Undergraduate Support

Oxford Bursaries are available for Home students from lower income households. This scheme provides generous non-repayable bursaries for full-time students paying fees at the Home rate with qualifying household incomes. The type and level of support available varies depending on where you are from and when you started your course. If you are entitled to an award you will be sent a notification letter by Student Funding Services.

Home students from the lowest household income brackets will be offered a Crankstart Scholarships which provides financial support as well as additional opportunities including access to funded internships and social activities. There is no need to apply and selected new first-year students will be offered a Scholarship from mid-September each year.

For UK undergraduates who are closely related to a commercial traveller, chemist or grocer. Full eligibility details and application forms are available on the Leverhulme Trade Charities Trust website.

St John’s College in partnership with Global Talent Fund and its Backing Invisible Geniuses (BIG) program wishes to support undergraduates of outstanding academic potential who are in financial need. The scholarship is restricted to candidates in Mathematics and its joint degrees who have earned a gold, silver or bronze medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad, International Physics Olympiad, or International Olympiad in Informatics, or a gold or silver medal at the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad, the International Chemistry Olympiad or the International Biology Olympiad and whose fees status is classified as Overseas by the University of Oxford. For further details about Fees and Funding, please go to: Ugrad Fees & Funding

There will be up to two scholarships for the 2025 intake. Each scholarship may cover both University and College fees, and a living cost grant. The award(s) may be partial or whole depending on the assessed financial status of the applicant(s).

The scholarship holder(s) will be invited to join the cohort of BIG scholars at the Global Talent Lab and participate in the events organised by the GTL. They may also benefit from an allowance to support travel and academic enrichment.

All applicants must apply to the University and be offered a place for the 2025 undergraduate intake by St John’s College before their application can be considered. To apply, follow the guidelines and fill in the application form by 12 Noon GMT 12th February 2025.

Financial assistance is available for Home students who face difficulty in meeting their living costs. It cannot be used to help meet tuition fees. Students will be assumed to be in receipt of their maximum student loan entitlement. To find out more, please visit the Oxford Assistance Fund page.

For further information about the range of scholarships and funding provided by the University, please go to the funding search tool at:

Fees and Funding Search

Students may apply for help towards the purchase of approved books and materials of an academic nature as below:

• Books and academic materials
• Computer and equipment as below
  • portable or hand-held computing devices
  • monitors
  • desktop computers
  • computer software and peripherals
  • memory or hard-disk upgrades
  • computer repairs
  • personal printers
  • USB ethernet adapters
• Tickets for performances/exhibitions

Travel, phone, data services, or insurance contracts for items purchased are not eligible for reimbursement.

Undergraduates may claim a maximum of £414.

Purchase of a single item which costs in excess of the annual allowance may be permitted. The maximum allowable for the year can be claimed with the excess cost applied to future year's for which you are eligible. A copy of the receipt for this item must be retained and submitted with your claim.

Applications can be made from 1st October 2024 to 20th June 2025. Apply via this link. For queries, please email battels@sjc.ox.ac.uk.

Undergraduate students wishing to remain in residence after the end of term, or return before the beginning of term, or to stay in College during part of a vacation, may apply for vacation residence. Additional nights are changed at the nightly rate for the room grade.

In addition to vacation residence, Undergraduate students may apply on the same application form for vacation residence grant towards the cost of remaining in residence outside of term time.

Undergraduate students will receive the following grant days:

Year 1: 12 grant days

Year 2: 20 grant days

Year 3: 36 grant days

Year 4: 36 grant days

This grant is only awarded for residence for academic purposes. It is not available for non-academic events or to support overseas students who do not return home during the vacations. An Extended Licence is available for overseas students – see Extended Licence section below. Unused days from a year may not be carried forward.

Details about the Vacation Residence request process can be found on the college intranet.

An ‘Extended Licence’ (from 0th week Michaelmas to 8th week Trinity) is available to support students for whom the process of leaving for the shorter vacation periods at Christmas and Easter can be disproportionally difficult - and to enable them to stay in college accommodation (although you may be required to move rooms) during these periods, without the need to apply for vacation residence.

Applications for the Extended Licence is only available to:

• International students (those who have ‘overseas’ or ‘EU’ fee status or students with home fee status but resident overseas)
• Students with disabilities that would make it difficult for them to pack their rooms and depart for the shorter vacation periods

Students making an accommodation request based on disability-related grounds should request an extended licence as part of their application for accommodation based on disability-related grounds. The extended licence for applications on disability-related grounds will only apply to students who are approved through this process and who have a Student Support Plan in place recommending they stay during the vacation periods.

As part of the Extended Licence, all vacation nights (nights outside of official term dates) will receive a grant allowing a 50% discount of the nightly room rate. By accepting an Extended Licence you are agreeing to the full period of the licence (from 0th week Michaelmas to 8th week Trinity) and to be charged for all nights within the licence period regardless of whether you chose to depart college accommodation for any dates within the vacations, and cannot revert to a standard accommodation licence afterwards. As the Extended Licence is discounted and includes the Christmas and Easter Vacation, those on this licence will not also be eligible for Vacation Residence Grant Days. Additional vacation residence days at the end of Trinity term, at the end of the Extended Licence, should be requested via the Intranet ‘Vac Res Booking system. The licence gives provision to remain in college accommodation, however, you may be asked to move room during the vacation periods.

The University offers support for students who experience financial hardship as a result of unforeseen circumstances. Please visit the University's Hardship page for further information.

St John's also offers financial hardship grants. To apply, download a Financial Assistance Application Form, to be submitted to the Fellow for Welfare, together with copies of your bank account statements for the last three months. Students who are concerned about financial hardship may wish to discuss their circumstances with the Finance Manager before submitting a form, finance.manager@sjc.ox.ac.uk.

For special academic purposes such as travel to undertake research in archives, in support of work directly relevant to your course, e.g. field trips/compulsory activities, attendance at meetings, summer schools, conferences, for academic project work to be carried out in Oxford, travel to undertake voluntary work.

Notes of guidance for undergraduates can be seen here.
Applications should be made online at https://forms.office.com/e/Z4vgN6gQCy. If you are applying for assistance towards the cost of accommodation in College during vacation periods, applications should be made through https://forms.office.com/e/zppMSPRstd.

Successful applicants will be required to produce a report on not only the basic facts of their trip, but also what they’ve gained towards furthering their course studies.

Applications for Special Grants must be made via the online Special Grants form (link above) by noon on Thursday of 4th Week in Michaelmas Term and noon on Thursdays of -1st Week and 4th Week in Hilary and Trinity Terms.

In Hilary and Trinity Terms, thanks to the generosity of an alumnus, we offer the Expanding Horizons Programme (EHP). Notes of guidance can be seen here. The purpose of the EHP is to enable the College’s students to enlarge their intellectual and/or imaginative horizons through engaging with ideas and/or disciplines beyond their subject. It is envisaged that the majority of activities for which applications are supported will take place in the Easter and/or Long Vacations. Where we receive more applications than can be funded, we will support those which seem best to demonstrate real value to the recipient of the proposed work.

Successful applicants are required to submit all receipts for expenses covered by the grant and a report (approximately 1,000 words) on what they have learnt through their activities and the extent to which they consider how much their own intellectual horizons to have been expanded by their trip, referring back to their original application.

Applications for the Expanding Horizons Programme must be made via the online form (https://forms.office.com/e/EAXt3GpuSR) by noon on Thursdays of -1st Week and 4th Week in Hilary and Trinity Terms.

The Adams Bursary provides funding for final year undergraduates from St John’s College and St Hilda’s College who are in need of financial assistance. Academic merit is also taken into consideration. The bursary has been made possible by a benefaction to the University in memory of Reginald and Frieda Adams and provides a one-off payment of up to £1,000 each Hilary Term for up to four students from each college. Students must be ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom or a member state of the European Union and must be in receipt of the Oxford Bursary or Crankstart Scholarship in their final year or have a qualifying household income. Eligible students are contacted by the University directly each year with further information and a link to an application form.

In addition to funding made available to the College via the University’s Adams Bursary, St John’s is able to make further awards under the same criteria up to a total of £1,000 thanks to the generosity of A & J Reid.

The College pays grants of up to £250 per year to cover the costs incurred by students through membership of university representative team squads. Claims are made via the Blues Grant application form and should be accompanied by receipts, countersigned by an official of the relevant university sports club, before being submitted.

The College will offer a prize of up to £300, which may be shared if deemed appropriate by the judges, for original work in any branch of creative art (drawing, painting, sculpture, poetry, music, photography, etc.).  If there is no entry of adequate standard there will be no award.

All junior members, whether graduates or undergraduates, may compete and the entries will be judged by a Committee consisting of both junior members and senior members of the College. Competitors should send in one example of work done during the previous twelve months. Entries are considered in Trinity Term each year and should be sent to the President's PA not later than the end of the third week of Trinity Term.

As a result of a generous gift from Dr Gillian Sutherland in memory of Alister Sutherland, distinguished economist, who read PPE at St John’s, the College offers an award of up to £600 annually to successful applicant(s) who present the most imaginative and best-planned proposal for a journey in the high mountains, preferably but not necessarily, in mountainous regions where the summits exceed 3,000 metres in height. The purpose is to encourage the discovery and enjoyment of high mountains.

Read a report by John Spence, winner of the 2024 Alister Sutherland Award, reflecting on his expedition in Georgia's South Caucasus.

Applications are considered in Hilary Term each year and should be sent to the President's PA not later than the end of the fourth week of Hilary Term. Further details for prospective entrants are available here.

This grant is for studies in the field of International Relations. It was established through the generous gift of the late Professor Sir Fritz Caspari and his wife, in memory of their eldest son Hans Michael, who like his father and brother, attended St John's. The award, of up to £700, will be made annually to an undergraduate or graduate member of St John's to assist them to travel to Bonn, New York, Geneva, Vienna or one of the other seats of the UN or more generally to the seats of other international organisations, in order to further their study of International Relations.
Applications, in the form of a letter of no more than two pages with a separate CV and marks if available, should be sent to the Academic Office by Friday of 1st Week of Hilary Term and will be awarded in time for travel during the Easter or Long Vacations.

This scholarship has been established through the generous gift of the late Mr Joseph Burke Knapp, Honorary Fellow of St John's College. The award, of up to £700, will be made annually to an undergraduate or graduate member of St John's to cover travel and related expenses in pursuit of development issues in countries defined as 'developing' by the OECD, or a country in the which the applicant can make a strong case for the study of development issues. Applications should be made to the Academic Office by Friday of 1st Week of Hilary Term and will be awarded in time for travel during the Easter or Long Vacations.

The College offers four Music Bursaries for undergraduate and graduate students of St John’s. Each Bursary will be tenable for one academic year and will provide up to £360 towards the cost of music lessons in any style or genre. (Proof of the lessons to be confirmed by music tutors.)

In addition to the four Bursaries, a John Heath Music Scholarship of £400 is available to help finance lessons for a gifted musician in any style or genre.

Applications should be made by email to the President’s PA not later than Friday of Week 4 in Michaelmas Term.

Selection will be by audition, normally on Friday of Week 5 in Michaelmas Term. Further details for prospective entrants are available here.

Each year, up to eight Choral Scholars are elected after auditions in Hilary term.  Choral awards are open to women and men who are matriculated members of St John’s reading any subject, both graduates and undergraduates, who are able to demonstrate musical excellence and willingness to play a responsible role in the choir, both in terms of administration and encouragement of others.

Choral scholars are expected to have good sight-reading, the ability to lead their section and competence to sing solos when required.  The responsibilities include attendance at all services sung by the choir and the preceding rehearsals (a commitment of around six hours per week) and charge of the chapel music library.

In return, the college offers an award of £300 per annum, plus up to £360 per annum for singing lessons to its choral scholars, plus a modest fee per service, in addition to the opportunity to sing at notable college feasts, to tour and to give concerts with the choir.