Oxford opens first college in 30 years to take on Ivy League

OXFORD University is to open its first new college in almost 30 years as it seeks to challenge its Ivy League rivals.

The university’s five-year draft strategic plan, seen by The Daily Telegraph, contains proposals to build 1,000 graduate rooms and “at least one new graduate college”.

This would be its first new college since 1990, when the graduate-only Kellogg College was established.

The plans have been backed by the university’s governing body but must win the approval of Oxford’s dons. Under them, the intake of postgraduate students would increase by 850 a year by 2023, while undergraduate numbers would increase by 200 a year.

Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “Oxford and Cambridge say they lose money on every undergraduate whereas for postgraduates you can charge the full market rate and more.

“Oxford doesn’t compare itself to other institutions in the UK, it compares itself to institutions around the world such as Ivy League which have more graduates than undergraduates.”

Undergraduate fees are capped at £9,250, but Oxford has argued that its true cost of teaching a student is closer to £16,000 due to the intensive one-toone tutorial model it operates.

David Palfreyman, the bursar at New College, Oxford, said: “The key US competitors are usually smaller than Oxford or Cambridge, especially at undergraduate level.” He said that being “a world-class university and a super research university à la Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton” requires a bigger cohort of post graduate researchers.

Oxford also wants to “set ambitious targets” to “reduce by 2023 gaps in attainment by gender, ethnic origin and socio-economic background”.