Applications - Overseas (for entry in 2020/21)

OVERSEAS APPLICANTS

For guidance on your status as a home, EU or overseas/international student please see the

relevant pages of the Graduate Studies Prospectus, available

at: http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/fees-and-funding/fees-and-other-charges/fee-

status.

Applications for postgraduate study within the Department of Materials are all processed

centrally through the Oxford University Graduate Admissions Office. Please find below

details of how to apply for a DPhil/MSc(Research) degree.

http://www.materials.ox.ac.uk/admissions/postgraduate/admissionscriteria.html.

FEES

A principal concern for overseas students is funding. For information on fees and living costs

see the Graduate Prospectus webpages at: http://www.ox.ac.uk/students/fees-funding/fees/)

Further information on living costs can be found at

http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/fees-and-funding/living-costs.

For a standard DPhil programme full fees are payable for 3 years and a continuation charge

thereafter, and we advise applicants to budget for 3.5 years living costs, although some

students do finish within 3 years.

Please note that if offered a place you will need to self certify that you have enough funds for

country for a given year. To be successful in a scholarship competition, normally you would

need to be at or near the top of your year and have some additional evidence of your

excellence such as national prizes or awards. Further information about Scholarships can be

found on the website at http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/fees-and-

funding/graduate-scholarships where an Oxford funding search tool is also available

together with details about applying for scholarships. Individual colleges also offer a number

of scholarships for which Materials applicants are eligible – please see the individual college

webpages or the scholarship webpage for details, taking care to note the deadlines for

such applications. In particular please note the early deadlines for applications for Rhodes

Scholarships http://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/. These vary by country of origin, for

academic year and details for some of the scholarships will become available in August

2019.

In addition to the Rhodes Scholarship China scheme, Chinese applicants may also wish to

consider the China Oxford Scholarship Fund (COSF) and the jointly-funded China

Scholarship Council-University of Oxford Scholarships and China Scholarship Council-PAG

Oxford Scholarships.

APPLICATION

If you wish to apply to the Department, you will need to complete the standard University

application form, which can be found on the University’s admissions website

at http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate. Having first carefully read the application guide

field (closing date 15 November 2019) although applicants who apply in the second field

(closing date 24 January 2020) will also be considered for scholarships.

COLLEGE CHOICE

On the graduate application form, you may choose to either (i) indicate that you have no

college preference, in which case a college will be selected on your behalf, or (ii) state a

college preference. You will not be able to amend your choice after submitting your

application. Whether or not you state a college preference will not affect the Department’s

assessment of your application. For further information, please refer to the Application

Guide at http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/colleges. You can find out which colleges

accept Materials research students at the 'colleges' tab of the relevant course page

you must also include a short statement (up to 400 words) to outline your research interests

and to indicate the rationale behind your choice of projects. We do not require a research

proposal.

On the website mentioned above we describe available projects in two categories, ‘funded

projects’ and ‘other projects’. Generally, the projects do not have specific deadlines, as we

intend to consider applicants within the University of Oxford’s Graduate Admissions standard

application cycles. Some of the descriptions on this website are of projects that carry

earmarked funding and in these cases the eligibility of home, EU and overseas applicants is

indicated within the advert. New projects are added from time-to-time, so please review the

list regularly.

soon after receipt. Overseas or scholarship applicants are strongly advised to apply in

the November field, home/EU applicants in the January field. In addition, project

studentships with specific closing dates may be advertised on our website.

FUNDING & PLACES

Please note that funding and places may be exhausted after the first two application fields:

applications received after 24 January 2020 will be considered only if places and/or funded

projects remain unfilled. We expect to make a small number of offers, to outstanding

candidates, following evaluation of the November applications. The remaining good

candidates from November will be considered automatically in January, along with the new

applicants for that deadline, and we normally expect to offer the majority of available places

Applicants who are unsure of their status should contact the Student Fees Team, details can

be found at https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/fees-funding/fees/status. Information about

immigration and visas can also be found at the same web address. If you have specific

questions about visas or immigration, then please see

https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/visa/before or contact Student Immigration by e-mailing

student.immigration@admin.ox.ac.uk.

Please note that is is essential for the visa process that you wait until the Department sends

you the agreed research statement for the ATAS certificate (ATAS Certificates are required

for all overseas students undertaking a Materials research degree). At the time of writing the

UK Government Officers take at least 20-30 working days to process an ATAS application.

on your achieving the standard minimum requirement.

In certain specific circumstances the University permits applicants to request an English

Language Test Waiver. It is at the discretion of the Department whether or not to grant such

a waiver. If you are eligible for a waiver please tick the relevant box on the application form

and upload a brief statement explaining very clearly how you meet the conditions under

which a waiver may be requested. Please identify in this statement the source(s) of

NOTE: Scholarships from some overseas Governments may be awarded only if at the time

of applying for the scholarship candidates have already met the English level required by the

University to which they have applied.

also that we require not only a minimum overall score in the English test but also minimum

scores in the individual components of the tests. By way of an example, for IELTS the

minimum requirement is an overall score of 7.0 and 6.5 in each component.

Please bear this in mind when choosing your start date on your application form – if in doubt