St Anne’s to be one of ten colleges accepting students on the first year of the University’s Astrophoria Foundation Year, launched today

St Anne’s is proud to announce that it is one of the ten Colleges that will be accepting students on the first year of the University’s Astrophoria Foundation Year, which is being launched to prospective students today (4th May).

As a College whose origins lie in the Society of Home Students — which provided women with previously-impossible routes to an Oxford education — St Anne’s has always had a strong commitment to diversity and widening access to higher education. Our aim is to be the home of choice for the brightest and most ambitious students, regardless of background.

The Foundation Year is open to UK state school pupils with significant academic potential, but who have experienced severe personal disadvantage or a disrupted education which has damaged their ability to apply directly for an Oxford undergraduate place. The programme provides up to 50 students with a fully funded, supportive and challenging one-year academic course, aimed at developing their academic skills, self-belief and confidence. The funding, which covers all tuition fees and participants’ accommodation and living expenses,  is supported by a major gift from a longstanding University donor. Students will study one of four foundation courses; Humanities (Classics, History, English and Theology); Chemistry, Engineering and Materials Science; Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) or Law. Ten Oxford colleges are taking part in the first year of the new initiative; the others are: Exeter, Jesus, Keble, Lady Margaret Hall, Mansfield, Somerville, St Hugh’s, Trinity, and Wadham. The Astrophoria Foundation Year builds on the model of a pilot foundation year programme pioneered by Lady Margaret Hall since 2016.

More information can be found on the University website https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/increasing-access/foundation-year.

The programme launch coincides with the release of the University’s Annual Admissions Statistical Report 2022 ( https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures/admissions-statistics/undergraduate-students), which shows the progress the University has made over the past few years in diversifying its undergraduate student body. It also contains data showing the breakdown of students admitted to St Anne’s over the last 3 years, and the role the College is playing in ensuring the proportion of UK undergraduate students coming from backgrounds that are underrepresented at Oxford reaches the 2023 target of 25%, building on the 21% of 2021 (which has risen from 13% just four years ago). The Astrophoria Foundation Year will play a key role and support our many other efforts to make Oxford and St Anne’s a truly diverse and inclusive place, where able students from all backgrounds can feel at home and thrive.