Q-Step is a programme designed to promote a step-change in quantitative social science education and training in the UK and represents a systematic response to the shortage of quantitatively-skilled social science graduates. 

The Oxford Q-Step Centre (OQC) was created in 2014 as part of the Q-Step programme funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the now discontinued Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

The University of Oxford is one of 17 universities that was selected to host a Q-Step centre, which provides quantitative methods teaching and research grants for undergraduates, as well as outreach events for teachers and students outside Oxford. OQC is part of the Department of Politics and International Relations, in close cooperation with the Department of Sociology.