The university and LMH have complementary roles for graduate students. All candidates have to be admitted both by the university and by a college. The university provides the principal teaching for graduates (via the university Supervisor), major facilities (laboratories, university and faculty libraries), and also runs the final examination.

LMH, like other colleges, offers academic support (via a college advisor, who will be a Fellow of the college), the valuable college library and IT facilities, and guidance from the college's Tutor for Graduates concerning any administrative or financial difficulties that may arise. The college also offers a humane and sociable setting in which to live: single accommodation is offered to about 50 graduates in houses immediately adjacent to the main College buildings, and is normally guaranteed in the first year for graduates from outside Oxford. The graduate common room has its own social life, food (including popular guest nights) in the hall, and sporting facilities (including tennis, punting and squash on site).

There are three terms in the academic year: Michaelmas (mid-October to mid-December), Hilary (mid-January to mid-March) and Trinity (mid-April to mid-June). Each term is eight weeks long, but activities build up in the week before each term, and scientific courses often start not in October but in mid-September.

In the humanities lectures are optional (though of course valuable). Those on taught courses have their time determined by attendance at weekly classes, for which they may have to write essays. This is in preparation for a particular paper which will be examined at the end of the course (not at the end of a term). The life of experimental scientists is rather different, in that the rhythm is determined by working in the laboratory, alongside other graduate students and more advanced scientists.

The primary academic relationship of a graduate student is with her or his supervisor, but most faculties also appoint a second person as a faculty advisor, to whom the student can turn for guidance. The college advisor is also be a useful extra resource.