Frequently Asked Questions
Getting to and from oxford
You should arrive for your summer school course in Oxford on the first day (i.e: the 7th July, 21st July or 4th August). You must arrive at the accommodation by 18:00 latest for registration. We will host a big group supper for all students and ice-breaker activities. Classes will start the following day. If you have parents/guardians travelling with you to Oxford, they are welcome to join us in the afternoon for a tour of the Oxford University accommodation and refreshments.
You must leave at the end of your summer school course by 12 noon latest on the final day. Rooms must be vacated by 9am to allow College staff to clean them.
Please let us know and we can advise on travel plans. The best airports are London Heathrow and London Gatwick. We can arrange airport transfers for an additional fee. We have a long-standing relationship with a reliable chauffeur company in Oxford who will pick you up from Arrivals and drop you at our door. From Heathrow the journey is about an hour, from Gatwick about an hour and a half.
We are unable to offer advice on visas. Please check online on GOV.UK here. Most non-EU students will require some form of visa.
All students must have both Travel and Medical Insurance. Students from the EU or EEA should bring their European Health Insurance Card (EHIC).
applying for the summer school
Please apply on this website or email us with your details and we will get back to you as soon as possible to discuss your requirements and confirm your booking. The main criteria we consider are your academic achievement, your motivation and enthusiasm for our summer school course and your level of spoken English.
We will also conduct a short phone call with you, to discuss your application further. Please note that we have a limited number of spaces. We pride ourselves on offering a high quality and personal experience, so while other summer schools take large numbers of students, we restrict entry to smaller numbers of the most motivated students.
Our cancellation policy is as follows. You must pay a non-refundable booking deposit of £670 or £1335. If you cancel 120+ days before the start of the summer school we will refund all of the balance of the fees, 90-119 days before we will refund 50%, 60-89 days before we refund 10% and 0-59 days we can unfortunately not provide you with refund. This is so that other students who want to take advantage of the opportunity to join us on the summer school have enough time to make their plans.
We recommend all our students take out travel insurance so they are covered by this in case of cancellations, including due to illness.
Don't worry! Many of our courses are run on more than one set of dates, so make sure you check them, and there may still be spaces on related courses. If your course still isn't available, then contact us and we may be able to help.
Of course! We want the summer school to be as academically enriching for you as possible, and we think this makes it a great opportunity to try out studying a subject you’re interested in, but have not yet encountered in school. We're looking for enthusiasm and motivation, not expertise.
academic information
At the end of your course you will be presented with an Oxbridge International Summer School Graduation Certificate at our Prizegiving and Graduation Ceremony. This does not count for College credits.
There will be some subject-specific core reading required before you embark on the summer school, and closer to the beginning of your course your tutor may be in touch to suggest some pre-reading for before you arrive in Oxford.
You’ll have nine group tutorials (in groups of around 6 students), each of which lasts for 90 minutes, as well as two forty-five minute individual tutorials. This is a total of thirteen hours of contact time minimum with your tutors. Not included in this, however, is our range of workshops and seminars, and the time set aside for you to prepare for the tutorials individually or with friends.
The Oxbridge International Summer School is an organisation which contracts with The University of Oxford and Lincoln College for the use of facilities, but which has no formal connection with The University of Oxford. The Summer School is not sponsored or organised by Lincoln College.
We are an Approved Candidate for Accreditation by the British Accreditation Council for Independent Further and Higher Education as a Short Course Provider. The British Accreditation Council is one of the United Kingdom Border Authority’s approved accreditation bodies. This means you can use an acceptance letter from our summer school to support your visa application. It also means independent experts have rated the quality of our summer school, our teaching, facilities and the safety and well-being of our summer school students as very high quality.
other useful information
After breakfast, students have tutorials. They are then given a lunch break, when students walk around to buy lunch from Oxford's many cafes and shops, and come back for independent study on the work set by their tutors. Later in the afternoon, there will be a group activity which might be a visit to one of Oxford's museums, visits to Oxford's many colleges, a sports afternoon or a debate. Harry Potter tours are available!
Supper will be eaten all together, either in the college or at a local restaurant. In the evening, there will be socialising and lectures or trips out to the theatre.
On trip days, we will leave after breakfast and arrive back in Oxford in time for supper and have a debrief session afterwards in the common room. Throughout the day, we will stay together as a group or in smaller groups supervised by an adult.
You will be very busy throughout the two weeks with tutorials, independent study and activities. We recommend that you stay in Oxford throughout the course so that you can focus on your studies and making friends, but if you would like to leave for any reason you will need a signed "Exeat" form from a parent or Guardian in advance.
Of course. If you have any dietary requirements please let us know before the summer school begins so that we can make arrangements with the college and our other venues.
Breakfast and dinner are provided every day. For lunch meals the students are expected to buy their own lunch. There are a multitude of nearby sandwich shops and restaurants in Oxford which the students can visit during their lunch breaks.
The safety and wellbeing of students on the summer school is paramount. There are three check-ins for students throughout the day, and we also operate a curfew. College accommodation is monitored 24 hours a day by permanent college staff called Porters. This is in addition to our trained and experienced team who are resident at the summer school to support students 24 hours a day.
Our low student:staff ratio means we can provide students with all the individual support they need. All our staff and tutors are Disclosure and Barring Checked, as well as being trained in Child Protection and Health and Safety.
We have comprehensive insurance for the summer school, and to ensure best practice our students are encouraged to take out medical and travel insurance as well.
We will have residential staff in the college, as well as the Lincoln College porters, so someone will always be on site and contactable. Parents / Guardians can contact us 24/7 on the number we provide and there is WiFi throughout the college campus. You should note that phone signal is often very bad in Oxford, meaning that web calling services such as Whatsapp are often better than standard calling.