Permanent Private halls have been criticised as a "back door" into the University for not conforming to the academic standards of other colleges.
Students have criticised the application procedures for PPHs as well as the reputation and stigma surrounding them.
One applicant this year, who wished to remain anonymous, originally applied to Keble but was pooled to Regent's Park and offered a place there. She expressed concern that her application to the PPH was not tested to the same level of that of the original college.
"Regent's ignored my appalling aptitude test, they didn't pick up on any grades, and didn't ask me about my submitted essays," she said.
Keble had given her four interviews and grilled her about a B-grade for one of her AS subjects. At Regent's Park she was given just one interview. "I had only one interview, which was less than twenty minutes long," she said. "They also didn't ask me about Theology at all, which seemed odd as I'm doing joint honours."
The applicant was still undecided whether she would accept her place at the PPH, but admitted that it was "a second shot at Oxford."
Furthermore, the president of Regent's Park's JCR has admitted that PPHs are a "back door" into the University.
JCR president Ed Harding said that the Permanent Private Halls (PPHs) had long battled a reputation for accepting candidates that might not otherwise had been offered a place at the University, but added, "we are trying to shed that back door image."
"There were definitely a couple of applicants at this year's interviews who using it as a back door," he said.
Current St. Benet's undergraduate Alexander Hayward had originally applied to another college but was pooled to St. Benet's.
But he disagreed that it is easier to gain admission to a PPH than to another Oxford college, "the assumption that PPHs operate under a different admissions policy is incorrect, and insulting," he said. "So too is the assumption that PPH students should be more grateful for their place than any other student."
However, Harding, who first applied to Worcester, wondered why any applicant would chose to apply directly to a PPH for a subject other than theology. "If you apply for theology, then fair enough, but if you are applying directly for any other subject maybe it is a back door," he said. "We had the first direct applicant for geography this year, and you think: why would you do that?"
An Oxford law lecturer, who has taught students at Campion and St. Benet's, praised the PPHs sometimes unconventional admissions procedures, stating that the PPHs were often less "risk-averse" than other colleges .
"They were a more eclectic, and hence perhaps a more erratic, group than one would find at most colleges," he said of one group he tutored.
"Part of me wishes that the collegiate university as a whole were less risk-averse in admissions, and hence that we got a more eclectic...bunch of undergraduates; more firsts and thirds," the lecturer added.
Mike Nicholson, Director of Undergraduate Admissions, said that the PPHs were all fully engaged in operating the Common Framework for Undergraduate Admissions.
He said, "the PPHs operate collaboratively across the subjects that they offer with the Departments and Colleges to ensure that the strongest applicants displaying the greatest potential are seen".
Harding was keen to downplay the popular rumours which circulate about the PPHs, denying that monks occasionally wake up students during the night to check that there are no members of the opposite sex in their room, or that it is compulsory for students to attend ‘high tea' with them every afternoon.
"I've had a normal undergraduate experience," he said. Hope Hadfield laughed when confronted with the rumours and said that "nothing like that happened."
