I'm currently at Oxford, and I am a self-sponsored student. The sponsored lot will kill me for saying this, but at times they can be slightly biased towards sponsored students. However, if you get your ass in gear whilst here, and push for flying instructors and slots etc, you can keep up with the sponsored lot. You have to be willing to be here first thing in the morning to fly, and not leave until last thing at night.
Other than that, it's a pretty good school, with some decent ground school instruction and excellent feedback for the JAR exams. The only slight problem at the moment would be the huge intake of students for which they do not have enough room!
The 'Oxford' reputation - well lets just say that one airline who didn't really recruit from here before but preferred another school not too far from here took on 12 of our guys last week, and have been heard to comment that 'they wish they'd taken pilots from here before'. (obviously pleased with the standard!!)
Hope that's enough info for you. If you want to ask anything else, email me!