Bridging the gap

January, and thousands of applications pour into Oxford’s Graduate Admissions and Funding Office. However, this year, for the first time, the University had more applications for graduate than for undergraduate places for entry in 2009–10. More than 17,000 graduate applications resulted in some 6,500 offers designed to ensure some 4,000 new graduates arrived in Oxford in October 2009. The difference between the number of offers made and those able to take up their places is explained to a large extent by an issue which has made funding graduate study a vital element of one of the three key priorities of Oxford Thinking, the Campaign for the University of Oxford – namely, the funding gap.

Oxford is one of the world’s strongest research universities and graduate students are recognised as making a major contribution to that status. As the fundraising message to potential donors and benefactors explains: ‘High-quality graduate students help the University to attract and retain the best academics; they support academics in their work and inject new energy and perspectives into disciplinary debates.’ It is a view supported by academics across the University. Professor Tony Monaco at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, says: ‘My human genetics lab couldn’t make new discoveries in autism and dyslexia without the excellent graduate students that Oxford attracts. It’s one of the reasons I choose to be in a university, as opposed to a research institute.’

In 2008, Oxford had more than 7,000 graduate students. In fact, graduate numbers at Oxford have grown by 45 per cent over the past 10 years, and today graduates make up almost 40 per cent of the University’s students. Around two-thirds of these graduates join the University from more than 120 countries. They are attracted by Oxford’s reputation for offering world-class graduate training, the opportunity to work with the very best academics and to draw on the rich resources of the University’s libraries and museums and the cutting-edge facilities in its research laboratories. To this can be added the chance to benefit academically and socially from being part of the unique, multidisciplinary community of colleges.

Graduate students clearly enrich the academic and social life of the collegiate University. ‘Graduate students are an important part of every college community’, says Dr Frances Lannon, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall. ‘They bring real international character to our college, a noticeable maturity, and the dynamism you associate with bright minds pursuing key areas of research.’ As Gemma Wooden, studying for a DPhil in Physics at Jesus College, explains: ‘I really like the way the college system allows you to meet students from other academic backgrounds as I think this diversity complements my very focused research life’.

But attracting the best students is tough, and competition is intensifying, with universities in China, India and other emerging economies adding to the global challenge. ‘Oxford has to compete against private US universities and leading continental European universities where virtually all PhD students receive full funding’, explains Professor Ewan McKendrick, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education. ‘Currently, 60 per cent of doctoral students at Oxford are funded by full scholarships. Oxford’s 2007 survey analysed why 35 per cent of the international graduate students to whom the University made offers turned us down – insufficient funding was the single biggest reason.’

This is why, through the University’s fundraising campaign, Oxford has set itself a clear aim: to provide full funding packages covering all University and college fees, plus living costs, to the overwhelming majority of its doctoral students, as well as students taking Master’s courses as stepping stones to a doctorate. It is an ambitious objective, but one that the collegiate University recognises is vital if Oxford is to continue to attract the best. In today’s competitive job market, a graduate degree is increasingly needed to win the most sought-after positions. So it is crucial that the ability to study for a graduate degree should depend on academic merit alone, and not on a student’s background or financial circumstances.

Fortunately, many of the graduate students are successful in attracting funding. They may benefit from the University’s large share of UK Research Council studentships, although these are diminishing in number nationally. Significant benefactions have established prestigious funding programmes at Oxford, including the Rhodes, Weidenfeld and Clarendon Scholarships. Students who do benefit, like Mohammed Isaqzadeh, a current Clarendon scholar working on an MPhil in Development Studies, are clear about the difference it makes: ‘Being born into a poor family and having been raised in Afghanistan, studying in Oxford was something I did not even imagine in my dreams. I never thought that one day I would be pursuing my Master’s at the University of Oxford. It was the generosity of the donors of the Clarendon Scholarship which made this opportunity possible for me.’ His view is shared by Andrew di Battista, a current Clarendon scholar who also has funding from Wolfson College and is studying for a DPhil in Biomedical Engineering: ‘Postgraduate study is an expensive endeavour and adequate funding, in my experience, has always proven exceedingly difficult to find. I have always wanted to pursue PhD studies but, prior to the Clarendon Fund, this was a financial impossibility for me. I am well aware of how fortunate I am to be in my present position and what an enviable position that is.’

In making student support one of the three key fundraising priorities, the University will ensure the continued supply of top-quality graduate students to Oxford, which in turn will continue to contribute to the growth of the knowledge economy worldwide.