have a room if you have not received confirmation of this.

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. 5 October 2026 in Michaelmas term) and end after breakfast on Saturday of Week 8 or Week 9 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 £140 per term (if living in the College annexes) on battels (College invoices) each term in 2026-27 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 graduate students who are not resident in College accommodation.

If you will be arriving in Oxford prior to Sunday 4 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 £30 + £1 refundable deposit on return of the card.

The 2026-27 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 (scroll down to the sections about bank accounts).

Bringing money into the UK

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