University of Oxford UNIQ Summer Schools Economics and Management Residential Course

You arrive on Monday, spend Tuesday to Thursday in daytime classes and leave on Friday after a mini conference with everyone else on your week. UNIQ doesn't publish class hours, but the academic days mix lectures and seminars led by Oxford academics from the Department for Economics and the Saïd Business School with interactive exercises, on topics ranging from markets and pricing to banking reform and economic crises.

Evenings bring support sessions, entertainment and plenty of time with current Oxford students, and the organized social activities and trips to other colleges are optional. UNIQ warns that the week is intensive and leaves little time for anything else, so finish any school project due around then before you go.

Once you meet UNIQ's minimum criteria, places go to students with good grades from backgrounds under-represented at Oxford. This course also requires Maths to A level or the equivalent, and UNIQ won't take an application for a course whose required subjects you aren't studying. Applications aren't first come, first served, so every complete one submitted before the deadline is considered equally, and UNIQ can withdraw a place if it can't verify what you wrote.

• Grades

  UNIQ normally expects at least six GCSEs with one or more at grade 7 or A, or six National 5s with at least one A, and it puts more weight on past results than on predicted grades.

• Background

  Students who are or have been in care are strongly prioritized. UNIQ also considers past or present free school meals eligibility, which it checks with your school, and may check your home postcode against the Index of Multiple Deprivation, a government measure of how deprived an area is.

• Extenuating circumstances

  If something has held back your results, there's a section of the form to explain it, and UNIQ takes it into account without guaranteeing a place.

• One chance only

  You can attend UNIQ once, in the right school year, and students with more than one completed A level aren't eligible.

Almost nothing, because UNIQ charges no fees to you or your school and pays for your travel, college room, meals and teaching. The small catches come from travel. If you don't send back UNIQ's travel information on time or you lose your ticket, you may have to buy your own, and UNIQ doesn't refund fuel if your family drives you. Snacks, souvenirs and anything you forget to pack are on you too. UNIQ asks families who are worried about paying for anything during the visit to get in touch.

Current Oxford undergraduates, called ambassadors, take you to lectures and seminars and stay with you in college. Each college is run by a Site Manager, a senior ambassador who organizes drop-ins, tours and evening activities. You get your own lockable bedroom, and since many college buildings are historic you may share a bathroom with a few other participants on a gender-segregated corridor, although students with ensuite rooms may be on mixed-gender corridors. UNIQ assigns your college and you only find out which one when you arrive, though it tries to place you in one that teaches your subject.

• Food

  Every college offers a vegetarian option. Halal, kosher and other religious diets aren't guaranteed because each college runs its own catering, so tell UNIQ your needs as soon as you get a place and it will make other arrangements if needed.

• Faith

  There are chances to pray throughout the day and a limited number of prayer mats to borrow. If you'll be fasting, contact UNIQ first, and know that it will ask a student to break the fast or go home if their health starts to suffer.

• Specific needs

  You can raise any accommodation concern on the form you use to accept your place.

Applications go only through the UNIQ website, and UNIQ won't accept a late one under any circumstances.

1. 1

   Fill in the online form between 15 December 2026 and 13:00 on 19 January 2027, choosing a first and second course and nominating a teacher at your school.

2. 2

   Make sure you reach the "application submitted" screen, because UNIQ sends no confirmation email and ignores any application left unfinished.

3. 3

   Email UNIQ quickly if you spot a mistake, since there's only about three days to make changes after applications close.

4. 4

   Look out for UNIQ's decision by email by early March, and accept an offer within one week of receiving it.

5. 5

   Attend a weekend regional launch event in the spring, then join an online preparation meeting in May or June.

6. 6

   Spend your week in Oxford in late June or July, then use UNIQ's online application support from August to December.