Changing Colleges (Migration)

Most students are very happy in their college, though there are a few occasions every year when individuals wish to switch colleges.  This is known as migration.

The formal position for college migration is set out in the Statutes, Decrees and Regulations. There is no pro-forma (form) involved in the application process.A student wishing to change college will need:
• Written permission from their college.
• A certificate from the Proctors saying that they have seen these documents and know of no reason why the student should not be allowed to change college.

The Proctors also ask for a letter from a senior officer (e.g. the Senior Tutor) of the receiving or ‘new' college confirming that they are willing to accept the student. Once these two sets of documents have been supplied, the Proctors will issue the certificate of migration: they typically exercise very little discretion in cases involving migration.

It is often difficult both to persuade your college to release the student and to get another college to accept the student if your application does not show evidence of a compelling need to migrate for academic reasons - although there may be exceptions (for example, welfare reasons which are impacting on academic performance). There are also underlying issues that may influence a college. Admissions decisions are made by colleges, so they tend to have faith in the choices that they have made, rather than those made by another college. There may also be an underlying assumption that a student who didn't fit in to one college won't fit easily into another. If someone has found a new college willing to accept them, there are still a few potential complications:

• Colleges may be unwilling to lose any funding attached to a student.
• As a rule, colleges avoid allowing migration because they feel it could mean that students gain a place at a relatively unpopular college and then change to a perceived richer/more popular/more prestigious college.
• The college may feel they have “confidential reasons” which would change another college's view of a student but which they cannot disclose.
• Finally, if an undergraduate who has done a BA at Oxford wants to change college for graduate study they are likely to find it difficult unless they want to move to a graduate college.

To organise migration, there are two potential routes. The first is to approach the Senior Tutor of your college and seek their advice and assistance. The second is to find a college willing to accept you, before going to the Senior Tutor at the original college. The latter is
risky because it goes behind the back of the colleges, and any acceptance will only be informal. This option may be appropriate when the student has been taught by a friendly tutor at another college and resistance is expected at the original college. By sounding out other potential colleges before meeting the Senior Tutor at the original tutor, it may ease this resistance. Again, to reiterate, this is a risky strategy. Senior Tutors meet regularly and seek to cooperate, so will be wary in operating in this way. The Proctors (or any other
university official) cannot compel colleges to let students migrate – if your college is unwilling to let a student go or if another college is unwilling to take them, there is little which can be done.