How to Fund a Dphil @ Oxford

[birdcamp]

A query for anyone who is already studying a Dphil at Oxford:

What are your funding sources? I have rejected a full ride from a Canadian university to work with one of the top people in my field at Oxford, but am now worried about how I am actually going to pay for it.

I'm aware of all the obvious funding sources for Canadians (i.e. Commonwealth, Rhodes, SSHRC, etc) but will not be receiving anything beyond a $20,000/year SSHRC (if that). I was wondering what the prospects were of actually receiving funding through the university, like through the colleges and whatnot.

Any advice or account of previous experience would be very helpful. Thanks!

[Ziz]

I'm currently doing my DPhil in politics at Oxford...I'm also waiting for my SSHRC result so don't even ahve that at the moment. There are scholarships at your college depending on which one you end up at...not much funding through the department and what funding there is is extremely untransparently allocated. There are 'bursaries' which are worth 2500 pounds but you have to work off a certain number of hours before they'll give you an installment so I haven't been paid since January becuase the department hasn't offered enough work. There are apparently studentships but I have no clue how anyone gets them because there has never been an ad or anything. Pretty much no additional funding offered by the university itself though other than Clarendon which you can only get upon first application not once you're already here.

[birdcamp]

^Ziz,

^{Thanks very much for your reply, though I won't lie - it kind of depressed me. I suppose my follow up question would be this: is studying at Oxford worth the crippling costs?}

[Ziz]

I think it's worth it to me, though you won't find that everyone agrees. When I looked at my options, I had 1 fully funded offer in Canada and 3 unfunded UK offers. This was partly my own doing for not applying more extensively in North America. So the real comparison for me was between the Oxford DPhil and the Canadian school. When I looked at it, I realized that if I came here my supervisor would be a top name in the field, was my number 1 choice, and that many of the other political theorists and philosophers here were interested in the same stuff I was. Since I've got here I've developed a great relationship with my supervisor, got a research assistant position with one of my academic idols and have had the opportunity to meet counltess 'big names' taht I would never have had the chance to do in Canada.

Now, in my situation it was clear that I woudl get more academically out of Oxford and would be a much better fit for me than the other school so that ended up outweighing some of my financial worries. On the other hand, i think if the two schools you're comparing are closer together academically, you should take a funded offer over Oxford.

[brownpride]

I'm worrying about the same thing too. Fellow Canadian here, and I turned down a fully funded MPP to enrol in Oxford's inaugural MPP this fall. Fees are 50k Canadian just for tuition, and I'm really wondering whether the experience and education are going to be worth the cost :/

[Ziz]

I'm worrying about the same thing too. Fellow Canadian here, and I turned down a fully funded MPP to enrol in Oxford's inaugural MPP this fall. Fees are 50k Canadian just for tuition, and I'm really wondering whether the experience and education are going to be worth the cost :/

I hope you enjoy your course at Oxford - I was involved with creating the reading list for one of the courses so I hope it's interesting!

[Burkis]

Yup, costs are certainly crippling I am applying again this year with the hope of securing funding this time around from a variety of sources.

[brownpride]

I hope you enjoy your course at Oxford - I was involved with creating the reading list for one of the courses so I hope it's interesting!

Really?! Which course?

[Ziz]

One of the "foundations" courses - the political philosophy/theory course.