Welcome to Lady Margaret Hall! This page is for new Visiting Students joining LMH this autumn. It covers what you need to do before you arrive, as well as general information to help you settle in, so please read it carefully and complete all the required steps.
Before you arrive at LMH, you must complete the following actions:
We will be unable to register any student who has not completed the above actions. You must alert us immediately by emailing visiting.students@lmh.ox.ac.uk if you have any issues in completing these actions.
When you arrive at LMH, please report to the Porters’ Lodge to collect your room key. Porters will be able to direct you to your room.
On the first day of your induction programme, you will attend a registration appointment to complete the process that you will have started online.
Students for the extended Michaelmas term will be given a time slot in which to attend in their induction programme; students for the full academic year are asked to follow the link in your pre-registration form to book a registration time slot.
At registration, you will receive your University Card – please ensure you bring your passport to your appointment.
Details about your induction programme will be sent to you shortly before you arrive to begin your course at LMH. You should expect to attend a fairly full schedule of events during your first weeks here, including a study skills session, meetings with tutors, meetings with other College officers such as the Director of Visiting Students, Library inductions and some social events.
You can find more information for international and visiting students on various matters including additional (optional) orientation sessions offered by the University, banking, and finding your way to Oxford on the University's International Students pages.
Some key information about your College accommodation:
Please note that we cannot always accommodate early arrivals as it will depend on room availability, and we would not normally approve an arrival more than one day earlier than the expected arrival date. We are not able to store belongings on site prior to your arrival.
Your mailing address during term-time is (your name), Lady Margaret Hall, Norham Gardens, Oxford, OX2 6QA.
It is against the law to smoke within all College buildings at all times.
Absence from College:
You are required to be in residence in term-time for the duration of your course (except at weekends) and should always contact both the Visiting Student Administrator (visiting.students@lmh.ox.ac.uk) and the Director of Visiting Students (director.visiting@lmh.ox.ac.uk) should you need to be absent at any point.
Information on vacation residence and storage:
If you need to stay in College at any point over the vacation period, you will need to make a vacation residence booking, which will be charged at the current nightly rate of £34.04. Information on this process is sent out via email to all students by the Accommodation Manager, Tanya Hart (accommodation.manager@lmh.ox.ac.uk).
In order to help with the process of packing up and transporting your belongings over the vacation periods, the College provides a number of vacation storage options:
1) Many student rooms have a lockable storage cupboard where belongings can be left in the room and locked away. If you have a lockable cupboard but do not have a key to it, please speak to the Porters who should be able to provide one.
2) There are locked, communal vacation stores in several areas of the College, where your belongings can be left. The Porters will be able to tell you exactly where to find your nearest communal vac store, and give you the key to access it. These keys need to be returned to the Lodge after you have stored your belongings. Please put your name on anything you store here, so we can identify it if necessary.
For information about living at LMH and the facilities available to you, please visit our current student pages.
Information on University clubs and societies can be found here: Clubs and societies | University of Oxford
LMH has its own clubs and societies too; please look at the LMH JCR clubs & societies and sports clubs & teams for further details.
LMH also has two College Choirs and visiting students are welcome to join – please see https://www.lmh.ox.ac.uk/choirs for details.
The first point of contact is the Visiting Student Administrator:
Mrs Clare Atkin
Telephone: 01865 284260
Email: visiting.students@lmh.ox.ac.uk.
Issues or questions which are not principally connected to your academic work and tutorials should be addressed to her, and she will either be able to respond or to direct you to the appropriate person. The Visiting Student Administrator's normal work pattern is Monday - Thursday from 8am to 4pm; she usually works remotely for 1 day per week but is always contactable by email during her working hours.
Your contact for academic and personal development is the Director of Visiting Students:
Mr Andrew Williams
Email: director.visiting@lmh.ox.ac.uk
Andrew has oversight of your tutorials and is your Personal Tutor, which means he has responsibility for your academic and personal development. You will have an appointment with Andrew during your induction week to discuss your academic schedule, and you are welcome to contact him at any time about issues relating to academic wellbeing.
Please note that we do not access our emails outside of office hours. On Fridays, another colleague in the Academic Office should be able to help with matters such as lost University cards or a College stamp for an official document, where necessary. In case of emergency, please contact the Porters Lodge, which is staffed 24/7.
The Porters’ Lodge is staffed 24 hours a day by a friendly team of porters. If there is an emergency or you need to contact someone out of hours, you should contact the Lodge. Their telephone number is 01865 274300 and the email is lodge@lmh.ox.ac.uk.
You will be assigned ‘College Parents’, current LMH undergraduate students, to help you settle in. They can answer any questions you have about living at LMH. You will receive more information about this before you arrive.
You can also look at the LMH Freshers Instagram.
For extended Michaelmas term students, who start in September before other undergraduates arrive, we have employed two ‘College Buddies’ to help you for the first few weeks while you settle in. The 'Buddies' are current LMH students, and they can answer any questions you have about living in College. They will show you around LMH as well as the University libraries and Oxford town centre.
Please read our Student Handbook, which contains important information about studying and living at LMH.
You can purchase meals in our Dining Hall using your University Card. To do this, you will need to activate your Upay account and add credit via the UPay website. For more information about meals in College, visit our catering pages.
Meals are served in the Dining Hall during term time at the following times (subject to change):
Brunch and lunch (no dinner) are served on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am-2pm. Brunch offerings are available throughout, with lunch food available from 12-2pm.
LMH students also have access to shared cooking facilities. There is a small kitchen, located close to your room, where you can prepare meals when the Dining Hall is not open. You will need to supply your own pots/pans and crockery/cutlery, which can be purchased locally at reasonable prices.
Note for extended Michaelmas term students: during September, lunch will be served in the Dining Hall from 12 noon – 2pm, Monday to Friday. We cannot guarantee that any other meals will be available.
Tutorials form the essential basis of learning and teaching in Oxford, and their effectiveness relies on all students preparing thoroughly before each one.
Guidance will be issued in your induction about how to prepare for tutorials. Please complete any pre-reading sent to you by your subject tutors for the term.
You will be assessed on the basis of your written work and contributions to tutorial discussions.
Libraries will play a big part in your time at Oxford, whether by providing access to online articles on your reading list or helping you find the books you need.
The Bodleian Libraries is the library service supporting the whole University, and they can help you get the most out of your course. Find out how the libraries can help you by visiting the Getting Started webpage, where you can watch a brief welcome video. For details of the library/libraries for your subject area, and to watch a video about the subject library, visit our Libraries web page.
The LMH Library
LMH has an excellent library, and much of your reading material may be found here. The University’s library, the Bodleian Library, is a copyright library and your college buddy will introduce you to the reading rooms to which you can order up necessary books. You can also use their computers to read articles restricted to Bodleian-only access. You always need to have your University card to gain access to these buildings.
The main focus of your time in Oxford should be your academic studies; the College does not encourage part-time work. Also, most extended Michaelmas term students are in the UK on a visitor visa and are therefore not entitled to undertake paid employment. However, you are permitted to volunteer, but please discuss any opportunities with the Director of Visiting Students before making a commitment.
Visiting students are warmly welcomed to attend College events such as Formal Hall, and you’ll be notified by the JCR about any events they organise.
The Visiting Student Office organises a few formal dinners (e.g. a Thanksgiving Dinner, and an end of course celebration dinner) for visiting students only. You'll receive invitations to these events by email.
We run a few informal events during the term too - usually at lunchtime with light refreshments, giving you the chance to catch up with your fellow visiting students.
The college intranet is a valuable source of information. From here you can view and top up your Upay (Dining Hall) account, see where the washing machines are (laundry view), book a punt, a tennis court and much more.
You can access the intranet via the following link (which is also at the bottom of the LMH website home page): Home - Lavalite
For the 2025-26 academic year, please see below the start and end dates for each term, with details of expected arrival dates for each student cohort.
Extended Michaelmas term: Monday 8th September to Saturday 6th December
Michaelmas term (full year students): Monday 6th October to Saturday 6th December
Hilary term: Monday 12th January to Saturday 14th March
Trinity term: Monday 27th April to Saturday 20th June
The date on which each term ends is the date when students are required to move out of College accommodation (unless a vacation residence booking has been made through the Accommodation Manager).
Student Self-Service is where all your personal and course details are stored. Please ensure your emergency contact details are up-to-date on the University student systems database by logging in to student self-service and updating your details if any changes occur.
How to print off a Certificate of Enrolment: You may need an enrolment certificate, for example, in order to open a UK bank account. The process of obtaining this is very simple. Once you have logged into Student Self-Service, click on “my student record” (on the top tool bar), then select “generate enrolment certificate”. In the next page there is another link to click on to generate the enrolment certificate, then a document should appear on your screen, which you can print out. Some institutions may require the College stamp on the certificate; you can obtain this by coming into the Academic Office.
If your Bod card is lost or stolen: please refer to the following information on the University website: https://estates.admin.ox.ac.uk/lost-stolen-or-damaged-cards. The new card is normally sent to the Academic Office, and you will be notified that it is ready for collection during office hours.
If your Bod card is damaged/not functioning correctly, please email academic.office@lmh.ox.ac.uk to request a replacement, explaining the issues that you are experiencing.
A transcript, providing details of the courses completed and grades attained, is issued to each visiting student as a matter of course following completion of their studies at LMH. Further transcripts, for the purposes of graduate studies applications (for example), can be requested at any time by completing a transcript request form, or emailing visiting.students@lmh.ox.ac.uk.
Student transcripts are based on subject tutors' individual term reports, which are submitted on Oxford's online tutorial reporting system: TMS Home Page. Students can download a copy of these reports for their own needs (e.g. for credit transfer purposes). Students should ensure that they download anything they require before the Oxford account expires (3 months after course completion). Students who fail to download reports that they need before account expiry may request their reports from the Visiting Student Office, however, a fee of £25 per report will be charged.
Information on medical services and welfare provision within College, including information about our Heads of Wellbeing and Study Skills team, can be found by visiting our Wellbeing pages.
You MUST have been vaccinated for both Meningitis and Mumps before your arrival in Oxford. Further information about this can be found on the Vaccination page of the University of Oxford website.
You will be required to provide details of the dates when you have received the vaccinations in your individual appointment with the College Nurse during induction week.
There are further simple steps you can take to promote your health before you come to University:
We strongly advise you to obtain a UK SIM card after arrival in Oxford, since it is not possible to access and use medical services without a UK phone number.
Further advice on taking care of your mental health and coping with the pressures of academic life can be found on the Counselling and Mental Health pages of the University website.
For the majority of visiting students, tuition fees (and in some cases accommodation fees) are paid on your behalf by your home institution.
There is up-to-date information (including the dates on which fees are due to be paid) on our fee arrangements and term dates document on our website, which has also been sent to your institution’s study abroad office.
If your home institution is responsible for covering any of your fees, we will invoice them directly.
If you are responsible for paying any of the fees yourself, you will receive an invoice from the Student Finance Officer, whose email address is: student.finance@lmh.ox.ac.uk.
As you will already be aware, LMH is not able to offer any financial aid packages for visiting students.
If you can't find the answer to your question on this page, please get in touch with our Visiting Student Administrator, who will be happy to help.
