Although Anna loses Jamie, she honors his legacy by embarking on the "grand tour" by herself and taking over his role as a poetry professor at Oxford University. The final scene of the film shows Anna bringing a pound cake to her first class — the same thing Jamie did when he was a professor and she was his student.

My Oxford Year's Sofia Carson and Corey Mylchreest explain the movie's tragic ending, which is significantly different from Julia Whelan's novel.