University of Oxford

Oxford is the highest-ranked university in the United Kingdom for computer science, placed joint fourth in the world in the QS 2026 subject rankings. Teaching at Oxford dates back to at least 1096, which makes it the oldest university in the English-speaking world, though its computer science is thoroughly modern.

The Department of Computer Science grew out of the Oxford University Computing Laboratory and has long been strong in the more formal side of the field, including programming languages, verification, and the mathematics that lets you prove a program correct. In recent years it has expanded into machine learning, security, and computational biology.

Undergraduates usually read for a joint degree in computer science, or computer science and philosophy, within Oxford’s tutorial system, where students are taught in very small groups. Competition for places is intense, and applicants sit an admissions test before interview.

Admissions

Computer science is one of Oxford’s most oversubscribed subjects. Across its three computer science degrees the department received 1,625 applications for 2024 entry and made 148 offers, an offer rate of roughly one in eleven. The standard offer is AAA with the A in mathematics, and from 2026 entry all applicants sit the Test of Mathematics for University Admission (TMUA), which replaced the long-running Maths Admissions Test. Further mathematics is not compulsory, but almost everyone who wins a place has taken it, so leaving it out puts you at a disadvantage.