Work for graduate degrees at Oxford is done within the relevant University Department or Faculty, but all graduate students must also be admitted to membership of a college. A number of terms of residence are specified for each degree, and you must keep these as a full-time member of a college. Residence involves a course fee, and your college has to certify this residence when putting you forward as a candidate for a degree.
Application for graduate courses is made centrally to the University, not directly to the College, and your application is first sent to the relevant Department or Faculty. If you are accepted by that Department or Faculty, your application will be sent to the college of your choice.
When your application is received by Magdalen, it will be considered by the appropriate subject tutor and by the Tutor for Graduate Admissions, who may forward it to the College’s Graduate Admissions Committee, whose task is to maintain parity of standards across a range of subjects.
If you are accepted, you will receive an offer letter from the College setting out the terms of acceptance, which will include a requirement for a financial declaration. Colleges are required by the University to satisfy themselves that graduates will not suffer financial hardship during their time at Oxford. The offer will be valid only for the course specified in the offer letter. If Magdalen is unable to offer you a place, your application will be returned to the Department or Faculty, which will pass it to another college.
Supervisors of research students are appointed by the appropriate Faculty or Department and it is not necessary to be a member of the same college as your supervisor. At Magdalen, a tutor in your subject or a related subject is appointed as your adviser to provide a focal point for your relationship with the College. The College’s Tutor for Graduates has general responsibility for Magdalen’s graduate students and will monitor your academic progress and your discussions with your adviser.
Graduates are not normally permitted to migrate to another college during the continuance of a course for which they were admitted unless the individual will be holding a Fellowship or Scholarship covering fees and maintenance.
For details of our Graduate Admissions Selection Criteria please click here.
If you have specific questions about graduate admissions at Magdalen you should email: graduate.enquiries@magd.ox.ac.uk.