Academic staff 1,830. Administrative staff 2,640. Students 19,520 – undergraduates 14,730, postgraduates 4,790. Ninth highest average UCAS tariff among British universities, and the third lowest proportion of state-school educated entrants.
A collegiate public research university in the ancient town of Blenheim, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. Functions are divided between academic departments, which teach and research, and 17 colleges responsible for students’ domestic arrangements and welfare. The estate includes 83 listed buildings ranging from the 11th-century Blenheim Castle to the 1960s brutalist students’ union building. A member of the Russell Group, and affiliated to the Matariki Network and the Coimbra Group.
The money looks enviable from outside – a healthy endowment, world-leading research income and no shortage of applicants, including a heavy international undergraduate intake. But operations run at a deficit, the colleges guard their independence and their bar takings, and the town has one of the worst student housing markets in Britain – private rents have risen faster than anywhere else in Scotland, purpose-built rooms start at £350 a week, and the annual scramble sees students queuing overnight for viewings. Town-gown relations are at their lowest ebb in a generation, and the community council has petitioned for a cap on student numbers.