Department of Education
Oxford has been a major contributor to the field of education for over 100 years and today the University’s Department of Education has a world class reputation for research, for teacher education and for its graduate courses.
Overview
The department combines international standing as a research-intensive department with the highest quality teaching. Its masters' courses are delivered by academics and research experts, the majority of whom are permanent staff engaged in their fields of research. The DPhil in Education has excellent facilities for the large number of full-time research students who are well integrated into the research of the department.
The department has an outstanding research profile. In the 2021 evaluation of research quality in British universities, the Research Excellence Framework (REF), Oxford University’s Department of Education had the highest overall percentage of research judged to be 4* (ie world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour) in Education in the UK.
The department has ESRC recognition for its graduate training, and its teacher training was rated ‘outstanding’ by the Office for Standards in Education (OfSTED) in its most recent inspection in 2024. A wide range of funded research projects are based in the department and many of these projects have had a major impact on national policy.
topCourses offered
The courses shown below are offered at postgraduate-level.
Social Science Division
The Social Sciences Division comprises the largest grouping of social sciences in the UK, home to fourteen outstanding departments, tackling some of the major challenges facing humanity in the 21st century.
Divisional overview
Oxford's Social Sciences departments are committed to research that develops a greater understanding of all aspects of our complex society, including cybercrime, economic and political turmoil, environmental change, inequality, legal systems, movement of people and social development.
This research is disseminated through a wide range of innovative graduate courses, many of which are recognised by the UK Research Councils and provide preparation for doctoral work, as well as being discrete programmes of advanced study in their own right; others provide a professional qualification.
The purpose-built Centre for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, adjacent to the Faculty of Law houses the Department of Economics, the Department of Politics and International Relations and the Bodleian Social Science Library, providing exceptional facilities for master's and research students. All are rooted in research of international standing and students have access to a well-resourced, active research environment. The division also includes the Saïd Business School and the Blavatnik School of Government.
As one of the major providers of social science research in the UK, the University, in collaboration with Brunel University of London and The Open University, hosts the Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership, one of fifteen Doctoral Training Partnerships accredited by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of a Doctoral Training Network. ESRC DTP studentships are available in a wide variety of training pathways in the social sciences, for both DPhil and master's-to-DPhil programmes.