Academic Futures

Academic Futures is a new flagship graduate scholarship programme that supports under-represented students to study at graduate level at the University of Oxford. Applicants to the programme may have faced structural inequalities in early education, lost their home, or never had a stable home to begin with.

The programme began in 2020, focussing on Black Academic Futures, aiming to increase the number of UK Black and Mixed-Black doctoral students and has been hugely successful. The first year saw 48% more applications from eligible students, with 13 students in the inaugural cohort.

Academic Futures is now expanding to support other under-represented groups such as refugees and care experienced applicants.

Through this programme, you can support brilliant students who have overcome significant obstacles. Gifts will provide flexible scholarship funding for those most in need, enabling them to embark on graduate study at Oxford and unlock their full potential.

Many displaced people have overcome significant obstacles to access and excel in their education but lack the support and funding to continue to graduate study. Oxford is committed to providing financial support to pursue graduate study to students who are refugees or other people with lived experience of displacement.

Oxford has made considerable progress at increasing the representation of UK Black students at undergraduate level. However, while the number of UK Black undergraduate students has trebled over the past four years alone, they remain under-represented at graduate level, both at Oxford and across the higher education sector.

The Black Academic Futures scholarship programme aims to rapidly increase both applications from and funded places for well-qualified UK Black graduate students, reinforcing the University’s commitment to addressing race equality, and combatting discrimination.

Students who have had experience of being in care often lack the encouragement and financial backing to continue into graduate study. We aim to increase support for the best and brightest minds to enable these exceptional students to fulfil their full potential.

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