Frequently asked questions
Details for UNIQ 2026 will be available soon
The details on this page are for UNIQ 2025 and are subject to change.
About UNIQ
Yes, UNIQ is completely and utterly free!
There are absolutely no fees to either UNIQ participants or their schools or colleges, and we cover all travel, accommodation, meals, and staffing and tuition costs. We think it’s a pretty good deal!
This does rely on information being sent back to us on time. In the case of travel, students that fail to adhere to our deadlines or lose their ticket may have to pay for their own. Read below what types of travel we provide. We don't cover additional snacks or souvenirs you may wish to buy, nor forgotten items. If you have any worries about paying for something on your visit, please speak to us, though.
UNIQ welcomes applications from students with disabilities or other needs and makes reasonable adjustments to facilitate access. You do not need to declare this at the point of application, but if we offer you a place you would be asked to let us know about anything that we would need to consider to accommodate your needs. This includes any access arrangements for the residential in Oxford.
If you would like more information about accessibility and resources for students, staff and visitors in Oxford more generally, please visit our Equality and Diversity disability support pages. Information about building accessibility can be found on the University's Access Guide or interactive map.
Please contact uniq@admin.ox.ac.uk if you have further questions or concerns.
Eligibility
See our page on selection criteria to see if UNIQ is for you.
To be eligible to apply for UNIQ, you must be a UK resident settled in the UK at the time of your application, with no restrictions on the period for which you may stay in the UK. See our page on selection criteria for more information about residency requirements.
If you are selected, we will contact your school or college and ask them to verify the information on your application.
If you do not attend a UK state school you cannot apply to UNIQ. This includes if you attend a public school, an independent school, or a private school. Only UK state schools are selectable on our application form.
See our page on selection criteria to see if UNIQ is for you.
If you do not attend a UK state school you cannot apply to UNIQ. This includes if you attend a public school, an independent school, or a private school, even if your attendance is supported by any scholarships or bursaries. Only UK state schools are selectable on our application form.
The UNIQ programme is for students in their first year of sixth form study, usually the penultimate year of school and the year before making a UCAS application to universities. In English schools this year is referred to as Year 12, but across the UK school systems, this year is referred to in different ways. If you are at a school in England or Wales, you need to be in Year 12, currently working towards your AS Levels or your first year of A Levels for the first time, to be eligible to apply for UNIQ. This year is sometimes referred to as ‘Lower Sixth’, or you may be in your first year at a Sixth Form College. Applicants studying in Northern Ireland should be in Year 13. Applicants in Scottish schools will be in S5 or Fifth Year. Students taking the International Baccalaureate should be in their first year of study for the IB Diploma.
To apply to UNIQ you must be under 18 years old at the time of the residential, and we would normally expect you to be 16 or 17 years old.
We take several factors into consideration when it comes to applications to UNIQ. GCSE or equivalent attainment is one part of this, but our minimum grades might be lower than you think. As long as your application meets our criteria then it's definitely worth putting in an application.
We are aware that sometimes circumstances arise which mean you do not perform to the best of your ability. If this is the case, you should fill in the extenuating circumstances section of the application form. This doesn't guarantee you a place on UNIQ, but when we look at the applications we will take this into account. As with every application to UNIQ, there are a lot of factors involved in selecting participants for the courses, and if you are not selected, it does not in any way mean that you cannot apply to an undergraduate course at Oxford, and it will not affect any subsequent applications to the University.
When applying you will need to:
- Select 'home educated' in any relevant school selection drop downs
- Provide details of someone who can act as a referee for your GCSEs or equivalent qualifications. If you were previously in school but currently home schooled, this could be a teacher at your previous school who can act as a referee.
- Use the extenuating circumstances section to let us know about your specific circumstances.
Teachers and advisors
Application system
The schools eligible for UNIQ are all listed on the application form. We cannot take applications from overseas students or from non-state or fee-charging schools regardless of any scholarships or bursaries that might allow you to attend. Only UK state schools are selectable on our application form.
Make sure to try variations on your school name, especially if your school has converted to an academy in the recent years. For example, if your school is prefixed with ‘St’, try ‘Saint’ and ‘St.’ as well. If your school name begins with 'the', try it with and without 'the'. Another example would be words such as ‘Bluecoat’ which may be entered in as ‘Blue Coat’.
If you believe that you should be eligible for UNIQ but still cannot find your school name after following the steps above, please contact the UNIQ team.
If you are still waiting for UNIQ decisions and have been offered another activity that conflicts with UNIQ, then we would advise that you commit to the activity you have been offered.
Participation in UNIQ is application based and we cannot guarantee that you will be successful in that application. Once you have applied and the places have been allocated, we are unable to change the subject you are taking, therefore we would advise you to ensure that when you apply, you apply for a subject in a week you can make.
Obviously, if you are then unable to make the week, you should let us know so that we can open the place up to someone on the reserve list.
The UNIQ sustained support programme
Every year we receive applications to the programme from thousands of students, many of whom we would like to work with but are unable to place on the residential due to space constraints. So, we may offer you a place on the UNIQ programme without the residential, which automatically puts you into our residential reserve pool. This is not any reflection of your ability to submit a competitive application for any of our undergraduate courses.
To give you the opportunity of experiencing Oxford in person, if you are not offered a place on a residential you may be offered a free trip to Oxford for one of our open days.
We are confident that our sustained support programme, which includes application support, super-curricular activities, information on student life, clubs and societies, financial support, and more, will give you a better understanding of life at Oxford as a whole, and will help strengthen your application.
