Oxford’s acceptance rate for the 2025 entry cycle was 14.2%, or roughly one offer for every seven applications. Course, college and country of application all move that figure substantially: the rate for your course can be a third of the headline number, the trend has moved in one direction for a decade, and where you apply from changes the competition you face. This article sets out the real numbers, using the same data as our full statistics hub.
What Oxford’s acceptance rate actually measures
Oxford’s acceptance rate for the 2025 cycle is 14.2%: 3,302 students accepted from 23,329 applications, roughly one place for every seven applicants. Before you decide what that means for you, it is worth being precise about what is being counted.
Three different figures get mixed together. Applications counts everyone who applied by the October deadline. Offers counts the conditional and unconditional offers made after interviews. Acceptances counts who actually took up a place once results were confirmed. Oxford also has a stage most universities do not: shortlisting. A large share of applicants are not invited to interview at all, which means the admissions tests and submitted work carry real weight before anyone speaks to you.
Whenever you see an “acceptance rate”, check which of these it describes. Oxford’s own headline, and the rates on this page, count acceptances as a share of applications. The offer rate runs slightly higher (16.7% in 2025) because some offer holders miss their conditions or decline. Course-level figures match the definitions in our Oxford and Cambridge admissions statistics.
How the acceptance rate has changed over five cycles
The story of the last six cycles is a surge and a plateau. Applications peaked at 24,338 for 2021 entry and have settled between 23,000 and 23,400 since. Places have barely moved, so the acceptance rate has drifted from 15.8% in 2020 to 14.2% in 2025.
Total undergraduate applications for entry, by UCAS cycle. Source: University of Oxford admissions statistics (2025).
The practical reading: Oxford has not suddenly become harder within any single year, but the long trend only moves one way. An applicant today faces meaningfully more competition than one five years ago, and the difference is largest on the courses below. Year-by-year figures for every course are in our admissions statistics hub.
Acceptance rates describe the field, not your chances. We take on a limited number of applicants each cycle and build the application around the student: statement, admissions test, interview.
Book a free consultationAcceptance rates by course
The headline 14% is close to meaningless at course or subject level. The five most competitive courses admit at roughly half the university-wide rate or less:
| Course | Success Rate | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Economics & Management | 5.1% |
| 2 | Biomedical Sciences | 8.1% |
| 3 | Computer Science | 8.0% |
| 4 | Physics & Philosophy | 8.6% |
| 5 | Mathematics | 9.3% |
Popularity is not the same thing as competitiveness, but the biggest fields by raw applications show where the crowds are:
| Course | Applications | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mathematics | 1,931 |
| 2 | Philosophy, Politics & Economics | 1,895 |
| 3 | Law | 1,818 |
| 4 | Physics | 1,626 |
| 5 | Engineering Science | 1,302 |
Two things follow. First, if you are applying to Economics & Management, Computer Science or Mathematics, the admissions test is not a formality; it is the main filter that decides who gets interviewed. Our TARA practice tests and TMUA resources exist for exactly this stage. Second, course choice is a genuine strategic decision. The full course-by-course tables, including the UK-only figures, are in our statistics hub.
Home vs international applicants
Where you apply from changes the odds more than most applicants realise. The official 2025-cycle figures, by domicile:
| Domicile (2025 cycle) | Applicants | Acceptances | Acceptance rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK | 14,340 | 2,609 | 18.2% |
| EU | 1,389 | 82 | 5.9% |
| Non-EU | 7,600 | 611 | 8.0% |
| All applicants | 23,329 | 3,302 | 14.2% |
| Country | Applications | Acceptances | Acceptance rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 2,126 | 198 | 9.3% |
| United States of America | 1,139 | 81 | 7.1% |
| Singapore | 504 | 71 | 14.1% |
| Hong Kong (SAR) | 511 | 60 | 11.7% |
| India | 892 | 52 | 5.8% |
A UK applicant’s acceptance rate (18.2%) is more than double a Non-EU applicant’s (8.0%), and three times an EU applicant’s (5.9%). That is not a quota so much as concentration: international applications cluster on the most competitive courses. The full country-level tables are in our statistics hub; where accepted international students come from is published too:
Does college choice change your odds?
Far less than most applicants believe. Oxford reallocates strong candidates between colleges, so a long shot at a fashionable college is not wasted: if your college cannot take you, your file can still be picked up elsewhere. College acceptance rates differ mostly because of who applies where, not because some colleges are easier. Choose on fit, not arithmetic, and let the reallocation system do its work. The college-level numbers are in the hub tables if you want them.
What this means for your application
A 14% acceptance rate sounds forbidding, but it describes the whole field, not you. Most applications fall short in predictable ways: a test score below the shortlisting line, a personal statement that lists rather than thinks, an interview treated as a quiz rather than a conversation. Each of those is preparable.
Applying to Oxford this cycle? Our Oxford & Cambridge admissions service covers strategy, admissions tests and interview preparation end to end, delivered by consultants who sat on the other side of the process.
Conclusion
Treat the 14% as background, not verdict. Find your course’s real rate in the tables above, plan backwards from the test that gates the interview, and start with our personal statement guide and interview question banks. The applicants who clear a 5% course rate are rarely lucky; they are prepared in ways the field is not.
Find this article useful? Check out our other resources for Oxford applicants.
Admissions Statistics Hub
Every table behind this article: courses, colleges and countries for Oxford and Cambridge.
TARA Practice Tests
Practise Oxford’s reasoning test under timed conditions with original questions.
Personal Statement Guide
Learn how to structure and write a UCAS personal statement that shows how you think.
Frequently asked questions
On the headline numbers Cambridge admits a slightly higher share of applicants, around 16% against Oxford’s 14%, but the comparison only becomes meaningful at course level. Cambridge Computer Science is harder to get into than most Oxford courses, and Oxford Economics & Management is harder than most of Cambridge. Choose the course that fits, then check the specific numbers.
Oxford does not publish a single international rate. International applications concentrate on the most competitive courses, so the effective rate for international applicants on courses like Economics & Management or Computer Science is lower than the 14% headline, often in single digits.
Smaller humanities courses typically admit at two to three times the university-wide rate, because they attract fewer applicants per place rather than because they are easy. Treat a high rate as a sign of a small field, not a soft option.
Not meaningfully. Oxford’s reallocation and open-application systems move strong candidates to colleges with space, so course choice and test performance matter far more than college tactics.
