University of Oxford UNIQ Summer Schools Law Residential Course

You need to be in your first year of sixth form at a UK state school or college and under 18 during the residential week, and UNIQ normally expects applicants to be 16 or 17. You also need to be a settled UK or Islands resident, or expect to qualify for home fee status by the time you apply to university. Law adds no subject requirements to UNIQ's general criteria, so any mix of A levels works.

Beyond those minimums, 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 then reads your grades in the context of your background. Care-experienced students are strongly prioritized, and UNIQ also takes into account Free School Meals eligibility and your wider socioeconomic background, which it may check against your home postcode. It isn't first come, first served, so every complete application submitted by the deadline is weighed equally. Across all its courses, UNIQ works with more than 1,000 students a year.

• Which year counts

  Year 12 in England or Wales, Year 13 in Northern Ireland, S5 in Scotland, or the first year of the IB Diploma.

• Which schools

  State schools and colleges, including grammar schools, in the UK, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. Independent and private schools are excluded even if you attend on a bursary or scholarship.

• Home education

  Home-educated students can apply by naming a referee, such as a former teacher or exams officer, who can confirm their GCSE results.

• Who can't apply

  Overseas residents, students with more than one completed A level, and anyone who has already attended UNIQ.

You arrive on Monday and leave on Friday, with the Law faculty's academic program filling the daytime from Tuesday to Thursday. The course is built around taster lectures introducing topics you'd meet in a Law degree, along with information about legal careers, and the teaching is pitched at the level of a first-year Oxford undergraduate. Across UNIQ, timetables can also include tutorials, presentations or library visits.

Evenings bring optional social activities with your college group, chances to explore Oxford and other colleges, and time in the common room with current students. On Friday you join everyone else on your week for a mini conference with more information and guidance. UNIQ describes the week as very intensive, with little time for other work, so it suggests finishing any school project due during or just after the residential before you go. There also aren't suitable facilities for practicing music or training for sport.

Yes. UNIQ charges nothing to you or your school, and it pays for your travel to Oxford, your room, your meals and the teaching.

The exceptions are small but worth knowing. If you miss UNIQ's deadlines for travel arrangements or lose your ticket, you may have to buy your own, and if someone drives you, fuel isn't reimbursed. Snacks, souvenirs and anything you forget to pack are also on you, and UNIQ asks families who are worried about paying for anything during the visit to get in touch.

Student ambassadors, who are current Oxford undergraduates, live in college with you and take you to lectures and seminars. Each college is run for the week by a Site Manager, a senior ambassador who organizes drop-ins, tours and evening activities. You get your own lockable bedroom, but bathrooms in the older buildings are often shared, on gender-segregated corridors, while students with ensuite rooms may be on mixed corridors. UNIQ assigns your college and you only find out which one when you arrive.

Every college serves a vegetarian option, but halal, kosher and other religious diets can't be guaranteed because each college runs its own catering. Tell UNIQ about your needs as soon as you're offered a place, and if there's nothing suitable it will make other arrangements with you. The same goes for disability and access needs, which you don't have to declare when you apply. There's time to pray through the day, and UNIQ has a limited number of prayer mats to lend.

Applications go only through the online form on the UNIQ website.

1. 1

   Check you meet the minimum criteria and choose Law as one of your two course choices, keeping in mind that UNIQ allocates Law students to a week and you can't swap subjects afterward.

2. 2

   Complete and submit the form between 15 December 2026 and 1pm on 19 January 2027, because a started but unsubmitted application isn't considered.

3. 3

   Look for the "application submitted" screen, since UNIQ doesn't send a confirmation email.

4. 4

   Email uniq@admin.ox.ac.uk quickly if you spot a mistake, as there's only a window of about three days after the deadline for changes.

5. 5

   Watch for a decision by email by early March 2027 and accept any offer within one week.

6. 6

   Attend a regional launch event in spring and the online briefing in May or June before the residential in late June or July 2027.