Top Reasons to Attend University in Oxford

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• University of Oxford

Getting Around

Most students use bikes, and cycle lanes and cycle parking are abundant. Local buses are inexpensive and services are good. Cars are actively discouraged in the city centre. London is 59 miles away, and trains take 1 hour. Coaches run to London 24 hours a day. There are special coach links to Heathrow (half hourly) and Gatwick (hourly) airports.

Attractions for Students

Sport: The city has a range of swimming pools and leisure centres, an ice rink and an athletics track. Many of the Oxford colleges have their own sports facilities; Oxford Brookes has a pool at Westminster College as well as its own sports provisions. The river provides opportunities for rowing. Rugby, football, basketball and ice hockey are all played.

Culture and nightlife: A number of famous bands have come out of Oxford in recent years, and there are now several venues for live music with gig nights for up and coming bands. Bars, clubs and restaurants are proliferating and a varied club scene with special student nights is attracting students to the city centre. Oxford has two cinemas, plus the Phoenix and the Ultimate Picture Palace. The Oxford Playhouse is the main theatre. The New Theatre is a venue for concerts. The Museum of the History of Science, the Ashmolean, the University Museum of Natural History and the adjacent Pitt Rivers are examples of the many museums. The Oxford Art Weeks takes place in May and June each year. There are walking tours of Oxford and the colleges, which provide an interesting and informed view of the city. The tours leave Oxford Information Centre daily at 11am and 2pm.

Shopping: Cornmarket and Queen Streets are popular shopping areas, as are the Westgate and Clarendon Centres and the traditional Covered Market. Book lovers are spoilt for choice.

Proximity to the city centre:
Oxford University: the colleges are an integral part of the city, with most of the undergraduate colleges being in or near to the city centre.
Oxford Brookes University: two campuses in Headington, 2 miles from the centre; Wheatley, 6 miles east; and Botley, 3 miles west.

Find out how safe this city is with our crime figures

Cost of Living - Facts for Students

• Oxford undergraduates rely heaviest on their parents to supplement their university spending, with parents contributing on average £112.62/week towards their children's income. Next heaviest being Edinburgh with parents contributing £100.55 - quite a gap!
• 33% of Oxford undergraduates cited 'Level of pay' as most important when applying for a job (topped only by Cambridge with 35% of undergraduates citing the same reason)
• Only 20% of Oxford undergraduates chose to study at Oxford based on its academic reputation, with the same percentage choosing the university based on its social life
• Over half (52%) of Oxford undergraduates are receiving the same amount of financial support from their parents as last year compared to just 28% of Manchester students
• Parents of Oxford undergraduates contribute more to their weekly income (£112.62) than either their student loan (£104.69) or overdraft (£52.43)
• Oxford students pay the highest weekly rent at £84.65 per week except for Brighton students who fork out a whopping £86.53 per week for their accommodation.

Facts are sourced from NatWest/RBS Student Living Index 2009, for more useful financial information from NatWest click here >