Students applying to Oxford Brookes must now sit mandatory rowing entrance exam

Oxford Brookes has launched a compulsory rowing admissions exam for all prospective students

After submitting their UCAS application, students applying in the 2026-27 admissions cycle will be required attend a “monitored erg session” at the university’s campus.

Applicants who do not meet set erg targets will be declined a place at the university.

In a leaked email sent to staff, a senior university official explained the new policy is an attempt to “re-adjust students to a culture of sporting excellence” following the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is anticipated the new measure will drastically improve the performance of the Oxford Brookes rowing team at the annual Henley Royal Regatta.

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Arabella Beauchamp, a Brookes fresher studying town-planning, told The Brookes Tab she wishes the rowing exam was around when she was applying.

She explained: “After joining the rowing society, I was appalled at how unfit some of the other students were. If the mandatory rowing exam had been around for my cohort, this incompetence would have been avoided.”

However, there are concerns the initiative will have detrimental effects on the university’s other sports teams.

Archibald Montgomery, captain of the Oxford Brookes cricket team, argued: “The mandatory rowing exam is a ridiculous proposal. If a student is truly an elite cricket player, they’re not going to be focused on improving their erg time. The uni seriously needs to consider the catastrophic consequences the measure will have for its ranking in the cricket league table.”

You should probably check the date, you April fools!

Featured image via Unsplash and background (before edits) via Oxford Brookes University on Wikimedia Commons