Oxford's Unequal
Landscape
When applying to Oxford, prospective students are told that “on the whole, colleges have more similarities than differences”. But in practice, students end up in colleges with starkly different financial means which affect their ability to provide for students.
It’s Only Getting Worse
Heightened by the cost-of-living crisis, disparities between colleges have increased significantly over the past few years. Richer colleges have been able to weather the storm and grow their assets while the poorer colleges have had to run deficits. The impacts of the university’s current redistribution policy have been negligible to correct these.
For example, in the last 4 years, Christ Church’s wealth increased by £169 million, larger than the combined endowment growth of the poorest 10 colleges over the same time.
Disparities Affect Student Support
There's a significant correlation between college wealth and financial support. The richer colleges offer up to 7 times more financial support in the form of scholarships, prizes, and grants.
Disparities Affect rent
Richer colleges tend to charge lower rent for college accommodation. The annual rent difference between the colleges with the highest and lowest rent is £1,400 for undergraduates and £4,700 for graduate students.
Rent has also been increasing more quickly at poorer colleges during the cost of living crisis, while richer colleges have been able to offer larger rent reductions to disadvantaged students.
Disparities Shape Academic Performance
Richer colleges offer higher financial support, vacation residence availability, and pay staff more through the college housing allowances. All of these factors lead to a higher performance on the Norrington Table.
Disparities Create an Unequal Playing Field
Oxford is committed to improving access to education but there is more to be done. Currently, the poorest colleges admit more disadvantaged students than the university-wide average, and these students are most affected by disparities in support. One in three students end up in colleges they didn't apply to, which means they might not get the provisions they expected.
The Solution is to Create an Endowment Fund
The Endowment fund will support the poorer colleges through pre-determined contributions by the richer colleges. The long-term and consistent nature of the flows will allow colleges to support students and make investments into their facilities.
Richer
Colleges will keep
growing
The contributor colleges are so wealthy that the income from their investments enables them to maintain a surplus, allowing them to grow their endowment even after contributing to the Endowment Fund. The richer colleges also have a higher proportion of their funds in higher-growth assets like stocks and bonds, which means they average a higher rate of asset appreciation on top of their investment income.