DPIR
DPIR receives the highest rankings for Politics in UK and international university guide subject league tables and is top-ranked in national research and teaching assessments. We pride ourselves on the theoretical pluralism and intellectual breadth of our large faculty of first-rate academics.
The University of Oxford
Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. It combines the best of history with contemporary thinking, offering outstanding facilities, such as the Bodleian Library, and all the benefits of College life.
You can find out more about Graduate Student life at Oxford via this section of the University website, which covers welfare and support, families and childcare, sport, arts and societies, and other topics.
Facilities
DPIR sits within a purpose-built Social Sciences Building, the Manor Road Building, which houses the Social Sciences Library, Seminar Rooms and Lecture Rooms, Meeting Rooms and other spaces for Graduate Students. There is a kitchen offering free tea and coffee for DPIR graduate students, and a café serving meals during term time.
DPIR graduate students have access to the Bodleian Libraries – the library service supporting the University of Oxford. The Bodleian Libraries is now the largest academic library service in the UK and one of the largest library services in Europe. Libraries in the Bodleian Libraries group include the principal University library – the Bodleian Library – which has been a library of legal deposit for 400 years, as well as 25 other libraries across Oxford, including the Social Sciences Library.
DPIR graduate students also have access to the Language Centre, which offers teaching in various modern languages as well as Academic English. Graduate students are encouraged to seek language training where it is a vital part of their studies, and DPIR will normally help fund language classes for study purposes.
The University provides extensive IT Services, including discounted software, such as a data backup service for graduate students. Within the Manor Road Building there is a dedicated IT Support Team.
Oxford Colleges
Oxford’s colleges are small, multidisciplinary communities. Each one has students, academic staff and administrative staff. Most colleges offer meals, libraries, accommodation, sports, events and other opportunities to enrich your Oxford experience.
All graduate students belong to a department or faculty and a college, except those taking non-matriculated courses. Supervision and teaching will be provided by DPIR, so no matter which college you belong to, this won't limit your access to potential supervisors or teaching staff; your course content is the same.
Read more about the College experience, including choosing a College.
Opportunities for DPIR Students
DPIR offers termly training in teaching undergraduate tutorials. Once a graduate student has attended the training, and provided they meet the criteria, they may, with the support of their supervisor, join the Tutorial Register, which is a list of Tutors eligible to teach each undergraduate Politics paper. The Tutorial Register is used by Colleges to find Tutors for PPE and History & Politics undergraduates.
In addition to supporting students in publishing in major peer-reviewed journals, Oxford can offer publishing and editing opportunities. For example, students can write for St Antony’s International Review (STAIR), a peer-reviewed, academic journal established in 2005 by graduate members of St Antony’s College.
Doctoral students from DPIR may have the opportunity to convene academic seminars, workshops or conferences. See the DPIR Events page for details.
The Graduate Research Experience
Supervision
As a graduate student you will be assigned an academic supervisor, who is responsible for your academic wellbeing and progress. In addition to academic supervision, you will also have a college pastoral advisor.
You would expect to regularly meet with your supervisor. In the early stages, your supervisor will assist you in settling into the pace of academic study, helping you identify your training needs in order to fulfil your research and will facilitate appropriate networking across the University. As your research progresses, your supervisor will advise you on research design, comment on chapter drafts and provide guidance on any fieldwork.
In the final stages, your supervisor will comment on your final drafts as you progress to submission of your thesis and help you prepare for any viva examination. Your supervisor may also provide career guidance as you plan your future beyond your period of study.
Fieldwork
Fieldwork is any practical work carried out away from the University premises for the purposes of University related research and/or teaching.
Fieldwork may involve:
- Elite interviews with policy-makers and political elites or interviews in the field
- Desk research using archival or library resources
- Surveys to produce larger data sets for quantitative analysis
- Ethnographic fieldwork conducted over a period of time by living in a community/country or working in an institution
In the last few years students from DPIR have spent time undertaking research in Angola, Argentina, Belarus, Burundi, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, Tanzania, Uganda, Europe and North America.
Some funding for fieldwork is available through a number of Departmental and College schemes to which students can apply. Your supervisor will help you plan your fieldwork and training is provided through research design workshops and sessions on specific techniques such as elite interviewing and panel data.
Alumni Careers
DPIR alumni work in academia, policy-making, journalism, business, the non-profit sector, as well as many more diverse fields. We have many high-profile, famous alumni among our community of 18,000 alumni around the world. You can discover some of their diverse career journeys and life stories, as well as their top tips and words of wisdom, in our Life After DPIR interview series.
In addition to this, students can access impartial and comprehensive support in career planning and management via the University of Oxford's Careers Service.