Pre-clinical medicine: Does the Medical School use contextual admissions?

Please note that the Medical School does not use a binary classification of applicants as contextual or non-contextual, nor do we make contextual offers for A100 Medicine. However, we do look carefully at contextual data during the application process.

 The University of Oxford is looking for students with the highest academic potential, from different backgrounds. We know that factors such as socio-economic disadvantage and school performance can make it difficult for prospective applicants to access their full potential before applying to university. Therefore, we use a range of contextual data to better understand each candidate’s achievements in the context of their background.

 For UK students applying for an undergraduate course, we look at:

• Information about their school
• Information about their neighbourhood
• Any experience in the care system
• Eligibility for Free School Meals (FSM) since age 11
• Additional Widening Participation (WP) information

 This information helps us to understand more about applicants' particular circumstances and to compare them fairly with other applicants at all stages of the application process.

For further information about how the University uses contextual data, please see: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/decisions/contextual-data.  

Please note that while this contextual information helps us to understand more about your particular circumstances and to compare you fairly with other applicants, evidence of disadvantage is not in itself a guarantee of an application being shortlisted for interview.  The contextual data provided to us by the University is carefully considered in the context of an application when making admissions decisions.