Overview

Oxford Brookes University (OBU) has one of the best graduate employment records of any modern university, with around three quarters landing highly skilled jobs. It was the first UK university to introduce the Grade Point Average (GPA) system alongside the standard UK degree classifications. The GPA has international currency and allows easy comparison between students’ attainment at OBU and other universities worldwide. The maximum score of 4.0 is based on all three years of studying, and not just on assessments in year two and three, as is the norm in the UK. OBU is different also in its student profile. It is among the 40 universities that recruit the fewest first-generation students (those whose parents did not go to university) and has the same proportion of students recruited from independent schools (around one in five) as plenty of highly selective Russell Group universities. Many of the 12,500 undergraduates are based on OBU’s central Oxford campus in Headington. There are two outlying campuses – Harcourt Hill, home to teacher trainees, and Wheatley, which is due to close, with those studying under the faculty of technology, design and environment transferring to new premises in Headington. There is also a campus for nurses in Swindon.

Paying the bills

There is still no shortage of diversity on campus, with around one in four students benefiting from financial aid last year at a cost to the university of nearly £5m. The Oxford Brookes bursary is worth £3,000 per year to students from homes with an annual income of less than £25,000 who live in a postcode among the 40% with the lowest rates of progression to higher education, or a postcode with the highest levels of deprivation. Without the postcode qualifier, the level of support drops to £750 per year. Mature students aged over 21 when their course starts who come from homes with an annual income of less than £25,000 qualify for a £1,500 annual bursary. An annual bursary of £500 is paid to students from homes with an income of between £25,000 and £34,999. There is also support for care leavers, young carers and students estranged from their parents. Up to 15 sports scholarships are awarded annually, too. University accommodation ranges in price from £4,884 for a 38-week tenancy in Crescent Hall up to £9,374 for 50 weeks in the most expensive rooms in the Cheney student village on the Headington campus.

What’s new?

The university is redeveloping the Clive Booth student village, close to the main Headington campus. Once finished, it will accommodate some 1,000 students across a range of prices and have enhanced social and outdoor spaces. The first upgraded rooms became available in the past academic year, with another tranche due to open for the new academic year this month. OBU will invest more than £230m in its campuses, IT and equipment over the next five years. The key development due for completion in the coming academic year will be the two new buildings on the Headington Hill site for the faculty of technology, design and environment, which will transfer there from the Wheatley campus that is earmarked for closure. A new BA degree in fine art and history of art sees its first student intake this month. The numbers enrolled as OBU students grew hugely last year (from 4,325 to 9,185) thanks to a new partnership with Global Banking School (GBS) which sees an OBU-taught BSc in health, wellbeing and social care offered by GBS in London, Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester.

Admissions, teaching and student support

OBU reaches out to under-represented groups through its Brookes Engage 18-month programme of monthly activities for Year 12 and 13 children. The programme is open to potential higher-education applicants from across the UK. OBU also offers travel bursaries to support attendance at open days and makes contextual offers to students from under-represented groups which can be three grades below the standard offer for a given course. Those who might receive contextual offers include applicants who have been in care, received free school meals, or completed the Brookes Engage and Discover Brookes outreach programmes. Applicants who attend schools where average performance at A-level is in the lowest 40% or those which have below average GCSE attainment, and also live in a postcode with high levels of social deprivation or low rates of progression to university, may also qualify. Student support coordinators are based in each faculty; they are often the first point of contact for students in need of mental health and wellbeing support or, simply, guidance on academic matters. Elsewhere, the student mental health and wellbeing support service provides a central hub for receiving help with welfare and emotional, mental health, spiritual and pastoral wellbeing. Last year, OBU introduced a compulsory five-module online course on sexual consent, in partnership with the sexual health charity Brook. All students must complete the modules by the end of the first term in each academic year that they are enrolled at the university.