Education

There are full-time and part-time routes available. Currently the overall expected contact time for the part-time route is thirty days at Oxford per year, but the majority of this will take place across the three eight week terms, and will include supervision meetings and core research training. In the first year, part-time students will normally be expected to be in department every Thursday during term time. In later years there is greater flexibility and contact time will be agreed between the student and their supervisor.

The department's doctoral students develop their skills through a range of research methods and skills training courses in their first year. At the heart of the skills provision is the Research Training Seminar, where students present and develop their research ideas and proposals with the benefit of feedback and support from their peers.

You will work closely with supervisors on literature review and study design for the thesis, and you are encouraged to make the most of the doctoral training and research methods provision available across the Social Sciences Division.

You can also join one or more of the department's research groups, becoming part of a vibrant educational research community with an active set of doctoral student-led events, seminars and conferences. All DPhil students are given opportunities to present their work at a variety of seminars and sessions in the department.

You will complete appropriate coursework tasks, and your academic progress is assessed at an interview at the end of the first year.

The allocation of graduate supervision is the responsibility of the Department of Education and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Under exceptional circumstances a co-supervisor may be found outside the Department of Education.

The most recent Oxford University Destination of Leavers from Higher Education Survey made contact with 635 master's course students who graduated from the Department of Education between 2012 and 2014. Fully 90.2% of alumni were in work and 5.8% in further study with only 2.0% looking for work, ranking the department in the best 3 of the 20 departments in Oxford's Social Sciences Division.

Past DPhil students from the Department of Education have gone on to academic and research careers at universities in the UK (eg Oxford, Edinburgh, Warwick, UCL, King's College, St. Mary's, Liverpool) and across the world (eg Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Hong Kong, Chile), or are employed across a wide range of other sectors such as policy for government departments or NGOs, international organisations such as OECD, think tanks and administration at local and national levels. The department’s ‘Conversations with Alumni’ feature includes interviews with two DPhil alumni on their career paths after Oxford.

Changes to this course and your supervision

The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. In certain circumstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.

Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.

For further information, please see our page on changes to courses.

Other courses you may wish to consider

If you're thinking about applying for this course, you may also wish to consider the courses listed below. These courses may have been suggested due to their similarity with this course, or because they are offered by the same department or faculty.

All graduate courses offered by the Department of Education

Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition MSc

Applied Linguistics for Language Teaching MSc

Education DPhil

Education (Child Development and Education) MSc

Education (Comparative and International Education) MSc

Education (Higher Education) MSc

Education (Research Design and Methodology) MSc

Educational Assessment MSc

Learning and Teaching MSc

PGCE PGCert

Teacher Education MSc

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Entry Requirements