“St Catherine’s has a fantastic community among its undergraduates, postgraduates and staff. I cannot recommend Catz enough to prospective students who are thinking about applying.”
Liam, DPhil Geography and the Environment
St Catherine’s College (known as ‘Catz’) has one of the largest graduate intakes of all of the colleges admitting both undergraduate and graduate students. We admit students from a wide mix of disciplines and backgrounds, which makes our community a particularly lively and stimulating place to study, socialise and live.
Since its foundation, Catz has aimed to integrate graduates closely into the academic and social life of the College. The focus of graduate life in the college is the Middle Common Room or ‘MCR’ on the top floor of the Ainsworth Graduate Centre.
The Ainsworth Graduate Centre, completed in 2020, provides a new hub for our graduate community. It is a multi-functional building housing the MCR, seminar rooms and versatile spaces for study and events.
The MCR is also a term used to describe the graduate student body, which provides support and advice for peers beyond the regular academic structures at Oxford.
The MCR committee represents the interests of graduate students at Catz, and offers a multitude of academic, social and sporting events for graduate students, including a weekly special graduate dinner in Hall and regular graduate seminars. The annual Graduates’ Dinner takes place in May. Graduates are also members of the undergraduate Junior Common Room (JCR) and have access to all its facilities.
With over 400 members of many different nationalities, the Catz MCR is one of the liveliest and most stimulating graduate communities in Oxford.
“Social events in the MCR and affordable dining in the Hall lead to great interactions, providing a family-like environment. Also, the gym and the availability of weekly yoga and meditation sessions are helpful for great physical well-being. I don’t think I would have got so much care in any other college.”
Viveka, DPhil Engineering Science
Apply to Catz
Graduate study at Oxford is a distinctive experience: all graduate students are members of both a department or faculty and a college. This allows graduates to experience studying in both a large internationally-renowned institution and a smaller college community.
Students must be accepted by the relevant department or faculty before they can be considered by a college. Please see the University’s online Graduate Prospectus for a list of available courses, information about fees and funding, an Application Guide, and an online application form. You can state a college preference on your application form, or if you have no preference, can allow the system to do this for you. If you have any enquiries about studying as a graduate student at St Catherine’s, please email us.
At Catz, we are happy to consider applications for any programme of study offered by the University, but subjects related to the interests of the College Fellows are especially encouraged.
Our Tutor for Graduates, also a Fellow of the College, is responsible for the interests and welfare of graduate students at Catz. All graduates are also allocated a College Advisor (in addition to their University Supervisor) in or near their subject field. College Advisors will be able to offer support and advice to their graduate students.
Selection Criteria
- Applicants must first have been accepted by a Department or Faculty of the University of Oxford before any college or permanent private hall may consider them.
- Applications are considered for any of the courses in which the College offers admission. Please consult the courses list to see these courses.
- Applications are usually considered by academic staff in the relevant subject area.
- Preference will normally be given to applicants whose area of study overlaps with the academic interests of the College’s academic staff.
- The College aims to admit a certain number of graduate students each year spread across the range of subjects in which it accepts graduate students, and this will determine the number of offers which can be made to applicants. Where there are more applicants than offers which can be made, the relative academic merit and potential of the applicants may be taken into account. It may not be possible to make offers to applicants whose applications are received late in the admissions round, when places are full.
- The possession of competitively-won funding may be taken into account as an indicator of the applicant’s academic merit and potential.
- The final decision on whether to offer a place in the light of the overall competition for graduate places and the spread of those places across subject areas is usually taken by the Tutor for Graduates.
- Please note that any offer of a place will be subject to satisfactory completion of the Financial Declaration Form, which will be sent to the applicant as part of their College offer. Please consult the guidance on Financial Declarations for more details.
- Preference may be given to current or past students of the College who meet the selection criteria described above.