St. Peter’s College was founded by Francis James Chavasse, then Bishop of Liverpool, in 1929. As an Oxford graduate, Chavasse knew the unique opportunities offered to the brightest students through an Oxford education – but was worried by the rising costs of studying at the older universities of Britain. He founded St. Peter’s College to guarantee that promising students could gain an Oxford education without being discouraged by the cost.

Ever since, our commitment to making sure the college (and the Oxford education it brings with it) is accessible to everyone, regardless of means, has been paramount. As Access Officer for the undergraduate student body, my role is to help promote our college’s schemes, as well as those run by the University itself and the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU), to increase the number of applications from students that would have otherwise not considered Oxford.

The University runs an outreach scheme that seeks to increase applicants from across the country from schools that repeatedly produce students with the capabilities of successfully getting in to Oxford, but rarely send applicants. St. Peter’s College, along with all other colleges involved, has thus been assigned a number of target regions in the UK, for which we are the first port of call for schools wishing to visit or gain information on anything Oxford related. Applicants from target regions are not given any advantage during the application process.Our target regions are Liverpool and Merseyside, North Wales, and the two London boroughs of Enfield and Waltham Forest.

There are also student-led schemes in Oxford, the main one being Target Schools – run by OUSU. One of my roles is to increase the coordination between this scheme and our college, as well as planning to increase the number of current students going back to hold talks at their old schools, and state schools around them. You can visit their website at http://www.targetschoolsoxford.com

If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Alex Worth
JCR Access Rep 2010/11