Oxford or Cambridge: the differences

Can you apply to both Oxford and Cambridge?

Usually not. UCAS says that you can normally apply to only one course at either the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge in the same year, and Cambridge’s own pages say the same thing plainly. There are narrow exceptions, such as graduate-entry medicine and organ awards, which each university explains on its own pages; for almost everybody applying from school, it is one or the other.

So the decision is really about the course. Look at both universities’ course pages for the subject side by side, because a subject can be taught as a separate degree at one and folded into a wider course at the other.

How do the courses differ?

Cambridge calls an undergraduate degree course a Tripos, and most of its courses start broad and let you specialise later. Physics is a good example: Oxford’s course list has Physics as a course of its own, while at Cambridge physics is studied within Natural Sciences, where you choose your subjects as you go.

Oxford has many joint courses that combine two or three subjects from the start, such as Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE), History and Economics, or Physics and Philosophy. It is worth reading the first-year papers on both universities’ pages, since two courses with similar names can spend the first year on quite different things.

How is the teaching different?

Both universities teach through small groups on top of lectures. Oxford calls them tutorials, which it describes as normally between two or three students and their tutor, usually weekly and with an essay or a set of problems done beforehand. Cambridge calls them supervisions, which it describes as a small group discussion led by a specialist, typically lasting an hour, with how many a week depending on the course.

In practice the two feel similar: you do work beforehand, and the hour is spent talking it through with somebody who knows the subject well.

Tests, interviews and colleges

Both use the same family of admissions tests for many science, maths and economics courses, but not always for the same subjects. Oxford also uses the TARA for several social science courses, a test Cambridge does not use, and for many arts and humanities courses Cambridge sets its own assessments at interview instead. The admissions tests guide lists them course by course.

Oxford says its interviews for 2027 entry will be held online. At Cambridge the format depends on the college: some interview everybody online, some in person, and some decide by where you live. Cambridge also asks every applicant to complete My Cambridge Application shortly after the UCAS deadline.

Both are collegiate. Oxford has 39 colleges and four permanent private halls, and Cambridge has 31 colleges, 29 of which take undergraduates. At both you can name a college or make an open application, which the college guide explains.