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University of Oxford
School of Geography and the Environment

 School of Geography and the Environment

International Graduate School: How to Apply

Entrance Requirements

Within equal opportunities principles and legislation, applications will be assessed in the light of your ability to meet the following criteria:

Proven and Potential Academic Excellence

Applicants for our MSc/MPhil Courses

Ideally we would like you to be predicted or to have achieved a first class Honours Degree or an upper second class undergraduate degree (or equivalent international qualification. If you are unsure of how your degree compares to those of the UK universities, a useful source of information and advice can be found online on the UK NARIC website).

Applicants for our DPhil Programme

We would also like you to have achieved a first class or an upper second class undergraduate degree and we would also require you to have achieved or be expected to achieve a Masters Degree in Geography or a related Environmental field with either a Distinction overall or a Distinction on the dissertation.

For applicants from the USA, the minimum GPA we seek is 3.7 out of 4.0. We do not require you to submit a Graduate Record Examination (GRE) score.

We will offer conditional places to those of you who apply before your results are known and we will set a date by which you will need to provide documentary evidence of your final results. We will ask you to send a original transcript which gives a complete breakdown of your results. You must provide this in English or translated into English and verified by an official from your university. Please note that we are unable to return original transcripts to you. If you are an overseas student, you will need an original copy of your transcripts for your visa application.

Availability of Supervision, Teaching Facilities and Place

The following factors will govern whether you can be offered a place:

  • The ability of the School of Geography and the Environment to provide the appropriate supervision, research opportunities, teaching and facilities for the chosen area of work
  • There are minimum and maximum limits to the numbers of students who may be admitted to Oxford's research and taught programmes

The provision of supervision is subject to the following points:

  • The allocation of graduate supervision is the responsibility of the School of Geography and the Environment 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/co-supervisor may be found outside of the School of Geography and the Environment

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.

English Language Requirement

As English is the language of instruction at the University of Oxford, all thesis and examination papers must be written in English. It is essential that those of you whose first language is not English should have sufficient linguistic competence to avoid any delay or difficulty in pursuing your studies. You can apply to us before you take an English test and any offer will be conditional upon your achieving the required level and upon receipt of the original certificate. If you have previously taken an English test, the certificate should not be more than two years old.

The School of Geography and the Environment may be able to waive the English language requirement if you have completed a degree in an English speaking majority country and for those students who have studied in other countries providing they can verify that they have been taught in English and completed a degree at Bachelor's level or higher. You will be required to request a waiver on your application form and to provide the necessary documentation from your previous university that the degree was taught in English. The English speaking majority countries are: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, New Zealand, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and United States of America.

The levels required by the School of Geography and the Environment are:

  • International English Language Testing System (IELTS): Overall result of 7.5 with at least 7.0 in each component.
  • Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL): An overall score of 630 with a 'Test of Written English' score of 5. Those taking the new internet based test must achieve a higher score of 109 with minimum component scores* of: Listening 21; Reading 22; Speaking 23; Writing 23. (* as required by the UK Border Agency for the purpose of obtaining a visa).
  • Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE): Grade B.

The addresses for IELTS and TOEFL are:

Disability, Health Conditions and Specific Learning Disabilities

Students are selected for admission without regard to gender, marital or civil partnership status, disability, race, nationality, ethinic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation, age or social background. Decisions on admission are based soley on the individual academic merits of each candidate and the application of the selection criteria appropriate to the programme of study. Further information on how these matters are supported during the admissions process is available on the University's website.