oxford history phds

Graduate Admissions

Graduate Programme Q&A

Friday 15th November

To study history at Oxford at a graduate level gives you the chance to stretch your knowledge from c. 300 BCE. to the present and embraces, in addition to its British and European heritage, an exceptionally broad range of World history. The Faculty houses a research community of up to 800 senior academics and graduate students, all contributing to a varied menu of research seminars, lectures, academic societies, and other events which cover a wide range of topics.

Graduates are encouraged to make use of these opportunities as widely as possible. Striking the right balance between intellectual curiosity and discipline, and remaining focused without becoming blinkered, is an integral part of a successful graduate career. The Oxford environment provides all the ingredients for you to develop these skills while engaging fruitfully with others in the field.

All graduate students have an academic supervisor (or sometimes two or more co-supervisors) with expertise in relevant areas, to help you identify and acquire the knowledge and skills you need to complete your research. You don’t need to find your own supervisor before you apply.

We admit about 250 graduate students each year, with an overall equal gender balance. Approximately half of our graduate students are from beyond the UK, and about 20% of the annual intake receive university funding.

The Faculty offers a range of taught graduate courses (Masters) as well as three research-based DPhil options.

Getting in Touch

The Faculty and University pages should give you the information you need before applying, and guide you through the application process – please do read them thoroughly!

If you have a question that’s not covered, please email [email protected]

Faculty of History

Medieval and modern history has been studied at Oxford for longer than at almost any other university: a Regius Professor of Modern History was first appointed in 1724, and undergraduate examinations began in 1850.

The History Faculty has more than 90 permanent academic staff. Of these, 15 are statutory Professors, or Readers. The majority of permanent academic staff, are joint appointees whose teaching responsibilities encompass both the Faculty and the individual college of appointment.

 The Faculty also encompasses at any one time a number of historians employed by colleges – College Lecturers and short-term Junior Research Fellows – as well as those on fixed-term employment with the Faculty: Departmental Lecturers providing teaching for postholders on research leave, and research assistants on funded research projects. Its wider membership includes colleagues in a number of other faculties and departments across the University who work as historians or in closely cognate disciplines.

The University of Oxford is one of the world's most encompassing centres for the study of history. The faculty has nearly twelve hundred undergraduates, and almost five hundred graduate students attracted from around the world.

Teaching and Research Showcase

Podcast: the english people at war in the age of henry viii.

In this history lecture series Professor Stephen Gunn look at the effects of war on the people of England in the 1500s. This lecture series was recorded in Hilary Term 2015 and is part of the annual James Ford Lectures in British History series at the Examination Schools in Oxford University.

More podcasts relating to the Faculty of History

Book: Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet (Lyndal Roper, 2016)

When Martin Luther nailed a sheet of paper to the church door of a small university town on 31 October 1517, he set off a process that changed the Western world for ever.

Luther’s ideas spread like wildfire. His attack on the Church soon convulsed Germany, divided Europe and polarised people’s beliefs. They triggered decades of religious persecution, social unrest and war. And in the long run, his ideas paradoxically helped break the grip of religion in every sphere of life.

But the man who started the Reformation was deeply flawed. He was a religious fundamentalist, a Jew-hater and a political reactionary. He was a fervent believer who was tormented by doubt, a brilliant writer who shaped the German language and a vicious and foul-mouthed polemicist. He was a married ex-monk who liberated human sexuality from the stigma of sin, but also a man who insisted that women should know their place. For him the Devil was not just a figure of speech but a very real and physical presence. 

In this first historical biography for many decades, distinguished historian Lyndal Roper gives us a flesh-and-blood figure, warts and all. She reveals the often contradictory psychological forces that drove Luther forward – insecurity and self-righteousness, anger and humility – and the dynamics they unleashed which turned a small act of protest into a battle against the power of the Church.

More publications from the Faculty of History

Project Centre: The Global History Centre

The Oxford Centre for Global History was established by the History Faculty in June 2011 to reflect its strong commitment to the field. Global History in Oxford is defined broadly as the global movement of people, goods, and ideas and the consequences that flow from them. Chronologically, it extends across all historical periods from ancient to late modern.

The Centre is particularly keen to encourage cooperation between historians of different periods, as well as places, in the study of themes of global significance. It will support research projects, and host workshops, seminars, and conferences. A key part of the Centre’s role is to facilitate the research of all those in Oxford who are keen to develop a global history dimension in their work. 

http://global.history.ox.ac.uk

More recent research projects and centres from the Faculty of History

For more information, visit the History Faculty website

Undergraduate courses

University website

Graduate courses

Link to faculty website

Academic staff

Artistic License

Doctoral: DPhil in HSM

Dphil in history of science and medicine.

The DPhil is an advanced research degree, awarded on the basis of a thesis and an oral examination. The thesis will be based on extensive original research and engagement with current scholarship. DPhil students are expected to submit their thesis three, or at most four, years from the date of admission. 

All research students in the Oxford History Faculty benefit from the advice of a specialist supervisor or supervisors, and all are encouraged to take advantage of the wide range of expertise available within the Faculty and the University more widely.  

As a DPhil student, you will have many opportunities to present your work and to share ideas through the Faculty’s wide and varied range of research seminars. You are also encouraged to gain valuable experience by establishing and convening your own networks and workshops. DPhil students in the History Faculty may also gain experience in teaching and lecturing through the Introduction to Teaching scheme.

• DPhil in the History of Science and Medicine

Doctoral Funding

Alongside Arts and Humanities Research Council scholarships, applicants who submit by the January deadline will also be considered for Oxford Clarendon Scholarships , and applicants are also eligible to apply for Ertegun Scholarships in the Humanities .  Applicants may need to provide further details to be eligible for a number of specific scholarships for research degrees in History .  Wellcome Studentships are also available to applicants in the area of medical humanities.

Teaching and research in history of art at the University of Oxford is carried out by a core staff of academics, all based in the dedicated facilities of the Department of History of Art, and also by a much larger number of associated academic staff, who are based in Faculties, Departments, Museums and Colleges throughout the University. 

Intellectual History

This strand of our  one-year MSt or two-year MPhil in History  is the equivalent of a free-standing Master’s in the intellectual history. For more details on the organisation of these programmes, click the links above.

This strand offers a uniquely inter-disciplinary approach to Intellectual History, and one with chronological and global reach. Graduate students have the opportunity to study thinkers and ideas from the fourth to the twenty-first centuries, in diverse transnational geographical contexts. The course is designed to encourage students to work in and between areas such as Global Intellectual History, the History of Scholarship, the History of Science, the History of Art, Historiography and the History of Political Ideas, to name but a few of the many areas of specialism available. In the strand’s core course students will have the opportunity to experience and to combine a variety of approaches to Intellectual History in creative and innovative ways, and in doing so help to shape the future of this dynamic and exciting field. The MSt can be taken either as a free-standing degree course or as the first step towards doctoral study.

Oxford is home to one of the largest communities of intellectual historians in the world, with expertise in every major area of Intellectual History. These scholars are supported by world-class libraries ( the Bodleian , the major resource for intellectual historians), museums (the Ashmolean Museum and the Museum of the History of Science ), centres, institutes and dedicated Intellectual History lecture series (the Berlin and Carlyle Lectures), and are engaged in exciting projects to create major digital resources in the field ( Cultures of Knowledge ).

Course Organisation

Alongside the  Theory and Methods  course, students spend their first term studying  Sources and Historiography . This course, taught across eight seminars, will offer an introduction to the philosophical background and methodological approaches to Intellectual History. Students study a combination of key thinkers (central figures might include, for example Michel Foucault, Arthur Lovejoy and Quentin Skinner) and new approaches to the discipline (eg. comparative, feminist and global intellectual history).                   

Meanwhile, in the  ‘Skills’  component of the course, you will be able to learn a language – such as Latin, French, German, Italian, Spanish and many more. You can take dedicated Languages for Historians classes, specifically targeted to the needs of History scholars. You will be able to learn palaeography so that you can read manuscript and archival source materials. We have some of the most advanced digital humanities resources in the country, and you will be able to acquire the technical skills you need. You can also work on manuscripts and books with the guidance of leading scholars.

In the second term, students take one of a wide portfolio of  Option  courses.  Those particularly relevant to the intellectual history typically include:

The Twelfth-Century Renaissance

The Twelfth-Century Renaissance is an interdisciplinary paper in intellectual history designed to give students a broad overview of the content and applications of learning in the twelfth century. It therefore covers a wide range of different curricular subjects from the perspective both of their sources (the classical textual tradition of ninth-century learning; the impact of newly translated texts; the consequences of personal contact with Muslim and Jewish scholars in Sicily and the Iberian peninsula; the influence of empirical discovery) and of their application through cathedral schools and royal courts to society at large. The course comprises eight classes, organised around the seven liberal arts (the trivium and the quadrivium) and the three higher faculties of the medieval schools. 

The dawn of the global world, 1450-1800: Ideas, objects, connections

The ‘globalization’ of history has been the most visible and significant development in historical scholarship of the past decade or so. Historians are increasingly aware of the need to place their work in a context that spills over national, regional, or civilizational boundaries. Some of the most exciting work has emerged from probing the global dimensions of the ‘early modern period’ before the rise of European world domination. This course will introduce the two principal methodologies involved in doing this new large-scale history – the connective and the comparative – through a series of seminars led by one European historian and a different specialist in cultures outside of Europe each week. In pursuit of the connective we will consider what happened when Europeans began to traverse the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and became entangled in a newly diverse range of societies. For example, what kind of architecture resulted when Portuguese ecclesiastical styles were transplanted to the tropics? Other weeks will take a more comparative approach. Considering the way in which Chinese intellectuals turned to classical texts in formulating ‘Neo-Confucianism’, for example, should help us see the over-familiar European themes of Renaissance and Reformation in a new light.

Selfhood in history: 1500 to the present

How have people understood the self in the past? How have they conceptualized emotions? Is there a self before 1700? How do different cultures conceive of the self and how do they understand spirituality? What is the relation between the individual self and the collective? This course seeks to understand ways of approaching the self and psychology in different times and places. It also seeks to explore ways of incorporating subjectivity and emotions of people in the past in how we write history; and to question the sociological, collective categories of analysis that historians often employ. Each session will take a particular example of a cultural context and explore how historians could write the history of subjectivity. The sessions will draw on different types of source material – diaries, letters, visual sources, material objects, travel writing, memoirs, court records, micro-historical material, oral history – and consider the problems and possibilities they offer. Four of the sessions will be on the early modern period; four will be on the modern period; however, in their assessed essay, students may concentrate on either the early modern or the modern period. The course deliberately bridges the early modern and the modern because the historiography itself does. This enables productive comparisons. 

Creating the Commonwealth: Politics and Religion in Grotius, Hobbes and Locke

Creating the Commonwealth looks at the intersection of religion and politics in the work of three of the most important early modern intellectuals: Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. The course begins with an examination of Grotius’s approach to the problems of religious and political division within Europe and the challenges brought by Dutch expansion in the New World. Grotius argued that political communities could be built upon principles which all human beings held in common, while allowing scope for different kinds of churches and religious groups. We will consider how he made this case, drawing upon classical, historical and religious arguments. Hobbes was a follower of the Grotian project, in that he recognised the foundational importance of natural law principles. But Hobbes was also critical of the thought that the Grotian scheme might be sustainable without a radical reconstruction of the natural law ideas that Grotius had proposed, and in the seminars on Hobbes we examine the character of his controversial response in De cive and Leviathan. Turning finally to Locke, we examine a thinker dealing with the legacy of the ideas of Grotius and Hobbes, and examine the ways that he sought to mediate their influence in the political theory of the Two Treatises of Government and his powerful work on religious toleration. Studying these three thinkers together reveals the dialogical features of some of the most important texts in the western intellectual tradition, and casts new light upon some of the ideas regarded as foundational to modern political thinking.

The Enlightenment, c. 1680-1800: Ideas and the public sphere

This option offers the opportunity to engage with a range of exciting new scholarship on the Enlightenment, covering the period from the second half of the seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth century. It takes inspiration from recent rebuttals of the postmodern critique of the ‘Enlightenment project’, and addresses the subject in comparative and transnational perspective. We shall cover Enlightenment both as an intellectual movement and as a social phenomenon, examining how thinkers across Europe engaged with new publics. For the first four weeks we shall explore the major interpretative issues now facing Enlightenment historians, including:

• the coherence of Enlightenment – whether we should think in terms of one Enlightenment or several;
• the importance and duration of ‘radical’, irreligious Enlightenment;
• the relation between Enlightenment, the republic of letters, and the ‘public sphere’;
• the politics of Enlightenment: public opinion, reform, and revolution.

During the second half of the course, participants will be encouraged to set their own more precise study agenda, related to the topics of their course papers. They may explore in more detail the intellectual content of Enlightenment, its various contexts, its social framework, and its impact, within and across national and political frontiers. Topics which might be studied at this stage are:

• Enlightenment contributions to natural philosophy, and the ‘arts and sciences’;
• the Enlightenment ‘science of man’, as pursued in philosophy and political economy;
• writing sacred, civil and natural history in the Enlightenment;
• women, gender and Enlightenment.

Participants will also be encouraged to attend the research-oriented Enlightenment Workshop, which meets weekly in Hilary Term.

Faculty and Research Culture

The Faculty and University have particular strengths in Global Intellectual History, Historiography, the History of Art and Culture, the History of Political Thought, the History of Religion, the History of Scholarship and the History of Science.  We have a very lively research culture, with seminars involving leading international scholars just about every day of the week. The History Faculty is home to the major international project Cultures of Knowledge: Networking the Republic of Letters 1550-1750 , and has close links with the Voltaire Foundation .

Faculty postholders working in relevant fields include:

Early Modern

See all their websites for more details of their research interests, and for the full range of topics on which they would be interested in supervising graduate students, only partially captured by the brief descriptions above.

Faculty seminars bring together staff, doctoral and master’s students working in the field, to hear speakers including doctoral students, external and internal to the university.

Seminars relating to this strand include: 

• The Early Modern Intellectual History Seminar
• The Enlightenment Workshop
• The Historiography Seminar
• The History of Pre-Modern Science Seminar
• History of Science, Medicine and Technology Seminar
• History of the Exact Sciences Seminar
• The Oxford Political Thought Seminar
• The Relation of Literature and Learning to Social Hierarchy in Early Modern Europe

Admissions Questions

We normally take about  8  MSt students and  one or two  MPhil students in this area, but numbers vary from year to year and we are able to be flexible.  If you have any questions about our admissions procedure, please check the  University admissions pages  and/or contact  Graduate Admissions . You can also contact any of the academics in your relevant area of study. You can filter the Academics page  by period, region or specialism. 

MPhil in History (US History)

• Entry Requirements
• Funding and Costs

College preference

• How to Apply

About the course

The MPhil in History (US History) will immerse you in the historiography and current debates in American history and provide you with rigorous training in historical research, writing and argumentation.

The MPhil has a sustained period devoted to archival research and writing, and is designed to give you a thorough training in historical research, improve your ability to conceptualise and engage with historical problems, and enlarge your understanding of the historical and historiographical context in which your own research is set. The course can serve as either a free-standing graduate qualification, or as a springboard to doctoral study. Students wishing to proceed to doctoral study will be encouraged to develop their doctoral proposals during the first few months of the second year. Skills training and option-choice are flexible and open-ended, to allow you to gain the knowledge and training needed to complete your research project. 

Ranging from the emergence of Native America to the history of the present, the course allows you to discover the richness and dynamism of past and contemporary American historical writing and develop intellectual familiarity with advanced research in American history. In addition to emphasising the unique intellectual and methodological contributions driven by the American historical profession, this course emphasises American history’s openness to inter-disciplinarity and to global intellectual currents that have shaped the discipline of history as a whole. This deep historiographical grounding equips you to undertake your own research design and master the long-term development of historical writing in the field of American history.

American history in Oxford covers a wide range of specialities from Native American history to the history of capitalism, including intellectual, borderlands, and environmental history. Oxford is also host to the Harmsworth Visiting Professorship and the Rothermere American Institute. Further information about US History research and activities can be found through the Faculty website.

All graduate students are encouraged to engage with the faculty’s lively research culture of seminars, workshops, and discussions groups . There’s something happening nearly every day of the week and sessions often involve leading international scholars. The faculty also runs the Oxford History Graduate Network , which fosters conversation and collaboration between graduate students. Interdisciplinary activities are available through The Oxford Centre for Research in the Humanities (TORCH) .

Course structure

You will take three compulsory core papers and two optional papers, as well as undertake an original research project. There is also a research masterclass, which is not assessed. This structure gives access to a wide range of both general and specialised training within the field of history.

Core courses

1. Sources and Historiography

This is a weekly 1.5 hour seminar in Michaelmas term of the first year. The seminars cover the major developments in historical writing from the professionalisation of the discipline at the start of the 20th century through to the end of the century, focusing in particular on recent developments and debates. The seminars also include sessions on bibliography, primary sources and planning the dissertation.

2. Theory and Methods

The format is a 1.5 hour weekly seminar in Michaelmas term of the first year. It will cover current methodological and theoretical approaches. Students and course tutors will choose six of these from a syllabus of nine. 

3. Writing History

This is a weekly class in Trinity term of the first year exclusively for MPhil students, with all MPhil students taught in one or two classes. The classes range widely across history and involve critical reading and thinking about published work.

4. Research Master Class

Taught in weekly classes in Michaelmas term of the second year, during which students present and receive feedback on their work. 

Optional subject course

A free choice of the options on offer taught in six weekly classes during Hilary term of the first and second year. Options of particular interest to US history include:

• Black Women in the Anglo-American Atlantic World, 1600-1850
• US Religion Abroad

More information on options is available through the faculty website. Not every optional subject listed may be on offer every year.

Research Project

You will work on original research project throughout both years, under the guidance of your supervisor. You are expected to commit the summer vacation between the two years and the Michaelmas term of the second year to archival research.

Recent topics of MSt and MPhil research have included:

• Revival as Ritual: Old and New Perspectives on American Revivalism, 1800-1865
• Oppression or Free-Will: The Structuralisation and Historiography of Female Agency in the Mormon Church in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century
• The Paranoid Style is “back”. Did it ever go away?

More details of core and optional papers are available on the course webpage of the faculty's website (see the Further information and enquiries section for further details). 

Skills Provision

Additional lectures, classes, and tutorials take place in Michaelmas and Hilary terms to provide general and specific training. You will discuss what training you need to undertake your research project with your supervisor. Training available includes document and object handling, palaeography, oral history, text analysis software, GIS software, and statistical analysis.  Language training is also available, with the Faculty organising special courses for historians in French, German, Spanish, and Italian. Other modern language courses are available through the University’s Language Centre. Courses in Latin and other medieval languages are also available. Further details on language learning can be found on the faculty website.

The course is full-time and requires attendance in Oxford. Full-time students are subject to the University's Residence requirements.

Resources to support your study

As a graduate student, you will have access to the University's wide range of world-class resources including libraries, museums, galleries, digital resources and IT services.

The Bodleian Libraries is the largest library system in the UK. It includes the main Bodleian Library and libraries across Oxford, including major research libraries and faculty, department and institute libraries. Together, the Libraries hold more than 13 million printed items, provide access to e-journals, and contain outstanding special collections including rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri, maps, music, art and printed ephemera.

The University's IT Services is available to all students to support with core university IT systems and tools, as well as many other services and facilities. IT Services also offers a range of IT learning courses for students, to support with learning and research.

You will be able to draw on the specialist resources offered by the Bodleian History Faculty Library which provides dedicated support and training courses for all graduates. You can also access the many college libraries and college archives which house significant collections of personal papers as well as institutional records dating back to the middle ages.

Supervision

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Faculty of History and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Offers will only be made if appropriate supervision is available.

It is usual practice that MPhil students have one supervisor, but a co-supervisor will be appointed if additional specialist knowledge is required. One supervisor must be a member of the Faculty of History, but a co-supervisor can be appointed from a different department.

Your supervisor(s) is there to provide advice, guidance, and support throughout. You should arrange to meet your supervisor(s) early in your first term to establish a clear framework for your research and writing, and identify any skills training needed to undertake your research. There is no set timetable for the frequency of future meetings, but it is recommended that you arrange to meet your supervisor several times each term, to discuss progress of your research and writing. You should also agree a timetable for the submission and return of drafts of your dissertation.

If you contact a potential supervisor prior to submitting your application, any indication made by an academic that they may be willing to supervise a potential project, is not a guarantee that you will be offered a place, or that the supervisor in question has capacity to supervise you in that particular year.

The Sources and Historiography and the Theory and Methods core courses are examined by an assessed essay submitted at the end of Michaelmas term of year one. You must also submit an annotated bibliography and dissertation proposal at this time. The optional subjects will be examined according to the regulations governing the course, which could be by assessed essay or by examination, at the end of Hilary term in years one and two. The Writing History core course is examined by an assessed essay submitted at the end of Trinity term of year one.  The research project is examined by a 30,000-word dissertation that is submitted in week six of Trinity term of year two.

Graduate destinations

About a quarter of master’s students proceed to doctoral work at Oxford; others continue academic study at other institutions. Other career destinations are as diverse as, but broadly in line with, undergraduate history career destinations: law, finance, management consultancy, civil service etc.

Changes to this course and your supervision

The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made if a pandemic, epidemic or local health emergency occurs. In addition, in certain circumstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.

Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include illness, sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.

For further information please see our page on changes to courses and the provisions of the student contract regarding changes to courses.

Entry requirements for entry in 2025-26

Proven and potential academic excellence.

The requirements described below are specific to this course and apply only in the year of entry that is shown. You can use our interactive tool to help you  evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive .

Please be aware that any studentships that are linked to this course may have different or additional requirements and you should read any studentship information carefully before applying. 

Degree-level qualifications

As a minimum, applicants should hold or be predicted to achieve the following UK qualifications or their equivalent:

• a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours (a minimum of 68% overall and 68% for the dissertation) in a relevant discipline in the humanities or social sciences.

For applicants with a bachelor's degree from the USA, the minimum overall GPA that is normally required to meet the undergraduate-level requirement is 3.6 out of 4.0. However, successful candidates normally have a GPA of 3.75 or higher.

Applicants are not expected to have a previous degree in history, but are expected to have experience of working historically. You will need to ensure that you link your proposed dissertation topic with your previous expertise, explain why you want to switch to study history, and show that you have already done some background research. Your submitted written work should show your writing and research skills in their best light, as it will be important to show that you have the necessary skills required for historical research.

If your degree is not from the UK or another country specified above, visit our International Qualifications page for guidance on the qualifications and grades that would usually be considered to meet the University’s minimum entry requirements.

GRE General Test scores

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience

• In the case of mature students/intended career changes professional experience in cognate areas may compensate for shortcomings in the formal academic record.
• Publications are not required.

English language proficiency

This course requires proficiency in English at the University's  higher level . If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence that you meet this requirement. The minimum scores required to meet the University's higher level are detailed in the table below.

*Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English or Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) † Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)

Your test must have been taken no more than two years before the start date of your course. Our Application Guide provides  further information about the English language test requirement .

Declaring extenuating circumstances

If your ability to meet the entry requirements has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (eg you were awarded an unclassified/ungraded degree) or any other exceptional personal circumstance (eg other illness or bereavement), please refer to the guidance on extenuating circumstances in the Application Guide for information about how to declare this so that your application can be considered appropriately.

You will need to register three referees who can give an informed view of your academic ability and suitability for the course. The  How to apply  section of this page provides details of the types of reference that are required in support of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Supporting documents

You will be required to supply supporting documents with your application. The  How to apply  section of this page provides details of the supporting documents that are required as part of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Performance at interview

Interviews are not normally held as part of the admissions process.

Assessors may get in touch with an applicant by email in case of any queries, but this is very rare.

Offer conditions for successful applications

If you receive an offer of a place at Oxford, your offer will outline any conditions that you need to satisfy and any actions you need to take, together with any associated deadlines. These may include academic conditions, such as achieving a specific final grade in your current degree course. These conditions will usually depend on your individual academic circumstances and may vary between applicants. Our ' After you apply ' pages provide more information about offers and conditions . 

In addition to any academic conditions which are set, you will also be required to meet the following requirements:

Financial Declaration

If you are offered a place, you will be required to complete a  Financial Declaration  in order to meet your financial condition of admission.

Disclosure of criminal convictions

In accordance with the University’s obligations towards students and staff, we will ask you to declare any  relevant, unspent criminal convictions  before you can take up a place at Oxford.

Other factors governing whether places can be offered

The following factors will also govern whether candidates can be offered places:

• the ability of the University to provide the appropriate supervision for your studies, as outlined under the 'Supervision' heading in the About section of this page;
• the ability of the University to provide appropriate support for your studies (eg through the provision of facilities, resources, teaching and/or research opportunities); and
• minimum and maximum limits to the numbers of students who may be admitted to the University's taught and research programmes.

History in Oxford stretches from c 300 to the present, and embraces in addition to its British and European heritage an exceptionally broad range of World history. It comprises an active research community of up to 800 senior academics and graduate students, all contributing to a range of research seminars, lectures, academic societies, and personal contacts.

Research in the faculty is organised around historical periods and research centres, or in collaborative and individual research projects, and you will always be welcome at seminars, workshops and conferences across all periods and themes.

You will be encouraged to make use of these opportunities as widely as possible without endangering your own degree work. Striking the right balance between intellectual curiosity and temptation and intellectual discipline, and remaining focused without becoming blinkered, should be an integral part of a successful graduate career. The Oxford environment provides all the ingredients for this.

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For entry in the 2025-26 academic year, the collegiate University expects to offer over 1,000 full or partial graduate scholarships across a wide range of graduate courses.

If you apply by the January deadline shown on this page and receive a course offer, your application will then be considered for Oxford scholarships. For the majority of Oxford scholarships, your application will automatically be assessed against the eligibility criteria, without needing to make a separate application. There are further Oxford scholarships available which have additional eligibility criteria and where you are required to submit a separate application. Most scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and/or potential.

To ensure that you are considered for Oxford scholarships that require a separate application, for which you may be eligible,  use our fees, funding and scholarship search tool  to identify these opportunities and find out how to apply. Alongside Oxford scholarships, you should also consider other opportunities for which you may be eligible including  a range of external funding ,  loan schemes for postgraduate study  and any other scholarships which may also still be available after the January deadline as listed on  our fees, funding and scholarship search tool .

Details of college-specific funding opportunities can also be found on individual college websites:

Select from the list:

Please refer to the College preference section of this page to identify which of the colleges listed above accept students for this course.

For the majority of college scholarships, it doesn’t matter which college, if any, you state a preference for in your application. If another college is able to offer you a scholarship, your application can be moved to that college if you accept the scholarship. Some college scholarships may require you to state a preference for that college when you apply, so check the eligibility requirements carefully.

Further information about funding opportunities  for this course can be found on the faculty's website.

Annual fees for entry in 2025-26

Information about course fees.

Course fees are payable each year, for the duration of your fee liability (your fee liability is the length of time for which you are required to pay course fees). For courses lasting longer than one year, please be aware that fees will usually increase annually. For details, please see our guidance on changes to fees and charges .

Course fees cover your teaching as well as other academic services and facilities provided to support your studies. Unless specified in the additional information section below, course fees do not cover your accommodation, residential costs or other living costs. They also don’t cover any additional costs and charges that are outlined in the additional information below.

Where can I find further information about fees?

The Fees and Funding  section of this website provides further information about course fees , including information about fee status and eligibility  and your length of fee liability .

Additional information

There are no compulsory elements of this course that entail additional costs beyond fees and living costs. However, as part of your course requirements, you may need to choose a dissertation, a project or a thesis topic. Please note that, depending on your choice of topic and the research required to complete it, you may incur additional expenses, such as travel expenses, research expenses, and field trips. You will need to meet these additional costs, although you may be able to apply for small grants from your department and/or college to help you cover some of these expenses.

Living costs

In addition to your course fees and any additional course-specific costs, you will need to ensure that you have adequate funds to support your living costs for the duration of your course.

Living costs for full-time study

For the 2025-26 academic year, the range of likely living costs for a single, full-time student is between £1,425 and £2,035 for each month spent in Oxford. We provide the cost per month so you can multiply up by the number of months you expect to live in Oxford. Depending on your circumstances, you may also need to budget for the  costs of a student visa and immigration health surcharge and/or living costs for family members or other dependants that you plan to bring with you to Oxford (assuming that dependant visa eligibility criteria are met).

Further information about living costs

The current economic climate and high national rate of inflation make it very hard to estimate potential changes to the cost of living over the next few years. For study in Oxford beyond the 2025-26 academic year, it is suggested that you budget for potential increases in living expenses of around 4% each year – although this rate may vary depending on the national economic situation. For further information, please consult our more detailed information about living costs , which includes a breakdown of likely living costs in Oxford for items such as food, accommodation and study costs.

Students enrolled on this course will belong to both a department/faculty and a college. Please note that ‘college’ and ‘colleges’ refers to all 43 of the University’s colleges, including those designated as societies and permanent private halls (PPHs). 

If you apply for a place on this course you will have the option to express a preference for one of the colleges listed below, or you can ask us to find a college for you. Before deciding, we suggest that you read our brief  introduction to the college system at Oxford  and our  advice about expressing a college preference . 

If you are a current Oxford student and you would like to remain at your current Oxford college, you should check whether it is listed below. If it is, you should indicate this preference when you apply. If not, you should contact your college office to ask whether they would be willing to make an exception. Further information about staying at your current college can be found in our Application Guide. 

The following colleges accept students for the MPhil in History (US History):

• Balliol College
• Blackfriars
• Brasenose College
• Campion Hall
• Christ Church
• Corpus Christi College
• Harris Manchester College
• Hertford College
• Jesus College
• Keble College
• Kellogg College
• Lady Margaret Hall
• Linacre College
• Lincoln College
• Magdalen College
• Mansfield College
• Merton College
• New College
• Oriel College
• Pembroke College
• The Queen's College
• Regent's Park College
• Reuben College
• St Anne's College
• St Antony's College
• St Catherine's College
• St Cross College
• St Edmund Hall
• St Hilda's College
• St Hugh's College
• St John's College
• St Peter's College
• Somerville College
• Trinity College
• University College
• Wadham College
• Wolfson College
• Worcester College
• Wycliffe Hall

Before you apply

Our guide to getting started provides general advice on how to prepare for and start your application. You can use our interactive tool to help you evaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive .

If it is important for you to have your application considered under a particular deadline – eg under the January deadline in order to be considered for Oxford scholarships – we recommend that you aim to complete and submit your application at least two weeks in advance . Check the deadlines on this page and the information about deadlines and when to apply in our Application Guide.

Application fee waivers

An application fee of £75 is payable for each application to this course. Application fee waivers are available for the following applicants who meet the eligibility criteria:

• applicants from low-income countries;
• refugees and displaced persons; 
• UK applicants from low-income backgrounds; and 
• applicants who applied for our Graduate Access Programmes in the past two years and met the eligibility criteria.

You are encouraged to  check whether you're eligible for an application fee waiver  before you apply.

Do I need to contact anyone before I apply?

You do not need to contact anyone in the faculty before you apply and you are not responsible for finding your own supervisor. However, you are strongly encouraged to familiarise yourself with the  research expertise within the faculty  when preparing your research proposal, to make sure that there is a supervisor available in the same area as your proposed project. Offers will only be made if appropriate supervision is available. The faculty determines supervision arrangements, taking due account of the workload and commitments of its academics. If you are made an offer, a supervisor will be assigned to you, and identified in the offer letter.

Completing your application

You should refer to the information below when completing the application form, paying attention to the specific requirements for the supporting documents .

For this course, the application form will include questions that collect information that would usually be included in a CV/résumé. You should not upload a separate document. If a separate CV/résumé is uploaded, it will be removed from your application .

If any document does not meet the specification, including the stipulated word count, your application may be considered incomplete and not assessed by the academic department. Expand each section to show further details.

Proposed field and title of research project

Under the 'Field and title of research project' please enter your proposed field or area of research if this is known. If the department has advertised a specific research project that you would like to be considered for, please enter the project title here instead.

You should not use this field to type out a full research proposal. You will be able to upload your research supporting materials separately if they are required (as described below).

Proposed supervisor

It is not necessary for you to identify a potential supervisor in your application.

However, please check that a supervisor with expertise in your proposed area of research is available before applying. Details can be found on the faculty website. You are free to consult a specialist in your field for advice on your project, if you think that would be helpful.

Referees: Three overall, academic preferred

Whilst you must register three referees, the department may start the assessment of your application if two of the three references are submitted by the course deadline and your application is otherwise complete. Please note that you may still be required to ensure your third referee supplies a reference for consideration.

References should generally be academic, though if you are returning to study after extended periods of non-academic employment then you are welcome to nominate professional referees where it would be impractical to call on your previous university tutors.

Your references will support intellectual ability, academic achievement, motivation, ability to work in both a group environment and sustained individual and self-motivated investigation.

Official transcript(s)

Your transcripts should give detailed information of the individual grades received in your university-level qualifications to date. You should only upload official documents issued by your institution and any transcript not in English should be accompanied by a certified translation.

More information about the transcript requirement is available in the Application Guide.

Statement of purpose and research proposal: A minimum of 500 to a maximum of 1,000 words in total

The statement of purpose and research proposal should be written as one combined piece.

You should convince the faculty that you have the right intellectual qualities, academic knowledge and skills to undertake the course, focusing on how you see the course as building upon your previous study

You should discuss what kinds of problems and issues you hope to engage with; what the current state of your knowledge and understanding of these is, and how you hope to advance that.

You should include a preliminary research proposal and title for your intended dissertation. This should supply a research question identifying the central issue or problem with which you intend to grapple, some account of the current state of scholarship in this area and an indication of the kinds of sources you hope to use.

You may also include what you hope to do with the qualification you gain.

Your statement and research proposal must be written in English. A bibliography may also be provided and is not included in the word count, though any footnotes should be included.

If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.

It is anticipated that your ideas will change and develop once you have begun the course and have been exposed to new approaches, sources and methods. However, students applying to this course are expected to have a clear sense of the kind of research they wish to undertake.

This will be assessed for:

• your reasons for applying
• evidence of motivation for and understanding of the proposed area of study
• the coherence of the proposal, the ability to present a reasoned case in English
• commitment to the subject, beyond the requirements of the degree course
• reasoning ability
• ability to absorb new ideas, often presented abstractly, at a rapid pace.

Written work: An academic writing sample of no more than 4,000 words in total length

Written work should be from your most recent completed qualification, but does not need to relate closely to your proposed area of study. Extracts from a longer piece of work are welcome, but please include a preface which puts the work in context.

The work will be assessed for your:

• understanding of problems in the area
• ability to construct and defend an argument
• powers of analysis
• powers of expression.

It must be submitted in English (if this work has been translated, you must indicate if the translations are your own, or what assistance you had in producing the English text).

If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document. Any footnotes should be included in the word count. A bibliography may also be provided and is not included in the word count.

Start or continue your application

You can start or return to an application using the relevant link below. As you complete the form, please  refer to the requirements above  and  consult our Application Guide for advice .

Apply Continue application

After you've submitted your application

Your application (including the supporting documents outlined above) will be assessed against the entry requirements detailed on this course page. Whether or not you have secured funding will  not  be taken into consideration when your application is assessed. You can  find out more about our shortlisting and selection process  in our detailed guide to what happens next.

Find out how to manage your application after submission , using our Applicant Self-Service tool.

ADMISSION STATUS

Open to applications for entry in 2025-26

12:00 midday UK time on:

Tuesday 7 January 2025

Latest deadline for most Oxford scholarships Final application deadline for entry in 2025-26

† Combined figure for all History MPhil courses, except for TP_HN1, TP_HS1 and TP_LVBY1 *Three-year average (applications for entry in 2022-23 to 2024-25)

Further information and enquiries

This course is offered by the Faculty of History

• Course page on the faculty's website
• Funding information from the faculty
• Academic and research staff
• Faculty research
• Humanities Division
• Residence requirements for full-time courses
• Postgraduate applicant privacy policy

Course-related enquiries

Advice about contacting the department can be found in the How to apply section of this page

✉ [email protected] ☎ +44 (0) 1865 615000

Application-process enquiries

Application guide