Context

After Clarendon Selection: The CB1 Offer, the CB2 Breakdown and Arrival

A CB1 makes the award real; a CB2 explains the package. Most initial offers go out by the end of April. Unsuccessful applicants are not contacted — if the inbox is empty by mid-June, assume you were not awarded.

ScholarshipUnion Editorial 4 min read Updated Oct 6, 2026

CB1, then a quiet summer, then CB2

Official timeline: academics in your field assess the application; in parallel they decide whom to nominate for Clarendon. Divisions (and Continuing Education) meet in February or March. Once the shortlist is confirmed, the Clarendon Fund Administrator contacts successful applicants with a scholarship offer letter — the CB1.

Most initial offers are sent by the end of April. If you are offered and you accept, official wording is that funding is now secure as long as you meet the conditions of your offer of a place to study at Oxford. Unsuccessful applicants receive nothing. If you have not heard by mid-June, assume you were not awarded.

1
February or March 2027
Divisions review nominations
Departmental nominees are ranked on academic merit and future potential; the top-ranked are shortlisted for Clarendon.
2
By the end of April 2027
CB1 scholarship offer
The Clarendon Fund Administrator contacts successful applicants.
3
April into summer 2027
Partnership awards matched, then CB2
No further information is required from you. The CB2 sets out the funding arrangements and confirms final college placement.
4
Mid-June 2027
The silence rule
No contact by mid-June means no award this cycle.

After-selection tracker

Use this if you are waiting or have a CB1. Planning tool only — not an Oxford decision.

Your progress0%

Mid-June silence rule — unsuccessful applicants are not contacted. If the inbox is empty by mid-June, official guidance is to assume you were not awarded.
CB2 letter — after a CB1 offer, wait for the CB2 funding breakdown. Do not invent college or partner details before it arrives.
College — final college placement is confirmed with partnership awards on the CB2, not by guessing from your original preference.
Visa — Student visa and IHS are UK government processes. Use current University visa pages; do not rely on guessed CAS weeks or surcharge amounts.

Planning tool only. Not an Oxford or Clarendon Fund decision. Combined tracker: checklist.

What to do in the first week of a CB1

1
Read the duration and the conditions
The letter should state how long the scholarship lasts. That is usually the period of fee liability. If a division is offering an extra living-grant year, it should appear here or in the later CB2. Meet every academic condition on your Oxford offer (degree result, English language, any financial declaration the University still requires).
2
Accept through the route the letter names
Do not assume a verbal yes to a supervisor counts. Do not resign a job or serve notice until the acceptance is recorded and your Oxford place is still firm.
3
Do not expect a funding breakdown on day one
Official pages say that from April into the summer, partnership awards are matched. No further information is required from you for that matching. The CB2 then sets out the funding arrangements and confirms final college placement alongside those awards.

College, visa, and arrival

College preference on the original Oxford form is a preference. Partnership awards often determine the college that is finally confirmed on the CB2. Oxford says some scholars must transfer college to take up a partnership award, and that the transfer is not optional. Wait for that letter before you tell the world you are “at Balliol” or anywhere else.

A Student visa and the Immigration Health Surcharge are UK government processes, not Clarendon processes. Use the University’s current visa pages and the official Home Office guidance for the year you will enter. This handbook does not guess CAS issuance weeks or IHS amounts. Ask your department or the University visa team if the CB1 is enough evidence of funding while you wait for the CB2 — many offer holders need a formal funding letter for the CAS, and the CB1 is designed to establish that the award exists.

Budgeting placeholder

Use the latest floor — at least £20,780 on the Clarendon page for 2025–26, and a UKRI minimum of £21,805 for 2026–27 — only as a placeholder until the CB2 and the current-year Clarendon page give you a number for your own start year. Continuation charges, if you later overrun a DPhil, remain your problem.

The community you are joining

Official Clarendon pages emphasise the scholar community as much as the money: over 200 new scholarships a year (over 230 in 2025/26), more than 700 on course, about 70 nations, and a 25th intake celebrated in 2025/26. Events and interdisciplinary gatherings are part of the Fund’s identity. They are not a leadership programme with compulsory attendance of the Weidenfeld kind, and they are not a Rhodes House residential culture. They are an academic cohort spread across colleges and departments.

If you were not awarded: you may still have an Oxford place. Look at departmental studentships, college awards, and national schemes. Clarendon silence in June is not an Oxford rejection.

Read the University’s own scholarship timeline before you interpret a quiet inbox.