Oxford Becomes First UK University to Offer Free ChatGPT Edu Access (techoreon.com)

Oxford University has become the first UK university to offer campus-wide, free access to ChatGPT Edu — OpenAI’s education-tailored service running on GPT-5 — for students, faculty, researchers and staff. The rollout follows a year-long pilot with ~750 participants and offers optional enterprise ChatGPT Edu accounts, data residency so generated outputs remain within university systems, and heightened privacy/security controls. Access begins at the new academic year and is accompanied by institutional supports (an AI Competency Center, a network of student and staff ambassadors, and both in-person and online training), plus OpenAI Academy sessions for newcomers. Beyond convenience, the move is significant for the AI/ML community because it demonstrates a large-scale, governed model for embedding advanced generative models into research, teaching and operations while prioritizing ethics, security and academic integrity. Oxford has mandated AI-focused information-security training, created a Digital Governance Unit and an AI Governance Group, and issued guidance for research and assessment use. The partnership with OpenAI also includes joint projects — digitizing Bodleian collections and a funded Oxford Martin School/OpenAI study on generative-AI social impacts — positioning Oxford as a testbed for responsible, institution-level adoption and evaluation of GPT-5 capabilities in higher education.