Netflix's My Oxford Year retains the core premise of Julia Whelan's 2018 novel of the same name, but there are notable differences, such as its emotional ending.
Directed by Iain Morris, My Oxford Year has a stellar cast led by Sofia Carson, Cory Mylchreest, Dougray Scott, Catherine McCormack, Poppy Gilbert, and Hugh Coles. My Oxford Year premiered on Netflix on August 1, 2025.
What Happened in Netflix's My Oxford Year?
The romance drama series follows ambitious New York graduate Anna De La Vega (Sofia Carson) as she heads to England to pursue a master's degree in Victorian Poetry at the University of Oxford. Little does she know that her life will change forever after meeting the charming and handsome Jamie Davenport (Cory Mylchreest), a university teaching fellow.
As expected, Anna and Jamie's casual fling turns into something more, but things become complicated after Jamie's life-threatening illness is eventually exposed, putting Anna at a crossroads between choosing Jamie or an already established career back in New York.
Another complication is between Jamie and his estranged father, William Davenport. The father-son duo has a different take on how Jamie's treatment should be handled. While Jamie seems to have accepted his inevitable fate, William doesn't want to give up. After some convincing, William eventually agrees to his son's wishes.
Meanwhile, Anna is inspired by Jamie's live-in-the-moment mantra and embraces the present. She eventually turns down the job offer in New York to stay with Jamie. However, Jamie disagrees with Anna's decision, believing he is a lost cause due to his illness.
While Anna and Jamie do fall out leading up to the former's graduation at Oxford, the pair eventually reconcile, with Anna promising to stay by Jamie's side no matter what. After their intimate night together, a dying Jamie remains unconscious while Anna imagines their Grand European Tour together (knowing that it may never come true at all).
In the end, Jamie tragically dies, but Anna still pushes through with the tour alone to honor his memory. My Oxford Year ends with Anna taking over the teaching duties for Victorian Poetry at Oxford, using Jamie's teaching methods to establish that a part of him will live inside her and in the university for years to come.
Netflix's My Oxford Year Vs. Julia Whelan's Book Differences Explained
Netflix's Protagonist Has a Different Name
A key difference between Netflix's adaptation of My Oxford Year and Julia Whelan's 2018 novel is the names of the protagonists from both versions.
In Netflix's My Oxford Year, Sofia Carson's character is Anna De La Vega, a New Yorker and a Summa Cum Laude graduate from Cornell University. Anna is a driven student who already has a career lined up at Goldman Sachs, but she still chooses to pursue her dream of receiving a Master's degree at the University of Oxford for a year.
Meanwhile, the main character in the book is Eleonor "Ella" Durran, a 24-year-old Ohio graduate with a strong passion for English literature. She receives the prestigious Rhodes scholarship, which secures her spot at the University of Oxford. Instead of a job at Goldman Sachs, Ella has an incredible career ahead of her since she already has a sure stint working with the U.S. Presidential Campaign after a year in England.
The Netflix version establishes that Anna's job at Goldman Sachs is geared towards finance, while Ella's career with the U.S. Presidential Campaign aligns her more with politics.
Cecelia's Bigger Role & The Name of Jamie's Brother
The portrayal of Netflix's version of Cecelia Knowles (played by Poppy Gilbert) is initially downright confusing because the movie doesn't reveal who she truly is until the latter end of the runtime. It turns out that she is the girlfriend of Eddie, Jamie's late brother, who succumbed to cancer. She becomes close to the family, and she agrees to keep an eye on Jamie as a lifelong promise to Eddie before he passed away.
In the book, Jamie's brother is named Oliver (not Eddie). Cecelia has a much more expanded role in the book, and it explores more of her love story with Oliver before his untimely death. It is revealed that Cecelia met Oliver during her second year in Oxford, and their meet-cute happened while inside a train that broke down somewhere between London and Reading.
The Book Gives Ella's Academics More Prominence
While Netflix's My Oxford Year does highlight Anna De La Vega's passion for poetry (with the most prominent ones being her exchange of literary knowledge with Jamie), the novel spends more time learning more about Ella's love for the craft.
At one point during Ella and Jamie's first run-in inside the classroom, Ella even bothers to ask the teaching fellow/future fling about a syllabus, indicating that she has a strong desire to climb the class' hierarchy.
Ella's Father Is Dead In the Book
Anna and Ella's story in both the Netflix movie and the novel also differs in one notable aspect: their respective fathers. The film reveals that Anna's father is still alive, and he openly supports her decision to go to Oxford University and study.
However, this isn't the case with Ella in the book because her father died when she was still a teenager after being involved in a car accident that took place on her 13th birthday. Ella has high praise for her father when Jamie asks her about him, telling him that he is funny and handsome and is her "partner in crime."
In the latter part of the story, Ella doesn't want Jamie to pity her after learning about the death of her dad, believing that it might be used against her because she felt that other prying eyes would point out that she "locked her heart away, never to love again."
Netflix's Version Has a Much More Tragic Ending
The main difference between Netflix's My Oxford Year and Julia Whelan's 2018 novel is the emotional ending. Although My Oxford Year starring Sofia Carson has a sad yet hopeful ending, the book did not end that way.
To recap, Netflix's My Oxford Year ended with Jamie's tragic death after she succumbed to a critical case of pneumonia on top of the rare form of cancer that he is already suffering from. The movie gradually shows Jamie's weakened state, with him collapsing on the floor multiple times to establish how dire his current state is.
His final moments come at a pivotal moment when Anna was imagining her planned Grand European Tour with him, only for him to disappear during the actual trip because he is already dead when Anna goes on the trip.
However, the book has a more hopeful ending because Jamie actually survived in the end after he underwent a complex clinical trial for treatment for his rare disease, multiple myeloma (the same illness that killed her brother, Oliver). Multiple Myeloma is a blood cancer that targets plasma cells. Jamie also ends up contracting pneumonia in the book.
The epilogue of My Oxford Year reveals that Ella and Jamie manage to "seize [their] moment" by pushing through with their European trip, six weeks after his recovery from the treatment.
While the novel's ending does not confirm if Ella and Jamie end up together, with the narration pointing out that there is no happily ever after and "it's just is. It's life," it is still heartwarming to find out that they manage to pull through and still cherish their moments even if uncertaintly looms for Jamie's fate (still not as definitive as Netflix's ending).
