university of oxford phd by publication

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• Accessibility
• Study with us
• Graduate Courses in Psychology

DPhil (PhD) in Experimental Psychology

This is a full time 3 to 4 year research degree course. Students are required to submit a thesis of up to 100,000 words in their 3rd or 4th year. Successful applicants will be registered as students with the Department of Experimental Psychology.

Course Description

The DPhil in Experimental Psychology course is based upon independent research carried out under the supervision and guidance of principal investigators and researchers within the students' chosen research group or lab within this department.  Supervision and guidance may also include co-supervision from other collaborating groups or labs, both within the department or from other departments/faculties within the University or from another institution.

FINDING A POTENTIAL  SUPERVISOR

We require all applicants for the  DPhil (PhD) in Experimental Psychology courses  to contact a potential supervisor in the first instance.

This provides applicants with an opportunity to discuss the area of research they wish to conduct as a part of their DPhil (PhD) studies and whether the potential supervisor is able to supervise their proposed project. Details of staff who may be eligible to supervise DPhil students are listed on our Faculty and Research Fellows  page.

Applicants who do not approach a potential supervisor in the first instance and/or whose proposed Research Project falls outside the area of expertise of our  Research Themes  are unlikely to be successful with their application.

The department is not able to provide funding for all candidates who are successful in obtaining a place on the DPhil course.  However, candidates whose applications are ranked most highly may be eligible to be put forward to funding competitions run within the University, that allocate Research Councils funds (e.g. MRC, ESRC) on a competitive basis. Successful applicants are also welcome to seek their own funding from other sources, e.g. charitable bodies or international scholarships.

Please see the funding page for more detailed information.

Course Structure

First Year of Study

Successful applicants are initially registered as Probationary Research Students (PRS Status). During the first year, students are expected to attend various courses, lectures and seminars which will enable them to gain the most out of their time here at Oxford and assist them with the design and analysis of their own area of research. These will typically include:

• Graduate Statistical Workshops
• Skills Training Courses e.g. MatLab and fMRI methods
• Analysis of Research Methods

The Medical Science Division also offers a large number of courses on transferable skills such as teaching and communicating scientific findings which all our students are encouraged to attend as a part of their DPhil studies.

Students are expected to be fully integrated within their own chosen group or lab and attend group or lab meetings as well as attending related seminars and conferences.

Second Year of Study

As a part of the department's Induction Programme, students will produce a poster and give a brief presentation based on their own research in the first term of their 2nd year on the course.

Third and Final Years of Study

Students submit a thesis of up to 100,000 words and attend an oral examination (the final viva).

Assessment of the Course

Assessment of students' progress on the course is monitored in three stages as well as via termly progression reports:

• Transfer of Status

By their 4 th  term, students submit a Transfer Report based on their research to date and attend a transfer viva.

• Confirmation of Status

By their 9 th  term, students are required to give a presentation and attend an interview to assess the progress of their research.

• Thesis Submission

By their 12 th  term, students will submit a thesis of up to 100,000 words and attend an oral examination, known as a viva.

Students will need to have successfully completed all stages to be awarded a DPhil in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford.

Course code

Our graduate courses.

MSc in Psychological Research (Taught Masters)

MSc by Research in Experimental Psychology (Research Course) - full-time

MSc by Research in Experimental Psychology (Research Course) - part-time

DPhil (PhD) in Experimental Psychology (Research Course) - full-time

DPhil (PhD) in Experimental Psychology (Research Course) - part-time

Graduate Admissions Information

Application Deadline: 12noon, Friday 1 December 2023

What makes a successful application

Our Graduate Admissions Procedures

Entry Requirements for this Course

University Application Guidelines and How to Apply

Choosing a College

Fees and Funding Opportunities

Fees Information

Funding Information

Further Information

What happens after you've been made an offer

Student Profiles

Graduate Career Destinations

Graduate Admissions Statistics

DPhil in Philosophy

The Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in Philosophy is a three- to four-year research programme in which a candidate undertakes a doctoral level research project under the guidance of a supervisor. The doctoral work culminates in a 75,000-word thesis that is defended in the form of a viva voce examination ( oral defence). Satisfactory progress through the DPhil is checked in the form of a mini- viva voce examination taking place at the end of the first and second year of study.

The aim of the Faculty’s DPhil in Philosophy is to prepare you for an academic career in philosophy.

For information on how to make an application please see our   Admissions Procedure and Entry Requirements page .

The Philosophy Graduate Studies Committee recommends progression from Oxford's BPhil in Philosophy to the DPhil programme in view of the opportunity it offers to students to study a wide range of philosophical topics as well as to focus on a narrower field of research interest. Students proceeding to the DPhil programme via the BPhil will normally write a DPhil thesis which is an expansion of their BPhil thesis, although this is not a formal requirement. Indeed, sometimes, the BPhil thesis topic is not suitable for expansion into a DPhil thesis, or a student may wish to write their DPhil thesis on a different topic.

Each year, some students are admitted to the DPhil in Philosophy from programmes other than the BPhil in Philosophy. These students enter the DPhil initially as Probationary Research Students (“PRS”) from appropriate programmes at Oxford or elsewhere. Typically, these students will have already completed substantial graduate work in philosophy, usually equivalent to that required for the BPhil. Students may also progress from one of the Faculty of Philosophy's specialist MSt programmes - the MSt in Philosophy of Physics , the MSt in Ancient Philosophy  and the MSt in Practical Ethics .

In the third term after enrolment onto the DPhil, you are required to complete a transfer of status from PRS to full DPhil status. Two appointed examiners will interview you both on your two-page thesis outline, which explains in outline the intended line of argument or contribution to the subject, and on a piece of written work of approximately 5,000 words in the area and philosophical style of the proposed thesis which is typically, though not necessarily, a draft chapter of the thesis.

Students who progressed from the MSt in Philosophy of Physics course are required to write a 20,000-word thesis during their year as a PRS, as their MSt does not have a thesis element. Students who progress from the BPhil will enter the DPhil without being required to pass a year as a PRS and as a result will only have another six terms (instead of the usual nine terms) of fee liability for their DPhil.

At the end of the second year, you will be required to apply for confirmation of DPhil status. This entails an interview by one or two appointed examiners on your two-page thesis outline, which goes into some detail and comprises a reasoned statement of the nature of the proposed thesis together with a provisional table of contents, and a piece of written work of approximately 5,000 words.

You should have regular one-on-one tuition sessions with your supervisor(s). These will normally happen twice per term but in some terms, especially at the start of the degree and during the final stages of the thesis, the number of sessions may be increased. You are not required to attend any taught graduate classes as part of your DPhil degree, but you are encouraged to participate in lectures, classes, seminars and other educational opportunities offered throughout the university as relevant to your topic of study.

The course has no fieldwork, industrial placement or year abroad element, but you may decide to attend conferences, workshops or research training elsewhere.

Admission to the DPhil in Philosophy

Admission procedure an entry requirements.

For information on admissions to the BPhil in Philosophy please check the  Admissions Procedure and Enry Requirements page .

FAQs about Admission to the DPhil in Philosophy

Please find answers to frequently asked questions about admissions to the DPhil in Philosophy  here .

• Teaching Opportunities

The Faculty believes that it is important both professionally and personally for graduate research students to have opportunities to teach. For graduates seeking an academic career, it is often crucial to have teaching experience when applying for jobs. For many graduate students, teaching is also an important supplement to their income.

The Faculty operates a number of schemes to help our research students secure relevant teaching experience:

• Graduate Teaching Assistant Scheme
• Graduate Lecturing Scheme
• Graduate Teaching Register

For more information on these schemes, please visit the Teaching Opportunities page . 

• DPhil Seminar

The DPhil Seminar at Oxford University provides a forum for graduate students to present and discuss thesis chapters, and workshop papers that are to be submitted for publication.  

Speaker Series:  DPhil students present a part of their dissertation to a faculty member and fellow students. The format is approximately 45 minutes for presentation, 15 minutes for faculty commentary, and 30 minutes for Q&A

Publishing Workshop:  DPhil students receive targeted feedback on papers they intend to submit for publication relatively soon. Each term participants are placed in groups of 3-4, according to topic. During each of the 3-4 workshops (per topic group) the paper of one group member is discussed. Participants will be expected to attend the workshops of their fellow group members and to have read each of the other papers in advance of the relevant sessions. The format will be approximately 10 minutes for author introduction, 30 minutes for faculty commentary, and 50 minutes for discussion. Other faculty members and students are very welcome, but are encouraged to read the paper in advance.

The Faculty expects that DPhil students will present their work in the DPhil seminar at some point during their studies: most likely in their second or third year. The seminar provides an excellent opportunity for presentation experience, as well as feedback from peers and at least one faculty member other than their thesis supervisor(s). All graduate students and faculty are encouraged to attend, and all students are welcome to present but advantage is given to those who have not yet presented a paper.

For more information, please contact the Graduate Training Student Representative .

• Graduate Placement Scheme

The Faculty operates a Graduate Placement Service which aims to support graduate research students on the job market from the final year of their DPhil until they secure a tenure track / permanent position. To find out more, please visit the Graduate Placement Scheme page . 

• DPhil Placement Record

The Faculty has an outstanding placement record, including a number of past students who have obtained positions within Oxford itself, such as an associate professorship and a junior research fellowship. Please visit the DPhil Placement Record page for an overview of the Faculty’s placements in recent years. 

Entry Requirements

For a detailed description of the entry requirements for the DPhil in Philosophy, please visit the DPhil in Philosophy page on the central university’s Graduate Admissions webpages.

We hold a Graduate Open Day in March each year, for applicants who receive an offer of a place. If your application is successful, you will receive further information about this in due course.

For the latest information on fees charged by the University, and living costs, please visit the Fees and Funding page .

Please visit our Graduate Funding page to identify various sources of funding for the Philosophy Faculty’s graduate programmes.

Please read through our applicant  Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)  regarding Admission to our courses.

Useful Links

Department of

Department of Education

Dphil in education, scholarships.

The DPhil in Education is a full-time programme which takes 3-4 years and is intended to provide graduates with a wide range of research skills as well as in-depth knowledge, understanding and expertise in their chosen field of educational research.

The DPhil in Education is an advanced research degree of a high standing and is awarded on the basis of a thesis and an oral examination.

A full-time programme takes 3-4 years to complete and is intended to provide graduates with a wide range of research skills as well as in-depth knowledge, understanding and expertise in their chosen field of research.

About 80 DPhil students are attached to the Department, researching a wide range of topics, normally linked to one or more of the Department’s Research Groups. Students come from over 40 different countries and are supported by a variety of scholarships and grants. Entry is highly competitive, and applicants are required to have a strong academic background and are required to submit a research proposal.

It is also possible to study part-time for a DPhil in the department. For more information, visit our part-time DPhil page .

The Department offers some part and full scholarships to attract the very strongest students who would otherwise not be able to come and study in Oxford.

It is committed to developing the number of fully-funded studentships it can offer to DPhil students, given their importance to the Department’s research culture. The funding deadline for all graduate courses in the Department of Education is January application deadline. Applications submitted after this date will not be considered for funding offered by Oxford. Funding deadlines for other University courses can be found on the relevant course page on the Graduate Admissions website . These are all highly competitive, and require high-quality, well-crafted research proposals.

All eligible applicants for graduate study are automatically considered for the University’s prestigious Clarendon Scholarships and the departmental scholarships. You will be notified around the beginning of March if you are being considered for any of these funding opportunities.

Reparative Futures of Education Scholarship

The Reparative Futures of Education (REPAIR-ED) research project is awarding two fully-funded doctoral scholarships based within Oxford University’s Department of Education.

The REPAIR-ED project involves working with primary school communities in the city of Bristol to examine the features and mechanisms of structural inequities in education. The project will use its empirical findings to facilitate dialogues with stakeholders (schools, their communities, policy-actors and the broader public) to explore how reparative justice in education might be conceptualised and enacted.

More information about the REPAIR-ED scholarships and how to apply.

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

The ESRC is the UK’s largest organisation for funding research on social and economic issues. The University, in collaboration with Brunel University and the Open University, hosts the Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership – one of 14 Doctoral Training Partnerships accredited by the ESRC as part of a Doctoral Training Network.

In order to be considered for a Grand Union DTP ESRC studentship, you must select ‘ ESRC Grand Union DTP Studentships in Social Sciences ’ in the University of Oxford scholarships section of the University’s graduate application form. You must also complete a  Grand Union DTP Application Form and upload it, together with your graduate application form, by the funding deadline for your course.

Information about ESRC studentships at Oxford can be found here . Please ensure you have read all of the guidance available on the website before you complete the Grand Union DTP Application Form . If you have any questions, get in touch with the Grand Union DTP Office .

Talbot Scholarships

This scholarship fund is the result of a bequest to the Department in honour of Ms Elfrida Talbot, who ran the first women’s hostel for Education students in the University in the early years of the twentieth century. It is normally used to part-fund a UK/EU doctoral student for three years who was seen as strong contender for an ESRC doctoral studentship. Strong contenders for ESRC studentships will be automatically considered for this scholarship: no separate application process is needed. This scholarship is usually offered once every three years.

Clarendon scholarships

The very strongest applicants for all our MSc and DPhil programmes are automatically considered for University Clarendon scholarships. There is no separate application process. These are highly competitive and each year only one or two of our students are successful. During our initial admissions screening, supervisors nominate applicants with outstanding academic records to be considered. These supervisors then prepare a supporting statement.  A departmental panel ranks these candidates and the Director of Doctoral Research puts forward a shortlist of the strongest applicants to the divisional committee.

Departmental studentships

The Department is keen to attract the very strongest MSc students and encourage them to stay on for doctoral study. The shortlist will normally be made up of those students shortlisted for the ESRC and Clarendon scholarships. Interviews and decisions will be made once the ESRC and Clarendon awards are announced.

Awards will vary in range, but will seek to make a significant contribution to the overall cost of fees. Successful candidates will be expected to make an active contribution to the academic and professional life of the doctoral students within the Department. These scholarships may not be offered every year.

Further information on graduate scholarships and awards offered by the University and external agencies can be found on the  Student Funding Services  website.

Self-Funding

Scholarships are awarded on entry to the doctoral programme, not at any later point. If you are not awarded a scholarship in your first year, but elect to self-fund, you will be asked by the University to sign a declaration that you have the money to cover your fees and your living expenses for the first year. It should be noted that although you are only asked about the first year, it is extremely unlikely that you will acquire funding after that. There are no additional scholarships within the University for continuing doctoral students. The Department in general and individual staff members work hard to bring in funding for doctoral students, but we cannot fund everybody. It is worth carefully considering which colleges might have scholarships for which you are eligible when you apply.

Most colleges will offer some very small grants for fieldwork, travel or conference attendance. These are in the region of a couple of hundred pounds at most.

You can work part time during your doctorate, subject to the requirements of your visa, but you must obtain the support of your supervisor to do so, and it can have detrimental effects on your progress. There are occasionally some paid research assistant posts within the Department which are advertised to the doctoral cohort but these tend to be highly sought after. We do not have undergraduates so you are unlikely to be able to supervise as graduate students outside Education do.

There are some charitable trusts outside of the University to which you might be able to apply for some funding; we cannot keep track of all the potential requirements, so you should seek these out for yourself. However, they are not likely to be sufficient to cover fees and living expenses in their entirety.

Financial assistance run by colleges tends to be for ‘unexpected circumstances’; self-funders not getting any funding in second or subsequent years is not seen as unexpected. Both the University and the Department have some limited funds for those writing up the final stages of their doctorate. These are highly competitive and there are always more requests than there is money to fulfil them.

This advice is not intended to put you off, but it is important for self-funders to have a realistic view.

WHAT QUALIFICATIONS DO I NEED TO APPLY?

For more specific details of our admission criteria please visit the DPhil in Education course page .

HOW MANY STUDENTS DO YOU RECRUIT TO THE DPHIL IN EDUCATION PROGRAMME?

Approximately 25-35 students are recruited to our DPhil in Education programme each year.

CAN I STUDY ONLINE OR THROUGH DISTANCE LEARNING?

It is not possible to study at a distance or on-line on our DPhil programme.

What if I have already completed research training as part of a Masters degree?

All PRS students no matter what their previous training are required to undertake the Research Training Seminar course. This is the seminar specifically for PRS students, preparing you for the Oxford DPhil structure, creating a supportive cohort and enabling you to begin professional development for an academic or non-academic career. Other research training courses are: Beginners and Intermediate Quantitative Methods; Perspectives and Debates in Qualitative Research and Philosophy of Educational Research. The exact courses you will be required to take will depend on your previous training and experience, and the decision will be based on the evidence you provide in your application and in discussion with the Director of Doctoral Research on matriculation.

WHAT ARE THE BACKGROUNDS OF STUDENTS RECRUITED TO YOUR PROGRAMMES?

The Department offers a very wide range of courses. As well as a comprehensive Doctoral programme attracting students from all over the world, we offer full-time one year MSc in Education and in MSc Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (ALSLA) courses, as well as a range of part-time courses, some aimed primarily at UK teachers (e.g. MSc Learning & Teaching, MS Teacher Education) and some at distance learning (e.g., Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching). Consequently our courses cater to students from a diverse range of backgrounds.

For example in 2021/22, the Department had a total complement of 780 students of whom 414 were studying full-time and 366 were studying part-time. For 2021/22, across the MSc Education, MSc ALSLA, and DPhil programmes, approximately 29% of our students came from the UK, and the remaining 71% from the EU or overseas. The cohort from those programmes included students from Afghanistan, Australia, Japan, Germany, India, Malaysia, China, Mexico, Estonia, Australia, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States, among many others.

What our students share is exceptional academic achievement in their previous learning and an ambition to excel academically.

CAN I STUDY PART TIME?

Although doctoral research training programmes across the University tend to be structured around the needs of full-time students, we are able to offer a part-time DPhil option for students who reside and are employed locally.   See here for more information about studying for a part-time DPhil with us .

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST TO STUDY AND LIVE IN OXFORD?

To find out how much it will cost to undertake your studies at the University, please  visit the Fees and Living Costs webpage  for details.

CAN I APPLY FOR MORE THAN ONE COURSE?

We would strongly encourage you to focus your application on the course for which you have the most interest and experience.

CAN I APPLY FOR YOUR COURSES IF I AM IN THE PROCESS OF ACHIEVING MY QUALIFICATION TO GAIN ENTRY ONTO THE PROGRAMME?

Yes, you may apply for any of our courses whilst studying for another degree. If you are successful in achieving a place on one of our programmes, we would make a conditional offer which would include the condition of you achieving your qualification. You are required to submit an interim transcript at application. However, your final outcome would need to be available prior to you commencing the course at Oxford.

CAN SOMEONE CHECK IF MY RESEARCH PROPOSAL FITS INTO THE RESEARCH INTERESTS OF CURRENT MEMBERS OF STAFF BEFORE I SUBMIT AN APPLICATION?

Prospective DPhil applicants are expected to browse the online profiles of current members of staff to identify academics whose research interests overlap with theirs. If you can’t locate any academics with overlapping interests with yours, it is likely that your proposed area of research does not fit into the interests of current members of staff or the Department’s research centres.

ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE; WHICH HIGHER LEVEL LANGUAGE QUALIFICATION IS ACCEPTABLE? AND WHAT SCORE DO YOU REQUIRE?

If you do not have English as your first language, we would like you to have achieved the higher level competence in English Language proficiency i.e. IELTS 7.5 overall with at least 7.0 in each component, or TOEFL 110 (Internet-based).

We do not accept tests which are more than 2 years old. We encourage applicants to apply with a successful IELTS test. If evidence that you successfully meet the English language condition cannot be provided with your application, the language requirement will be set as a condition if an offer is made.

For further information, please  visit the Application Guide .

CAN I APPLY FOR A WAIVER OF PROOF OF PROFICIENCY IN ENGLISH?

For information on applying for a waiver of the English test requirement, please  visit the application guide .

HOW DO I APPLY?

For information about applying, see the University Admission’s DPhil page . For a more detailed explanation of the process, please  click here for the application guide .

NOT ALL OF MY QUALIFICATIONS WILL FIT ON THE APPLICATION FORM, WHAT SHALL I DO?

If you require more space on the application form, please contact Graduate Admissions for advice.

I HAVE BEEN OUTSIDE OF AN ACADEMIC SETTING FOR SOME TIME NOW; WHO SHALL I HAVE TO ACT AS MY REFEREES?

We strongly recommend that you have at least one reference from your most recent academic tutor. If you are currently in employment, you would be expected to provide a reference from your employer as well as an academic referee who is able to comment on academic capability/suitability for Higher Degree study.

WHAT DO I NEED TO INCLUDE FOR THE SAMPLES OF WRITTEN WORK?

Two essays, a maximum of 2,000 words each.

The written work should be related to the DPhil in Education and should be on separate topics. If you do not have any existing material that fits this requirement, you may wish to critique an article or write a book review based on the course subject.

You may submit written work previously completed for a prior course of study if the topic is relevant, eg an assignment or chapter of a dissertation etc, provided it meets the requirements. If your work is significantly longer than the guide length it should be edited to meet the requirements.

A list of relevant references is required for your written work and should be included in your word count. [If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.] This will be assessed for understanding of the subject area, an ability to construct and defend an argument, and proficiency in academic English.

WHAT DO I NEED TO INCLUDE IN THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL AND PERSONAL STATEMENT?

If you are applying to the DPhil programme you need to submit a personal statement of a maximum of 1,000 words and a research proposal of a maximum of 2,500 words. Your statement and proposal should be submitted as a single, combined document with a clear subheading for each.

You should submit a convincing personal statement (statement of purpose) explaining your reasons for applying to the programme and highlighting your relevant academic and professional experience. The final line of your personal statement should indicate your future plans after a doctorate.

You should also submit a research proposal written in English. An indicative bibliography is required but you do not need to include this in your word count. Your proposal should include an indicative title and a short introduction/synopsis, a discussion of the most relevant scholarly literature, and a research question or hypothesis. This issue or question should emerge from your review of the literature. Please also provide a rationale for the importance of this research topic.

Your proposal should also indicate your proposed methodological approach. This will depend on the kind of research you envisage. If empirical research is planned, then please discuss the likely ‘data’ to be collected. At this stage these ideas are exploratory, and likely to develop and change once you are accepted.

This will be assessed for your potential to carry out doctoral research, the quality and coherence of the proposal and the originality of the project.

It will be normal for your ideas to subsequently change in some ways as you develop your project. You should nevertheless make the best effort you can to demonstrate the extent of your research question, sources and method at this moment.

Your proposal should focus on your proposed research topic, rather than personal achievements, interests and aspirations.

HOW IS MY SUPERVISOR DECIDED?

Although supervisors will be allocated by the Department and it is not necessary for you to contact academic members of staff directly, prospective applicants are encouraged to approach academics whose research interests overlap with theirs to informally solicit their capacity and interest in supervising new DPhil students. You may also ask them to share with you specific publications that they have authored that you can’t access otherwise and that may help inform your research proposal. There is a section in the application form in which you can indicate your suggested supervisors. You are strongly encouraged to fill it in with two names of suggested supervisors when you apply.

AM I REQUIRED TO ATTEND FOR INTERVIEW?

Interviews are normally held with two interviewers using Microsoft Teams. Interviews will normally take place in February.

WHAT WILL THE INTERVIEW BE LIKE?

We are keen to find out more about you and your interests, and how these might tie in with the research specialisms of academic staff within the department.

For DPhil applicants, we will ask you to talk in detail about your research proposal, its design, your methodological choices and potential challenges you might face. For MSc applicants, we will ask you about your knowledge of the course, your reasons for wanting to study in this area, and initial ideas for their dissertation research.

Applicants may be asked to explain how their areas of interest link to those of the departments’ research groups, centres and academic staff.

WHEN WILL THE OUTCOME OF MY APPLICATION BE KNOWN?

Applications will be considered by the admissions panel within the Department and decisions will be made in accordance with the following deadlines:

January application deadline – mid March

You will be informed of our decision by email to ensure that you receive the outcome as soon as possible.

In the event that we are not able to offer you a place, we regret that it is not possible to provide you with feedback on your application.

CAN I DEFER ENTRY TO A COURSE?

The University will only consider requests for deferral of entry due to exceptional unforeseen circumstances, and only after all conditions set for the offer (both academic and financial) have been met.

Couldn’t find your answers under our FAQ section?

Please direct all enquiries to our Higher Degrees Office and a member of the administrative team will be happy to assist you.

Email: [email protected]

• Entry requirements
• Fees and Funding

Meet our DPhil Students

ORA Oxford Thesis Collection

All theses written in fulfilment of a University of Oxford post-graduate research degree are eligible for deposit to ORA, and it has been mandated as part of the requirements surrounding a research degree for students who commenced their study from 1st October 2007 to deposit a complete copy to ORA.

For every thesis deposited, an ORA record page is created, and this content is openly shared via the ORA API, including to specific services such as the British Library's EThOS service. The ORA Oxford Thesis Collection presents the theses available within ORA. For many of these works ORA is the only space in which the content is made available, making it a valuable resource for accessing the research being undertaken by the University of Oxford students and early career researchers.

If you undertook your research degree at Oxford and would like to make your thesis available via ORA, please see the ORA theses LibGuide for further information or contact the ORA team.

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Theses and dissertations

Read our guidance for finding and accessing theses and dissertations held by the Bodleian Libraries and other institutions.

DPhil in Economics

DPHIL IN ECONOMICS

Oxford has a thriving group of research students studying towards the award of a DPhil in Economics. The DPhil is the name Oxford gives to its doctoral degree rather than the more familiar name PhD used in most other universities.

In joining the Department of Economics, you will 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. You will also have opportunities to present your work at a variety of seminars and sessions in the department.

Full information about the DPhil in Economics, including how to apply can be found  here.

The department has started a joint MPhil-DPhil programme, admitting the first students for a start in October 2021.

We have a large and active community of DPhil (PhD) students undertaking research in across all fields of economics. Please see the latest results from our DPhil programme below

Completion Rates: 117 completed between Jan 2014 and July 2020

Outstanding Publications of PhD Thesis Chapters: • American Economic Review: Bilicka (2019), Roth (2018), Adams-Prassl (2014), Sankjohanser (2020) • Journal of Political Economy: Gola (2020) • Journal of the European Economic Association: Singh (2020) • Economic Journal: Herresthal (2020), Franklin (2018) • Review of Economics and Statistics: Paul (2020), Bakker (2019), Roth (2019) • Journal of Monetary Economics: Moran (2018)   Student Satisfaction: A survey of our PhD students was undertaken as part of our 2018 Athena Swan application. The positive conclusion was that over 80% were satisfied with their academic supervision. In response to qualitative feedback, the Department moved to integrate PhD students much more closely into research groups and provide additional research support.   Job Placement: From a total of 163 postdocs and PhDs: • 78 to Assistant Professors • 43 to Post-doctoral positions • 27 to World Bank / IMF and Central Banks. • 15 others Academic positions outside the UK: MIT Sloan, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Northwestern (Kellogg), Michigan State, Duke, UC Irvine, Toulouse, Bocconi; and within the UK: Birkbeck, Bristol, Cambridge, Glasgow, Imperial, LSE, Manchester, Queen Mary, Surrey, UCL, Warwick, York.

Further programme information

Graduate Funding

DPhil Course Structure

Apply for DPhil in Economics

Applicant Mentoring Programme

DPhil Study

The History Faculty offers the DPhil (available on a full-time or a part-time basis) in all areas of post-Classical history. 

The DPhil is an advanced research degree, awarded on the basis of a thesis and an oral examination. The thesis will be based on extensive original research and engagement with current scholarship. Full-time DPhil students are expected to submit their thesis three, or at most four, years from the date of admission. Part-time DPhil students are expected to submit their thesis six, or at most eight, years from the date of admission.

All research students in the Oxford History Faculty benefit from the advice of a specialist supervisor or supervisors, and all are encouraged to take advantage of the wide range of expertise available within the Faculty and the University more widely.  

As a DPhil student, you will have many opportunities to present your work and to share ideas through the Faculty’s wide and varied range of research seminars. You are also encouraged to gain valuable experience by establishing and convening your own networks and workshops. The Faculty and Colleges also provides some funding for field-work and attendance at conferences outside Oxford. DPhil students in the History Faculty may also gain experience in teaching and lecturing through the Introduction to Teaching scheme.

The Faculty Offers Three DPhil Degrees:

DPhil in History

DPhil in History (Economic and Social History)

DPhil in History of Art

Part-time dphil study.

The Faculty is now able to accept a number of students for part-time study towards a DPhil. Part-time students are fully integrated into the research culture of the History Faculty and afforded all the same opportunities and support as full-time students, and are expected to take full advantage of these opportunities. A candidate's supervisor and the co-ordinator of part-time studies, are available to advise part-time students on how to access research and training provision. However, it may not always be possible to offer the part-time study mode in very specialized areas of research.

Although there is no requirement to reside in Oxford, part-time research students must attend the University in person on a regular basis, particularly in term-time, for supervision, research, seminars, and skills training. The pattern of attendance will be individual to each student and worked out between the student and supervisor. The part-time DPhil cannot be undertaken by distance learning, and students must be able to devote 2-3 days a week to their research. The Faculty appreciates that part-time research students will have non-standard attendance and work patterns, and research may be concentrated into certain periods rather then spread out evenly.

If an applicant is in employment, they must provide a letter from their employer stating they may take time off if necessary to attend the University as required for the duration of the course, before the Faculty can confirm their offer of a part-time place.

Students offered a place on the full-time DPhil can switch to part-time study before the course starts, or after they have enrolled, but cannot switch back to full-time.

DPhil Handbook

The DPhil Handbook can be found on the Oxford Historians Hub (OHH) site by clicking here . 

Oxford Historical Monographs (OHM)

Oxford Historical Monographs (OHM) is a series for the publication of Oxford University DPhil theses whose content is historical. It is published by Oxford University Press (OUP).

• PhD by Publication

Written by Mark Bennett

A PhD by publication is a degree awarded in recognition of an extensive amount of research published in numerous formats or journals. Unlike a conventional doctorate, you are not expected to undertake a new research project. This page will give a simple overview of what a PhD by publication is, and how to get one.

What is a PhD by publication?

Also known as a PhD by portfolio or by published works , a PhD by publication should not be confused with publishing parts of your doctoral thesis . Instead, the degree is awarded to someone who has several existing publications on related topics which can constitute a portfolio of original work at PhD level. This allows people who have not followed the traditional route towards a PhD to obtain recognition for the research they have done and the subject knowledge they have developed throughout their career.

How does a PhD by publication work?

As applicants for a PhD by portfolio will have already completed and published much of their research, this type of doctorate works very different than a standard PhD. We've answered some common questions below.

What subjects can you do a PhD by publication in?

In principle, this type of doctorate can be obtained in any subject (technically, if you’ve already done PhD-level work, there shouldn’t be any reason you can’t get a PhD by portfolio). But, doing the work you’ll need for a PhD by publication is more practical in some subjects than in others. For example, to do research in STEM subjects you might need specialist skills and access certain facilities.

These are usually available during a traditional PhD, making a PhD by publication less common in these subjects. It’s important to note that not all universities offer this route to a PhD and some may restrict access to academic staff.

How long does a PhD by publication take?

This route towards a PhD is much shorter and typically takes upto one year and can be done part-time.

Do you have a supervisor for a PhD by publication?

Similarly to a PhD by thesis, a supervisor is usually involved. They’ll guide you through the process of forming a thesis from your work, helping you decide what publications should be in the portfolio and establish the connections between them.

What types of publications can be used for the PhD portfolio?

The eligibility of the publications can vary depending on the university or the institution. Rules apply to the type, the number, how recently the work has been published and how / whether they are linked.

These publications generally should not have been used in another research degree and can include the following:

• Academic papers
• Book chapters
• Scholarly editions of text
• Technical reports
• Creative work in relevant areas
• Media presentations
• Surveys (and accompanying analysis)

This list offers you a general guideline and there may be some universities that do not accept certain types of publications and / or offer additional platforms to present your research.

How long should a submitted paper be?

Each university will have their own submission length guidelines. However, your portfolio should be comparable in length to a doctoral thesis, totalling between 80,000 and 100,000 words. This usually means you'll need three to eight publications to make up your publication. This number can vary if your publications are shorter in length.

Aside from your publications, your portfolio will likely need to include an introduction, critical analysis and conclusion. Your supervisor will be able to guide you on how long these should be.

How is a PhD by publication assessed?

A portfolio of various publications is bookended with an introduction and a conclusion, consisting of around 10,000 words (this can vary with discipline). This is then assessed much like a traditional PhD: the portfolio thesis is read and critiqued by two examiners in the relevant field of research. If the candidate is a staff member, then the examiners must both be external (from a different university to the one awarding the degree).

This assessment takes the form of an oral examination, or viva voce , carried out between the PhD candidate and their examiners. Once this has taken place, the examiners will determine whether the portfolio and the verbal discussion meet the requirements to award a PhD by publication.

Publishing during a PhD

A PhD by publication should not be confused with publishing during your PhD , which is a common part of a standard doctorate. This is an optional (but valuable) way to boost your academic CV and gain recognition within your field.

Applying for a PhD by publication

Some of the entry requirements for a PhD by publication are similar to those for a normal PhD by thesis (after all, you’re still seeking to prove that you’re up to the standard required for a doctorate). However, the application process can be quite different.

What are the entry requirements for a PhD by publication?

To apply for a PhD by publication, you must have a Bachelors degree and may be expected to have held this qualification for several years (as the PhD by publication is for established researchers / practitioners, not fresh graduates). You may also need to have relevant professional / academic experience on your CV, in addition to your publications.

Other admission requirements vary. Some universities state that the applicant must be a current staff member, whereas others allow external candidates to apply (so it is always best to check with the individual institution). In the UK, PhD by publication is more common among staff members, but this PhD model is becoming a popular option for early career researchers in other parts of the world.

What is the application process for a PhD by publication?

The PhD by publication route isn’t normally advertised and students don’t usually begin by searching for a supervisor and presenting a research proposal. Instead, universities encourage applicants to contact the head of department in the relevant subject area before applying. They will discuss your previous research and advise you on the application process.

The application generally involves a postgraduate application form consisting of a CV and a supporting statement , outlining how the publications fit together, methodologies (and why they were used), a brief discussion of findings and most of all, how this research has given a unique and original contribution to the field. You won’t normally need to provide a research proposal as you aren’t planning an extensive new project.

Fees and funding for PhDs by publication

The costs of a PhD by portfolio are minimal compared to that of a PhD by thesis. However, funding for this route is much less common.

How much does it cost to do a PhD by publication?

The cost usually equates to the typical PhD fee for one year of study. The fees can vary depending on whether you are an external candidate or a staff member. In the UK, the cost of a PhD is usually £4-5,000 for a year for home students.

Can you get funding for a PhD by publication?

Unfortunately, there generally isn’t any funding for a PhD by publication, as this type of degree is aimed at established academics and practitioners who will not be eligible for Research Council studentships and PhD loans. Staff members may get a lower PhD fee and/or some help with the costs, but this will vary depending on the university.

PhD by publication vs PhD by thesis

There are several things to bear in mind when thinking about whether to complete a conventional doctorate or seek a PhD based on your existing work.

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of doing a PhD by publication:

• Work has already been peer-reviewed and critiqued, which gives you an advantage when it comes to your oral examination, as you may already have some ideas of the types of questions and queries that can come up
• Offers a faster (and therefore cheaper) way of earning your doctorate
• You can often continue working whilst creating your PhD portfolio
• A PhD by publication is a useful way of formalising professional experience, meaning you may be able to qualify for more senior roles and progress in your career
• May only be available in specific circumstances (see below)
• It is not suitable for all projects / subjects (some topics need to be set up as complete projects from the start)
• You have less freedom to investigate a new area and design your own research methods
• You won’t normally benefit from other parts of the PhD experience: structured training, academic work experience (teaching, presenting, etc)
• There is limited funding available

Looking for a PhD?

Check out our database of PhDs to find the latest programme opportunities from around the world.

You may also like...

The PhD is the most common variety of doctorate, but others are awarded in specific disciplines or sometimes particular countries.

Joint PhD programmes involve collaboration between two (or more) different universities. So how does that work? Who can apply? And what are the advantages (and disadvantages) of researching in this way?

Integrated PhD programmes consist of a one-year Masters followed by three years of PhD research. Find out more about what it's like to study an integrated PhD, how to apply and the funding options available.

Thinking of applying for the Doctor of Engineering (EngD)? Our guide covers everything you need to know about the qualification, including costs, applications, programme content, and how it differs from a PhD.

A PhD isn't the only option for postgraduate researchers. Our guides explain professional doctorates, joint degrees and compare other qualification types.

How does the value of an MPhil compare with a PhD, and why might you choose the Masters over the doctorate?

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MMC Lab Doctorl Thesis

Doctoral thesis (dphil/phd).

(11) Michele Tricarico, DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford (2023): "Nanomechanical Behaviour of the Monolithic Framework Solids: An Experimental and Modelling Study" [ PDF ]

(10)  Annika F. Möslein, DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford (2022): "Engineering Optoelectronics and Smart Sensors Leveraging Metal-Organic Framework Materials" [ PDF ]

(9) Yang Zhang, DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford (2022): " Luminescent Metal-Organic Framework and its Polymer Composites for Photonic Sensing Technology " [ PDF ]

(8)  Arun S. Babal, DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford (2021): "Metal-organic framework materials for low- k  dielectrics and selective sensing applications" [ PDF ]

(7) Barbara E. Souza, DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford (2020): "Novel nanocomposites integrating MOFs for biomedical engineering". [ PDF ]

(6) Kirill Titov, DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford (2019): "Towards practical metal-organic framework materials: Operando and in situ studies by leveraging synchrotron and neutron sources" [ PDF ]

(5) Zhixin Zeng, DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford (2018): "Quantitative studies of the nanoscale mechanical properties of metal-organic framework materials" [ PDF ]

(4) Siqi Ying (co-supervisor), DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford (2018): "On the mesoscale plasticity of nickel-based superalloy single crystals" [ PDF ]

(3)   Matthew R. Ryder, DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford (2017): “Physical phenomena in metal-organic frameworks: mechanical, vibrational, and dielectric response” [ PDF ]

(2) Abhijeet K. Chaudhari, DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford (2017): “Nanoscale engineering of guest@host metal-organic framework materials for optoelectronic properties” [ PDF ]

(1) Mahdi E. Mahmoud, DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford (2017): “Thermo-mechanical performance and novel applications of nanocomposites incorporating metal-organic frameworks” [ PDF ]

(0) Jin-Chong Tan, PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge (2005): "Thermo-electrical properties of metallic sandwich sheets and their resistance welding characteristics" [ PDF ]

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August 20th, 2018

A phd by publication is a great way to build your academic profile, but be mindful of its challenges.

12 comments | 50 shares

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Peer-reviewed publications are the bread and butter of the academic world. The quantity and quality of papers a researcher publishes can influence job applications, grant applications, performance reviews, and promotions. Unfortunately, the craft of writing academic papers and facilitating their publication is not typically a focus of doctoral education.

To help better prepare candidates for the realities of academia, universities increasingly allow the option to complete a PhD by publication, a model which encourages candidates to publish during their candidature, and to include their publications as, or within, their final submission. Jørgen Carling has previously outlined the benefits of completing the PhD by publication. While we agree there are many advantages to adopting this model, there are also challenges that need to be considered to ensure success.

We understand many of these challenges, having both completed a PhD by publication in the past five years. In our field (education) and location (Australia), the traditional thesis dominates, and while that is slowly changing, we encountered a range of problems for which there was little advice or support available at the time. Here we anticipate some of the many questions candidates may ask, and offer possible answers based on our experiences and research.

How many papers should I publish?

There is no one correct answer! Regardless of the thesis mode, the goal of doctoral study is to make an original and significant contribution to a field. How many papers it will take to meet this goal will depend on many factors. We found that the average number of papers included in Australian theses was 4.5, but this ranged anywhere from one to 12 papers. Publishing in itself is not a guarantee of conferral of your degree, and quality may be more important than quantity.

Should I co-author with my supervisor?

Doctoral candidates often publish with their supervisors. Supervisors have always assisted their students in the development of their traditional thesis, to differing degrees, but in the past this has gone relatively unacknowledged. Most university guidelines will require candidates to declare each author’s contribution to a paper, and thus a higher level of authorial transparency is achieved. Co-authoring papers gives doctoral students an apprenticeship in writing journal articles, as well as experience in collaborative writing and working in research teams – a regular part of an academic’s job.

Early and frank communication is important. The three co-authored papers in Shannon’s thesis were written in the beginning stages of her candidature when more hands-on support in the process of writing and publishing was needed. She was then well-equipped to write the remaining four papers alone. Margaret’s thesis was unusual as all included papers were sole authored, which was only possible as she had already co-authored two peer-reviewed papers prior to candidature.

We strongly recommend establishing clear mutual expectations between candidate and supervisor as early as possible.

How can I publish everything in time?

The process of preparing a manuscript, submitting to a journal, waiting for reviews, attending to requests for revisions, copy editing, and final publication can be extensive in some fields. This can be very frustrating for candidates who are working to a doctoral submission deadline. It is important to check journal guidelines for their average turnaround times. Once a paper is under review, don’t be afraid to follow up politely once this time has passed.

It is also important to check your PhD-by-publication guidelines, because many universities allow the submission of papers at various stages of production, such as those still under review. This allowance is particularly helpful to ensure the inclusion of papers developed in the later stages of your candidature.

What if my paper gets rejected?

For doctoral candidates just developing their new identities as researchers, rejection can be difficult to take. The reality is that even experienced academics deal with rejection at some time, perhaps more often than they might like to admit! The important thing to remember is that rejection is a normal part of the process. The decision is not always about the quality of the paper, but its fit within that particular journal at that particular time. It is important to become familiar with any journal that you intend to submit to, including the theories and methods that are favoured, and the type of academic voice appropriate for that journal.

What if my papers don’t flow as a thesis?

There are particular difficulties in developing a single submission based on multiple publications, each with their own focus, style, and format, and, as we recently explored , there are a number of favoured options for structure. Nikander and Piattoeva offer useful advice on how to use the integrating chapter to connect papers together.

There are also other issues that might arise from the transformational nature of doctoral study, where students learn while doing. For example, Margaret began to question her use of one of the informing concepts she had used in her early papers. In her subsequent work, she challenged her own simplistic use of this concept. Rather than become discouraged by the discovery of earlier flaws in our work, we understand that as researchers, we will continue to grow and cast a critical gaze over our past knowledge base. We both used the integrative chapter of our theses to highlight these limitations, but also to make explicit the evolution in our understanding; as such, it was a very enjoyable chapter to write!

We found that completing our thesis by publication offered rewards and challenges that were in many cases unique to this thesis mode. That we both emerged as advocates for this thesis type would suggest it is well worth undertaking for those candidates who want their findings to translate quickly and disseminate widely.

To see the authors’ research in this area, please go to their project page on ResearchGate: “ Publishing during PhD candidature ”.

Featured image credit: John-Mark Smith , via Unsplash (licensed under a  CC0 1.0  license).

Note: This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of the LSE Impact Blog, nor of the London School of Economics. Please review our  comments policy  if you have any concerns on posting a comment below.

About the authors

Shannon Mason is Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at Nagasaki University, Japan. Her research interests include teacher attrition and retention, and language education pedagogy and policy. Her experiences completing a PhD by publication in 2017 led to her recent interest in emerging approaches to doctoral education.

Margaret K. Merga currently works as a Senior Lecturer at Curtin University in Western Australia. Margaret primarily conducts literacy research that spans the early years to adulthood. She also explores issues on educational psychology, adult education, higher education and health workforce education. She is currently working on projects related to the role of teacher librarians in fostering literacy in primary and secondary schools.

About the author

12 Comments

Readers may also be interested in our most recent paper, “Early career experiences of navigating journal article publication: Lessons learned using an autoethnographic approach”.

It is available here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/leap.1192

IN VIEW OF COMPETENCY-BASED EDUCATION, IS ARTICLE COHERENCE THAT NECESSARY FOR PhD BY PUBLICATION?

I agree on practically all you had to say and I appreciate that you have not made emphasis on the need to develop a coherent narrative between the journal papers.

In my previous unanswered reply posts on three PhD blogs I wrote that with low coherence it might not be possible to develop an overarching hypothesis or a general research question covering a number of diverse studies. This however, does not mean that if you are presenting a list of widely varied articles (yet, with a common denominator eg. public health) you cannot show your assessors that you are capable of answering any research question through acceptance or rejection of the null hypothesis. On the contrary, you would probably have covered several hypotheses testing that you would not even know from where to start! After all, it still reflects great competency to be able to publish several loose papers.

I see no academic feat in having a strong element of connectedness between the papers especially if this comes to the detriment of:

(a) the quality or rate of journal submission acceptance in terms of originality. Candidates who successfully manage to achieve a PhD by publications in science normally present no more than three or four papers revolving on the same theme or repetitive methodology with one paper building on the other (there’s a limit on how much you can keep adding onto the previous study to produce a coherent narrative.

(b) the level of the student’s (author’s) widespread generation of new knowledge since the papers would be closely related to each other (strong coherent body).

and (c) the number of papers which can be kept being added (and repeated) onto previous studies.

I feel that the requirement for coherence is not the right way of defending the standards of a PhD by published works, whether retrospective (ie. by prior publications) or prospective (when you start publishing your studies with the university you have registered your application). One has to understand that the point of departure with a PhD by publications (sometimes called, article-based PhD) is totally different from when you decide to undertake a conventional or traditional PhD by monograph with only ideas or proposal in your hands.

So, whereas when you go for a monograph of a single specialised subject it is justified to have a coherent narrative, for a thesis by publication (involving a synthesis, commentary or integrative chapter), which is basically a form of compilation written independently by the student, it is a different story. To start with, you only need to prepare a 10-15,000 commentary constituting a summary of the appended papers, whereas with a one-topic monograph you can go up to 100,000 words and sometimes even more.

Needless to say, the PhD by publication student should clarify the actual contribution to knowledge, especially if the papers are written by several authors. What’s important is that the commentary should not provide new results, but should critique the papers and preferably offer new conclusions since the extent of the journal articles normally does not allow this kind of longer discussion.

In brief, I feel that coherence should not remain central and more weight should be directed on single-authorship, number of papers published, originality and widespread contribution to knowledge. In my opinion, these should be the distinct features of this relatively new type of PhD.

One may wish to contact me personally on [email protected]

Charles Micallef Author of: ‘Critical analysis: a vital element in healthcare research’.

Excellent Write up. I have throughly gone through the article and according to my personal observations, I think it is amazing.Being associated with writing profession, I must mention that https://academicwritingpro.com/research-paper-writing-services/ are quite helpful nowadays. Furthermore, quality is also an important aspect.

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Great write up! Here is one more tip regarding ‘How can I publish everything in time?’ If a PhD student has an R&R with minor revisions, it’s worth noting that in the thesis, especially if it is for a prestigious journal. So even if the student can’t publish in time, they can get credit for almost publishing in time.

Dear Mollie,

Thank you for your comment. Great point, totally agree.

I think it is good to remember that even though the TBP might be ‘packaged’ as a product, it really is more about the process of learning to be a researcher, and that really is never ending. Communicating the different phases at which a researcher is engaging is a great idea. Indeed, I included details of publication rejections that I experienced, and my different reactions to them (by way of emails to my supervisor) at different stages of the journey, an inclusion that my assessors commently highly on.

A PhD by publication is nonsense if the faculty prescribe the journals where your work must be published. who said every journal would like to publish every research? for the university with restricted academic freedom, they mistake some ridiculous rules for having higher bar of pursuing doctoral degrees when the Times Higher Education (THE) ranks far away from their pre-conceived opinions. I submit that PhD by publication is good where freedom to publish in alternative high quality journals exist. absence of that its a total mess!

Dear Peter,

Absolutely agree, and this is something that has been raised in an upcoming study. We absolutely advocate for doctoral researcher agency in selecting the outlets for their publications that are best suited to their study, field, and career stage.

Create an online publication or write a newspaper good writing skills is very important.

Dear All; Thank you very much for the quality article and feedback . It is very interesting topic. I think during Covid-19 the quarantine imposed on people including students, completing PhD using this approach can be very suitable. I have the following questions: – Has the PhD candidate to register in a University? and if so, can you please share the names of the Universities that can accept such type of PhD studies? Many thanks again and best regards Omar

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Dear Authors,

This is a great article. Is Phd by Publication equal merit to traditional route of Phd? What degree title a candidate will get in the route of Phd by Publication?

I think there is still discrimnation in academic field between one who hold phd by Publication and other Phd in Traditional route.

Regards, Yadam

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Support for the PhD by publication rather than by thesis is growing. Ayala Ochert reports. In Cambridge anyone can do it, in Oxford nobody can, and elsewhere you have to be a member of staff to do it. The "PhD by publication" allows you to submit a collection of published papers in lieu of a thesis, but whether or not it is available to you depends on which university you are at, which subject you are studying, and the stage of your career.

Currently, the universities of Reading and Leeds are considering whether to allow staff who do not have PhDs to obtain them in this way. But although many of the older universities already offer such a path to a PhD, and have done for many years, very few of those eligible seem to know of its existence. Few graduates of Cambridge University know that six years after graduating, by paying an exam fee of Pounds 320 and supplying a set of published papers, they can apply for a PhD.

David Hamill, of the department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Surrey , had already embarked on two years of a conventional PhD before he happened upon a short paragraph in the university handbook and thought, "maybe I can do that instead, and kill two birds with one stone". It was Dr Hamill's practical experience in industry that got him his post as lecturer, but he felt something was missing: "All the students assumed I was Dr Hamill, which was a bit embarrassing," he says, so he collected together his work and was awarded his qualification. He also believes that his PhD was an important factor in his recent promotion to senior lecturer.

Luck played a significant part - had he been at Oxford University, then Dr Hamill would still be Mr Hamill. Oxford considered the possibility of introducing the PhD by publication in 1993, but decided against the idea: "We decided to maintain a link between study in Oxford and submission of a thesis. The characteristic of the DPhil has always been supervised study in the university," says Richard Hughes, director of graduate studies.

The National Postgraduate Committee has mixed feelings about the idea. Its biggest concern is one of quality - it should not be a backdoor for academics. But Peter Beardsley, academic registrar at the University of Surrey , disagrees with those who say it could be a token qualification: "It's not materially different from a conventional PhD. It has to satisfy the usual criteria of demonstrating originality and making a distinct contribution to knowledge. We're very careful not to devalue the PhD," he says.

Though work may take the form of separate papers, collectively it must still form a coherent body of work, with an introduction linking the various strands of work, as well as a literature review.

In some universities, and in some subject areas, it is not unusual for students to submit theses in just such a format. Professor Harold Hanham, vice chancellor of Lancaster University , claims that in his 45-year experience he has seen many theses of this kind: "It is not particularly remarkable, but it does vary a lot between subjects." But at Leeds University, only a specially prepared thesis is acceptable, although published papers may be added as appendices, which may count in the student's favour.

Jamie Darwen of the NPC points to the differences between published papers and PhD theses: "A thesis goes into every detail of research, which would not be appropriate for a published paper. As a standard route to a PhD, I would be a bit sceptical about it."

Practices also vary considerably from country to country. In Scandinavian countries, candidates choose whether to present a monograph or a so-called "composite dissertation", but must also take several taught courses. They see the PhD as a training for a career in research.

Those that emphasise the role of the PhD as a training course often welcome the possibility of submitting published papers. They argue that this is a significant part of being a researcher. It is only in its role as a qualification that the PhD can mean anything to an already established member of staff: after all their academic positions imply that they are already trained in research. The univerisities of Leeds and Reading will therefore have to decide what is the role of the PhD, before they can decide whether to approve the PhD by publication.

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PhD by Prior Publication Double PhD by Prior Publication

Phd by prior publication or existing published.

PhD by Publication's Candidates

The Conversation

Debora Wenger receives first PhD by Prior Publication from Kingston University

University of Chester’s first PhD by publication Candidate

Research Gate

Alexander macmillan (engineer) (university of cambridge, uk), mary ellen o'connell (university of cambridge, uk), christopher catherwood (university of east anglia, uk), josephine balmer (university of east anglia, uk), graham joyce (nottingham trent university, uk), wendy mcmurdo (university of westminster, uk), phd by journal publication (isi-q1, q2, q3, q4)*, thesis format.

List of Universities that offers the PhD by Prior Publication or Existing Published

Advan-kt Multiversity, USA Northumbria University UK Westminster University UK Kingston University UK Machanster Metropolitan University UK Massey University New Zealand Griffith University Australia University of Bristol UK University of Stirling UK Aberystwyth University UK University of New England UK Charles Sturt University Australia University of Portsmouth UK Glasgow Caledonian University UK University of Bradford UK Deakin University Australia

Unimap Malaysia University of Gibraltar Spain London School of Economics UK Liverpool John Moores University UK University of New York Prague University of East Anglia UK Maynooth University, Ireland University of Manchester UK City University of London UK Victoria University Australia RMIT University Australia Monash University Australia University of Tasmania Australia Dublin City University Ireland Wolverhampton University UK University of New South Wales Australia

University of Reading UK University of Exeter UK University College London UK University College Cork, Ireland Royal Holloway University UK Middlesex University London Waikato University New Zealand Queensland University of Technology Australia Oxford Brookes University UK James Cook University Australia University of Sydney Australia University of South Australia Western Sydney University Australia University of New Castle Australia Flinders University Australia Bongor University UK

Students are encouraged to apply directly to their favourite brand(university) for the PhD by Publication but before that, please read Advan-kt's view on doctoral studies.

Does a continent matter in a PhD by Prior Publication ?

Which PhD type is regarded as most difficult ?

Does ISI Web of Science play crucial role in a PhD by Prior Publication as compared to universities ?

Anyone aware about Ph.D. by publication?

International Conference on PhD by Prior Publication

Date: 7th Aug 2023, Vanue: Online Conference, Time: 10 AM (GMT+8.00)

www.advan-kt.com | tuition free education for all

MPhil or PhD or PhD by Published Work

Find a course

Start dates.

January 2024 / June 2024 / September 2024

Application deadline

It is recommended that you apply at least 6 months in advance to allow adequate time for your application to be processed (in the case of UK/EU applicants no less than 4-6 weeks).

Course length

Full time: 1 - 3 years

Part time: 2 - 6 years

School of Arts

Funding status

Self-funded

For more info: [email protected]

Research proposal guidelines

Doctoral Training Programme Brochure

Here in the School of Arts we combine text and practice based approaches to research. With world-leading academics and research across our subject areas, we provide a vibrant environment for our large and dynamic group of PhD students.

We welcome research proposals related to the research interests of our research groups and staff. This includes:

• Film Studies
• Historical and Popular Musicology
• Sound Arts and Composition
• Publishing.

We have extensive links with over 90 universities across the world and work closely with industry and practice. These links lead to many opportunities for collaborative research, exchanges, overseas study and many more.

Research expertise

Our research groups create a context for staff and students to engage with innovative practices and ideas hosting festivals, conferences, lecture series, workshops and laboratories for developing and sharing new research.

We welcome research proposals related to the research interests of our research groups and staff.

• Film Studies Research Unit (FSRU)
• Opera Research Unit (OBERTO)
• Popular Music Research Unit (PMRU)
• Print Culture Research Unit (PCRU)
• Sonic Art Research Unit (SARU)
• The Audience Project (TAP)

Degree routes

All students enrol as probationer research students. During the first year you will formally register your research proposal for one of the below routes. 

The degree for which you register will depend on your academic qualifications and research experience. 

MPhil (with possibility of transfer to PhD)

Most students initially register for an MPhil with the possibility of transfer to a PhD without submitting for an MPhil. During your MPhil you will:

• critically investigate and evaluate an approved topic
• demonstrate understanding of research methods appropriate to the chosen field 
• present and defend a substantial thesis by oral examination. 

Length of study

• Full Time: min 2 years, max 3 years for MPhil component only; for MPhil/PhD, min 3 years, max 5 years. 
• Part Time: min 3 years, max 4 years for MPhil component only; for MPhil/PhD, min 4 years, max 6 years.

Entry requirement: the minimum entry requirement for an MPhil degree, or an MPhil with the intention of transferring to a PhD, is:

• a first-class or upper second-class UK honours degree
• a relevant master’s qualification
• or an equivalent qualification.

Applications from those holding qualifications other than the above will be considered on their merits and in relation to the nature and scope of the work proposed.

The criteria for a PhD are similar to those for an MPhil, with the key difference that:

• the research carried out will result in an independent and original contribution to knowledge.

Length of study:

• Full Time: min 2 years, max 5 years.
• Part Time: min 3 years, max 6 years.

Entry requirement : a recent master’s degree in a discipline appropriate to the proposed research. The master’s needs to have included research training and a research project.

In exceptional cases, applicants who have a good honours degree (or equivalent) may apply for direct registration to a PhD if they have appropriate research or professional experience at postgraduate level which has resulted in published work, written reports or other appropriate evidence of accomplishment. An unpublished master’s dissertation would not suffice in this instance.

PhD by published work

The degree of PhD on the basis of published work may be awarded to candidates whose submitted work:

• reflects the same academic standards as those which operate for a traditional PhD based upon an approved programme of supervised research
• forms a coherent programme of research
• demonstrates the use of appropriate research methodology
• and makes an original and sufficient contribution to the present state of knowledge in a particular field to the satisfaction of the examiners.

Applicants should normally have had some prior association with Oxford Brookes University. The submission for examination comprises the published work on which the application is based, together with a supporting critical appraisal of this work.

• Part Time: 1 year

Entry requirement : the minimum entry requirement is:

Additional details

Previous PhD research has included:

• Arts practice as research
• Audiences studies
• Contemporary and Experimental Musical Composition and Improvisational processes
• Contemporary practices in arts and museum management
• Film History
• Film Theory
• International, Strategy, Policy and Development: Studies of contemporary publishing in local, regional and national contexts, issues of development and publishing.
• Kinetic sculpture and installation
• Operatic Culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
• Music in 19th-century culture; Music and national identities; Reception studies, canon formation and music historiography
• Music, gender and religion in the early modern period
• Popular music and popular song
• Public art and site specific installation
• Social Sculpture
• Sound Art and Sonic Art
• The Culture and History of Publishing

Why Oxford Brookes University?

The School of Arts is dedicated to offering an outstanding experience for research students. As a research student you will enjoy the following benefits:

• You will be able to work with one of the school’s high quality ambitious research groups.
• You will study alongside talented academics working in similar fields.
• While you engage in your own research, you have opportunities to interact with a dynamic research environment that is actively engaged in broad reaching arts based projects, teaching and writing funding proposals.
• Students benefit from links with the wider faculty.
• Students benefit from automatic membership of the Faculty Doctoral Training Programme .
• 24-hour access to workshop and studio facilities.
• Excellent facilities in film, video, photography, print and book making, woodworking, metal, casting, and range of specialist machinery.
• Weekly School of Arts practice based seminar group.
• A wide variety of optional training courses, student events, lectures and other opportunities delivered in-house.
• All students are allocated a Director of Studies and at least one other supervisor who they meet with regularly.
• A range of personal support that includes access to a wide range of staff who are available for consultation.

How to apply

Entry requirements.

Please see the degree routes section above for specific entry requirements.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language you will need to provide an IELTS language certificate with an overall score of 6.5 (with no less than 6.0 in any element).

As a result of very recent changes made by UK Visas & Immigration, please note we no longer regard TOEFL as an acceptable language test for entry to Oxford Brookes. This applies whether you require a Student visa or not. You can find more details on our English language requirements pages .

If you do not meet these requirements you may be able to take our University English as a pre-sessional course .

Application process

• check that you meet the entry requirements and financial requirements of the programme.
• explore our research groups and supervisory staff pages to see how your chosen field of study aligns with the research portfolio within the school.
• contact Professor Ray Lee and advise him that you are considering making an application. You are also welcome to contact particular academics to help you develop your ideas.
• formulate your research proposal.
• submit your research proposal to [email protected] . For guidance on writing a PhD research proposal, download our research degree proposal guidelines
• gather required documents (listed below)
• submit your application through the Oxford Brookes online application system .

Supporting documents

• Research proposal
• Scan of your passport
• IELTS Certificate or equivalent (if required) – no older than two years from the proposed start date of your programme
• Scan of your final degree certificates already awarded
• Scan of transcripts
• Two references (at least one academic) – your references must be on institutional headed paper and be dated and signed by referee(s). They can be sent directly to the Research Administrator in the Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment in a sealed envelope, or emailed.
• Evidence of funding – if sponsored by an employer or government, you must provide evidence in the form of a recently dated sponsorship letter on official headed paper. If supporting your studies from private funds, you must provide a recently dated bank statement.

Tuition fees

Fees quoted are for the first year only. If you are studying a course that lasts longer than one year, your fees will increase each year.

For International fees the following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support. 

Home fees are set by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and are released approximately five months before the start of each academic year.

If you have any questions about fees, get in touch with the Research Degrees Team at  [email protected] .

How and when to pay

Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.

• For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
• For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy  page

Compulsory costs

Optional costs

Funding your studies

Financial support and scholarships.

Featured funding opportunities available for this course.

All financial support and scholarships

View all funding opportunities for this course

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Current Issue

June 2024 vol 129 | issue 2.

Check out the AHR 's June issue, with articles that rethink approaches to global, environmental, and intellectual history, History Lab pieces that focus on digital history and modes of public-making, and #AHRSyllabus modules that explore state standards in the classroom and teaching with an AHR article. Members can access the issue online through the link under AHA Publications on MYAHA .

Recent Articles

"chivalry without women: the way of the samurai and swinton’s world history in 1890s japan".

By Sarah Thal

"Gulistan in Black and White: The Racial and Gendered Legacies of Slavery in Nineteenth-Century Qajar Iran"

By Leila Pourtavaf

“Late Acceleration: The Indian Emergency and the Early 1970s Energy Crisis”

By Elizabeth Chatterjee

About the AHR

The  American Historical Review  ( AHR ) has served as the journal of record for the historical discipline in the United States since 1895. It is the leading global forum for new scholarship in every major field of historical study across time and space. The  AHR  publishes field transforming articles and contributions that reimagine historical practice and teaching. From traditional articles to innovative digital media, we welcome submissions that spark scholarly conversations.

History Lab

The AHR History Lab is a new, experimental space in the middle of the journal featuring collective projects that seek to reimagine how we approach historical practice in terms of content, form, and method.

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Find information on article and digital media submissions and proposals for the AHR History Lab and #AHRSyllabus project.

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Collaborative History + Revisiting Marion Thompson Wright

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The #AHRSyllabus is a collaborative project designed to help teachers and students look "under the hood" at how historians in the early 21st century do the work of history. Each contribution to the syllabus features a practical hands-on teaching module that foregrounds innovative uses of historical method in the classroom.

The American Historical Review publishes approximately 650 reviews annually, aiming to represent all fields of historical scholarship. Click here to learn more about our reviews process, read our FAQ, and submit your information for our reviewer database.

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Access past issues of the AHR , the journal of record for the historical discipline since 1895. The AHR publishes field transforming articles and contributions that reimagine historical practice and teaching. In its second century of continuous publication, the  AHR  strives to be the leading forum for new historical research, while meeting the challenges of an ever-evolving digital age and an ever-expanding global community of scholars.

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• Login with your email address and password.
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Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Ees phd student kelly tingle receives nasa astrobiology early career collaboration award.

Posted by hinsoc1 on Thursday, June 20, 2024 in Uncategorized .

Congrats Kelly!

This specific grant will provide Kelly with sufficient funding to spend 5 weeks at Oxford. While at Oxford, she will be working on a research project that will test some controversial hypotheses surrounding the very earliest eukaryotes, and thus some of the earliest evidence for ‘complex’ life on this planet. The title of her successful application is:

“Re-evaluating the affinities of microbial organisms from the Gunflint Formation, Canada”

Good luck on your research!

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EPSRC CDT in Future Propulsion and Power

• Entry requirements
• Funding and Costs

College preference

• How to Apply

About the course

The DPhil offered by this EPSRC funded Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Future Propulsion and Power provides graduates with the opportunity to develop in-depth knowledge, understanding and expertise in aircraft propulsion and gas turbines. This is a joint programme between the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Loughborough, together with leading engine manufacturers and partners in the field. 

In the first year, all students study for a master’s degree in Future Propulsion and Power at the University of Cambridge. In years two to four, Oxford's students will undertake industrially-focussed projects at the Oxford Thermofluids Institute – also known as Osney Laboratory - in the Department of Engineering Science.

Year one is oriented towards developing your knowledge base. Along with CDT students from Cambridge and Loughborough, you will register and study for an MRes degree in Future Propulsion and Power at the University of Cambridge. The course involves taught lectures and laboratory modules, along with several mini projects of two to three weeks each undertaken at the three partner universities and at some of the sites of the industrial partners. These are precursors to your DPhil study, to hone your research skills and shape your main research area. You will meet your supervisor regularly to assess progress and discuss academic issues.

Years two to four see an increasing emphasis on individual research. Oxford's students register for the degree of DPhil and carry out a research project at the Oxford Thermofluids Institute, an internationally-recognised centre for research in Gas Turbine Heat Transfer and Aerodynamics, and part of Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science. You will benefit from the network of leading experts in the field, and develop a portfolio of academic, laboratory and career-oriented skills. Throughout of the research project, close interaction with an industrial partner is expected. In addition, the full cohort meets regularly for CDT seminars and workshop events.

Supervision

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Department of Engineering Science, in conjunction with the University of Cambridge, 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 supervisor may be found outside the Department of Engineering Science.

You will join your supervisor's research group which normally has post-doctoral researchers and other research students working on broadly similar research themes. Typically you would interact daily with members of the group and have weekly contact with your supervisor. Many groups have weekly meetings where members discuss their research or perhaps present other published work.

You will be assessed continually throughout the first year at Cambridge during courses and projects, and will be formally examined in your MRes programme. At the end of your second year in Oxford, you will be required to write a report and give a presentation on your research, and to present a detailed and coherent plan for the research-intensive phase in the third and fourth years of your doctoral studies. Progress towards completion is again formally assessed some way into the final year of study.

For the DPhil, you will be required to submit a substantial thesis that will be read and examined by experts in the field, one from the Department and one from elsewhere. Often the thesis will result in the publication of several journal and conference papers.

Graduate destinations

The CDT’s in-depth training by world experts combined with engagement with research problems of vital interest to our industrial partners and with the progressive increase both in responsibility and external exposure, have made our graduates from the CDT well equipped for leadership roles in industry, both nationally and internationally. Others may wish to continue to spend time in post-doctoral research, probably further developing the work in their theses towards commercial application.

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. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made in circumstances of a pandemic, epidemic or local health emergency. In addition, 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 illness, sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.

For further information please see our page on changes to courses and the provisions of the student contract regarding changes to courses.

Entry requirements for entry in 2024-25

Proven and potential academic excellence.

The requirements described below are specific to this course and apply only in the year of entry that is shown. You can use our interactive tool to help you  evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive .

Please be aware that any studentships that are linked to this course may have different or additional requirements and you should read any studentship information carefully before applying. 

Degree-level qualifications

As a minimum, applicants should hold or be predicted to achieve the following UK qualifications or their equivalent:

• a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours , usually in engineering with some specialisation in fluid mechanics and thermodynamics.

Candidates with undergraduate degrees from related fields will also be considered.

A previous master's qualification is not required.

Note that each candidate will need to get accepted by both Oxford (for the DPhil) and Cambridge (for the MRes). Although you will start the CDT program in year one at Cambridge, your admission to the MRes at Cambridge will be conditional on your already holding a conditional offer of a DPhil place at Oxford for years two to four.

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA sought is 3.5 out of 4.0.

If your degree is not from the UK or another country specified above, visit our International Qualifications page for guidance on the qualifications and grades that would usually be considered to meet the University’s minimum entry requirements.

GRE General Test scores

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience 

• Entry into the CDT programme is competitive and will take account of academic qualifications, performance and aspirations.
• Publications are not required.

English language proficiency

This course requires proficiency in English at the University's  higher level . If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence that you meet this requirement. The minimum scores required to meet the University's higher level are detailed in the table below.

*Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English or Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) † Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)

Your test must have been taken no more than two years before the start date of your course. Our Application Guide provides  further information about the English language test requirement .

Declaring extenuating circumstances

If your ability to meet the entry requirements has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (eg you were awarded an unclassified/ungraded degree) or any other exceptional personal circumstance (eg other illness or bereavement), please refer to the guidance on extenuating circumstances in the Application Guide for information about how to declare this so that your application can be considered appropriately.

You will need to register three referees who can give an informed view of your academic ability and suitability for the course. The  How to apply  section of this page provides details of the types of reference that are required in support of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Supporting documents

You will be required to supply supporting documents with your application. The  How to apply  section of this page provides details of the supporting documents that are required as part of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Performance at interview

Interviews (in person or by other means) may form part of the admissions process.

How your application is assessed

Your application will be assessed purely on your proven and potential academic excellence and other entry requirements described under that heading.

References  and  supporting documents  submitted as part of your application, and your performance at interview (if interviews are held) will be considered as part of the assessment process. Whether or not you have secured funding will not be taken into consideration when your application is assessed.

An overview of the shortlisting and selection process is provided below. Our ' After you apply ' pages provide  more information about how applications are assessed . 

Shortlisting and selection

Students are considered for shortlisting and selected for admission without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, sexual orientation, as well as other relevant circumstances including parental or caring responsibilities or social background. However, please note the following:

• socio-economic information may be taken into account in the selection of applicants and award of scholarships for courses that are part of  the University’s pilot selection procedure  and for  scholarships aimed at under-represented groups ;
• country of ordinary residence may be taken into account in the awarding of certain scholarships; and
• protected characteristics may be taken into account during shortlisting for interview or the award of scholarships where the University has approved a positive action case under the Equality Act 2010.

Processing your data for shortlisting and selection

Information about  processing special category data for the purposes of positive action  and  using your data to assess your eligibility for funding , can be found in our Postgraduate Applicant Privacy Policy.

Admissions panels and assessors

All recommendations to admit a student involve the judgement of at least two members of the academic staff with relevant experience and expertise, and must also be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies or Admissions Committee (or equivalent within the department).

Admissions panels or committees will always include at least one member of academic staff who has undertaken appropriate training.

Other factors governing whether places can be offered

The following factors will also govern whether candidates can be offered places:

• the ability of the University to provide the appropriate supervision for your studies, as outlined under the 'Supervision' heading in the  About  section of this page;
• the ability of the University to provide appropriate support for your studies (eg through the provision of facilities, resources, teaching and/or research opportunities); and
• minimum and maximum limits to the numbers of students who may be admitted to the University's taught and research programmes.

Offer conditions for successful applications

If you receive an offer of a place at Oxford, your offer will outline any conditions that you need to satisfy and any actions you need to take, together with any associated deadlines. These may include academic conditions, such as achieving a specific final grade in your current degree course. These conditions will usually depend on your individual academic circumstances and may vary between applicants. Our ' After you apply ' pages provide more information about offers and conditions . 

In addition to any academic conditions which are set, you will also be required to meet the following requirements:

Financial Declaration

If you are offered a place, you will be required to complete a  Financial Declaration  in order to meet your financial condition of admission.

Disclosure of criminal convictions

In accordance with the University’s obligations towards students and staff, we will ask you to declare any  relevant, unspent criminal convictions  before you can take up a place at Oxford.

Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS)

Some postgraduate research students in science, engineering and technology subjects will need an Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate prior to applying for a  Student visa (under the Student Route) . For some courses, the requirement to apply for an ATAS certificate may depend on your research area.

The CDT is resourced by the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and is jointly hosted by the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Loughborough.

Oxford students will spend the first year as members of the Department of Engineering in Cambridge and years two to four in Oxford. At Oxford, engineering research and teaching takes place in a unified Department of Engineering Science with over 100 academic staff who are committed to advanced work in their own specialities, while recognising a common engineering foundation. This creates an intellectual space where interdisciplinary work thrives, and where expert advice is available to students in areas which though not central to their core research still impinge on it.

The department occupies some 16,000 square metres, and has well-equipped research areas and workshops, as well as offices, lecture theatres, library, common room, stores, reprographics and other facilities. The department has around 350 research students and about 200 postdoctoral researchers and research fellows. Direct funding of research grants and contracts, from a variety of sources, amounts to an annual turnover of approximately £25m, in addition to general turnover of about £26m.

The key research area for the CDT is Thermofluids and Turbomachinery, which takes in the Osney Thermofluids Laboratory, located in a facility to the west of the city called the Southwell Building. The laboratory was opened by Oxford's Vice Chancellor in 2010 as part of the University's strategic investment in the nation's science base. The lab houses some of the most sophisticated turbine and high speed flow facilities in the UK, and the research group includes internationally recognised experts in CFD, flow and heat transfer experiments and instrumentation. The lab is outstandingly supported by highly experienced technical, computing and administrative staff.

Engineering Science

The Department of Engineering Science brings together the study of all branches of engineering at Oxford. It has a community of around 550 graduate students at any given time.

The department has a substantial research portfolio, including much that is directly supported by industry. The major theme underlying this research portfolio is the application of cutting-edge science to generate new technology, using a mixture of theory, computation and experiment.

Study and research opportunities in the department include both conventional disciplines of engineering and newer areas of interest, such as information engineering, low-temperature engineering, nanotechnology and experimental plasma physics.

There are no barriers between different branches of engineering. The department is involved in a great deal of multidisciplinary and collaborative research with groups in other departments, from archaeology to zoology. 

The department has an excellent record of engagement with industry and of translating research results into real-world applications. It has generated numerous successful spin-out companies.

The department offers a range of research degrees, including four-year programmes as part of several specialised Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs).

View all courses   View taught courses View research courses

For details about searching for funding as a graduate student  visit our dedicated Funding pages, which contain information on external funding, loan schemes and other funding sources.

For details of any college-specific funding opportunities please visit individual college websites using the links provided on our  college pages or below:

Please note that not all the colleges listed above may accept students on this course. For details of those which do, please refer to the College preference section of this page.

Annual fees for entry in 2024-25

Students admitted by the University of Oxford are enrolled on the MRes in Future Propulsion and Power at the University of Cambridge for their first academic year. During that year you will be liable for fees at the University of Cambridge and will be charged fees by that University at their fee rates .

Annual fees for the 2024-25 academic year at the University of Cambridge

Subject to meeting the progression criteria, you will then be enrolled by the University of Oxford and will be liable for a further 9 terms of course fees at the University. During each subsequent year, you will be charged course fees at Oxford's fee rate for that year of study. For an indication of costs, the table below shows the estimated annual course fees for the second academic year of this course.

Estimated annual fees for the 2025-26 academic year at Oxford

Further details about fee status eligibility can be found on the fee status webpage.

Information about course fees

Course fees are payable each year, for the duration of your fee liability (your fee liability is the length of time for which you are required to pay course fees). For courses lasting longer than one year, please be aware that fees will usually increase annually. For details, please see our guidance on changes to fees and charges .

Course fees cover your teaching as well as other academic services and facilities provided to support your studies. Unless specified in the additional information section below, course fees do not cover your accommodation, residential costs or other living costs. They also don’t cover any additional costs and charges that are outlined in the additional information below.

Continuation charges

Following the period of fee liability , you may also be required to pay a University continuation charge and a college continuation charge. The University and college continuation charges are shown on the Continuation charges page.

Where can I find further information about fees?

The Fees and Funding  section of this website provides further information about course fees , including information about fee status and eligibility  and your length of fee liability .

Additional information

There are no compulsory elements of this course that entail additional costs beyond fees (or, after fee liability ends, continuation charges) and living costs. However, please note that, depending on your choice of research topic and the research required to complete it, you may incur additional expenses, such as travel expenses, research expenses, and field trips. You will need to meet these additional costs, although you may be able to apply for small grants from your department and/or college to help you cover some of these expenses.

Living costs

In addition to your course fees, you will need to ensure that you have adequate funds to support your living costs for the duration of your course.

For the 2024-25 academic year, the range of likely living costs for full-time study is between c. £1,345 and £1,955 for each month spent in Oxford. Full information, including a breakdown of likely living costs in Oxford for items such as food, accommodation and study costs, is available on our living costs page. The current economic climate and high national rate of inflation make it very hard to estimate potential changes to the cost of living over the next few years. When planning your finances for any future years of study in Oxford beyond 2024-25, it is suggested that you allow for potential increases in living expenses of around 5% each year – although this rate may vary depending on the national economic situation. UK inflationary increases will be kept under review and this page updated.

Please consult the University of Cambridge website for further information about living costs while studying at that institution.

Students enrolled on this course will belong to both a department/faculty and a college. Please note that ‘college’ and ‘colleges’ refers to all 43 of the University’s colleges, including those designated as societies and permanent private halls (PPHs). 

If you apply for a place on this course you will have the option to express a preference for one of the colleges listed below, or you can ask us to find a college for you. Before deciding, we suggest that you read our brief  introduction to the college system at Oxford  and our  advice about expressing a college preference . For some courses, the department may have provided some additional advice below to help you decide.

The following colleges accept students on the Future Propulsion and Power CDT:

• Balliol College
• Brasenose College
• Exeter College
• Harris Manchester College
• Hertford College
• Jesus College
• Lady Margaret Hall
• Linacre College
• Lincoln College
• Magdalen College
• New College
• Pembroke College
• Reuben College
• St Anne's College
• St Catherine's College
• St Cross College
• St Hilda's College
• Somerville College
• Trinity College
• University College
• Wadham College
• Worcester College
• Wycliffe Hall

Before you apply

Our  guide to getting started  provides general advice on how to prepare for and start your application. You can use our interactive tool to help you  evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive .

If it's important for you to have your application considered under a particular deadline – eg under a December or January deadline in order to be considered for Oxford scholarships – we recommend that you aim to complete and submit your application at least two weeks in advance . Check the deadlines on this page and the  information about deadlines and when to apply  in our Application Guide.

Application fee waivers

An application fee of £75 is payable per course application. Application fee waivers are available for the following applicants who meet the eligibility criteria:

• applicants from low-income countries;
• refugees and displaced persons; 
• UK applicants from low-income backgrounds; and 
• applicants who applied for our Graduate Access Programmes in the past two years and met the eligibility criteria.

You are encouraged to  check whether you're eligible for an application fee waiver  before you apply.

Readmission for current Oxford graduate taught students

If you're currently studying for an Oxford graduate taught course and apply to this course with no break in your studies, you may be eligible to apply to this course as a readmission applicant. The application fee will be waived for an eligible application of this type. Check whether you're eligible to apply for readmission .

Application fee waivers for eligible associated courses

If you apply to this course and up to two eligible associated courses from our predefined list during the same cycle, you can request an application fee waiver so that you only need to pay one application fee.

The list of eligible associated courses may be updated as new courses are opened. Please check the list regularly, especially if you are applying to a course that has recently opened to accept applications.

Do I need to contact anyone before I apply?

Before you apply, please familiarise yourself with the Future Propulsion and Power website and refer to the  list of research group leaders  to identify areas of research that interest you. You should then make contact with the potential supervisor(s) in the department to discuss the possibility of joining the research group, as well as research projects that you could undertake.

If you would like to discuss your research proposal and potential supervisors  contact the CDT Director, Professor Ireland . General enquiries can be directed to the course administrator, via the contact details provided on this page.

Completing your application

You should refer to the information below when completing the application form, paying attention to the specific requirements for the supporting documents .

For this course, the application form will include questions that collect information that would usually be included in a CV/résumé. You should not upload a separate document. If a separate CV/résumé is uploaded, it will be removed from your application .

If any document does not meet the specification, including the stipulated word count, your application may be considered incomplete and not assessed by the academic department. Expand each section to show further details.

Proposed field and title of research project

If known, under 'Proposed field and title of research project', enter the research project you have in mind. If you do not have a specific project in mind, you should simply enter 'EPSRC CDT in Future Propulsion and Power' as the proposed project.

You should not use this field to type out a full research proposal. You will be able to upload your research supporting materials separately if they are required (as described below).

Proposed supervisor

Under 'Proposed supervisor name' enter the name of the academic(s) who you would like to supervise your research. 

Referees: Three overall, of which at least one must be academic

Whilst you must register three referees, the department may start the assessment of your application if two of the three references are submitted by the course deadline and your application is otherwise complete. Please note that you may still be required to ensure your third referee supplies a reference for consideration.

Professional references are welcomed, but these must be obtained from your line manager (or equivalent). At least one academic reference must be provided.

Your references will support your intellectual ability, academic achievement and potential, motivation, creativity, and ability to work singly and in a group.

Official transcript(s)

Your transcripts should give detailed information of the individual grades received in your university-level qualifications to date. You should only upload official documents issued by your institution and any transcript not in English should be accompanied by a certified translation.

More information about the transcript requirement is available in the Application Guide.

Statement of purpose/personal statement: A minimum of 1,000 up to a maximum of 1,500 words

Your statement should be written in English and explain your motivation for applying for the course at Oxford, your relevant experience and education, and the specific areas that interest you and/or you intend to specialise in. 

If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.

This will be assessed for:

• your past commitment to sustained and intense study and your reasons for wishing to undertake research
• evidence of interest in, and experience and understanding of, the proposed area of study
• the originality of the proposed research
• the feasibility of successfully completing the project in the time available
• your ability to present a reasoned and coherent case in English.

Your statement should focus on your research ambitions in engineering, rather than on personal achievements, interests and aspirations.

Start or continue your application

You can start or return to an application using the relevant link below. As you complete the form, please  refer to the requirements above  and  consult our Application Guide for advice . You'll find the answers to most common queries in our FAQs.

Application Guide   Apply

ADMISSION STATUS

Open - applications are still being accepted

Up to a week's notice of closure will be provided on this page - no other notification will be given

This course opened to applications after our standard application deadlines had passed. The 'Admissions status' (above) will provide notice of the deadline.

*Three-year average (applications for entry in 2021-22 to 2023-24) † Total number of places available across the three partner institutions.

Further information and enquiries

This course is offered by the Department of Engineering Science

• Course page on the centre's website
• Funding information from the department
• Academic and research staff
• Departmental research  and studentships
• Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences
• Residence requirements for full-time courses
• Postgraduate applicant privacy policy

Course-related enquiries

Advice about contacting the department can be found in the How to apply section of this page

✉ [email protected] ☎ +44 (0)1865 283249

Application-process enquiries

See the application guide