Oxford has no upper or lower limit on the age of those admitted as undergraduates. Historically, it was common for boys to become members of the university between the ages of fourteen and nineteen. Jeremy Bentham matriculated in 1761 at the age of thirteen, which was unusually young. At the present time, the usual age range of those admitted to study for first degrees begins at about seventeen, although the majority are eighteen or nineteen. Mature students, while not in great numbers in all colleges, are a higher proportion of those at Ruskin. In theory, much younger people can still be admitted to the university if they meet the entrance standard, and Ruth Lawrence matriculated at Oxford in 1983 at the age of twelve.
The admission process for undergraduates is extremely competitive and is undertaken by the individual colleges, working with each other to ensure that the best students gain a place at the University whichever college they choose. Selection is based on achieved and predicted exam results; candidate-submitted written work; school references; interviews, which are held between applicants and college tutors; and, in some subjects, written admission tests prior to interview. Prospective students apply through the UCAS application system, in common with most British universities, but (along with applicants for Cambridge) must observe an earlier deadline. Because of the high volume of applications and the direct involvement of the faculty in admissions, students are not permitted to apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the same year, with the exception of applicants for Organ Scholarships and those applying to read for a second undergraduate degree.
The decentralised, college-based nature of the admissions procedure necessitates a number of mechanisms to ensure that the best students are offered admission to the University, regardless of whether the college they originally applied to can accommodate them. As such, colleges can 'pool' candidates to other colleges, whereby candidates can be interviewed at and/or offered admission to another college. Some courses may make "open offers" to some candidates, which do not carry an attachment to a particular college until A Level results day in August. Since 2007 the colleges, faculties and departments have published a "common framework" outlining the principles and procedures they observe.
Undergraduate and graduate students may name preferred colleges in their applications. For undergraduate students, an increasing number of departments practise college reallocation to ensure that the ratio between potential students and subject places available at all colleges are as uniform as possible. Students who named colleges which are over-subscribed are reallocated to under-subscribed colleges for their subjects. Generally, students from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply, as many factors besides academic performance are taken into account during the stringent admission procedure.
For the Department of Physics, college reallocation is done on a random basis after a shortlist of candidates is drawn up and before candidates are invited for interviews at the university. As a result of this, the college eventually offering a candidate a place to read a subject may not be the one he/she originally applied to.
For graduate student admissions, many colleges express a preference for candidates who will be undertaking research in an area of interest of one of its fellows. St Hugh's College, for example, states that it accepts graduate students in most subjects, principally those in the fields of interest of the Fellows of the college. Perhaps as a consequence of this, it is not uncommon for a graduate student to be a member of his/her supervisor's college, although this is not an official university requirement. For graduate students, admission is first handled by the relevant department, and then by a college.
