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University of Oxford
School of Geography and the Environment

 School of Geography and the Environment

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New topics for DPhil research in Physical Geography are now available
(NERC funding to be confirmed) - find out more

Application forms, deadlines and required full set of application materials

For information on where to obtain an application form; how to submit the form; information on the application fee; and the deadlines which must be met, and the full set of supporting materials required in order for applications to be guaranteed to be considered, please see the University of Oxford's Applying for graduate study webpage.

Supporting material

To apply to all of our courses, you will need to submit the following supporting material:

Academic references / letters of recommendation

Three strong letters of reference which will be assessed for additional evidence of your academic achievements, interests, and personal motivation. In order to assist assessors in their consideration of applications references should be from experienced scholars and teachers of graduate students. In view of this, we would recommend that at least two of the three references are from academics.

Curriculum vitae (CV)

Which shows high levels of academic achievement, or appropriate non-academic experience.

Written work produced by the student

One piece of written work (not more than 2,000 words) is required from applicants to our MSc courses in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management; Nature Society and Environmental Policy; Water Science, Policy and Management; MPhil and DPhil programmes. Applicants for the MSc course in Environmental Change and Management are not required to submit a piece of written work.

The piece of written work will show your ability to write a good academic document. The written work must be in English and can be either essays you have written or chapters of a thesis, or published scholarly papers, or maybe work written specifically to support your application.

Assessment of this work will take note of the circumstances under which the work was done and we will be looking for signs of good basic knowledge, understanding of problems, powers of analysis, ability to construct a coherent train of thought, and to shape an argument, and powers of expression. The quality of English expression and of presentation may also be part of the assessment. Students with disclosed disabilities will receive appropriate consideration according to their particular needs.

Personal statement (for MSc courses only)

The personal statement should be written in English and be no more than two pages long. We will look for evidence of your enthusiasm for the proposed area of study, over and above what would be expected from an undergraduate course of instruction. This might be demonstrated by, for example, having undertaken independent fieldwork or research, vacation employment in a relevant discipline, or having already made research publications or presentations. If you have already graduated, at least some of the time since graduation should have been spent on activities related to the proposed course of study, or a sound reason why this is not the case should be given.

Personal statement (for MPhil courses only)

The personal statement should follow the advice given for MSc applicants but we would also require you to show that you have a reasonable idea of your proposed research area with at least some grasp of the relevant literature and the major issues. Although we do not expect you to have decided on an exact research topic at this stage, we would expect you to provide some information for us to evaluate your proposed research study so that we can be certain we have the right staff expertise to supervise this.

Research proposal (for DPhil only)

This should be written in English and be no more than 1500 words long. The research proposal makes certain that you have a worthwhile research project - you have a good grasp of the relevant literature and the major issues, and that your methodology is sound:

  • it will show that you have the competence and work-plan to complete the research
  • it includes sufficient information for us to evaluate the proposed study
  • we can be certain we have the right staff expertise to supervise you
  • the research proposal must address the question of what you plan to accomplish and why you want to and how you are going to do it

For further information on writing a research proposal please see our online guide to writing a research proposal.

We encourage those of you who wish to apply for DPhil study to look at our lists of potential supervisors and topics before writing your research proposal and encourage you to approach specific supervisors to discuss your research before submitting an application.

Transcripts

Although you can upload a copy of your transcripts from your previous degrees when making your application, all our offers will be conditional upon receipt of an original copy of the transcripts. Transcripts are non-returnable so if you are an international student you should ensure that you have additional original copies as these will be required for your visa application.

Interviews

These are not normally held as part of the admissions process.

Whether you have yet secured funding

This is not taken into consideration in the decision to make an initial offer of a place but please note that the initial offer of a place will not be confirmed until the college which gives you an offer of a place is satisfied that you have sufficient funding to cover your fees and living costs for the standard period of fee liability for your course.

Assessors

All applications will be assessed by more than one member of the academic staff with relevant experience and expertise.

Application Deposit

All successful MSc applicants are required to pay a deposit of £350 to secure their place. This deposit will be refunded once the student has started the course. If the deposit is not paid by the date set the applicant will forfeit the place.

Further information

Please read through the following additional information:

Please Note: Applicants for the MSc in Environmental Change and Management should also check the MSc in Environmental Change and Management webpages for additional instructions on how to apply.

Enquiries

If you have any questions about the University's application process you are strongly advised to contact the University of Oxford Graduate Admissions Office, tel: +44 (0)1865 270059, or by e-mail: taking particular care to follow the instructions in the automatic reply, in the first instance.

If you have any further questions that have not been answered by the information provided above then please contact Ruth Saxton, the Research Degrees Coordinator at the School of Geography and the Environment.