About the course

The MPhil is a two year programme designed for students wishing to attain a thorough grounding in medieval English language and literature and related subjects at an advanced level, either as a preparation for doctoral research or as an autonomous qualification.

Oxford is now very rare in offering a two-year taught and research postgraduate course in medieval studies. The time and space this affords makes the Oxford MPhil the very best preparation for later specialist research in medieval literary or cultural history. It also stands alone as a thoroughly satisfying qualification indicating significant levels of critical, linguistic, and historical skill, expertise, and research competence, transferable to any future career.

Supervision

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Faculty of English and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Under exceptional circumstances a supervisor may be found outside the Faculty of English.

Assessment

All course work will be completed by the end of the second term (Hilary term), leaving the summer term (Trinity term) for the writing of the dissertation, which is submitted in June.

Graduate destinations

Many English taught-course students go onto doctoral research, both at Oxford and at other universities worldwide. Other graduates pursue careers in occupations including teaching, librarianship and heritage industries, journalism, law, publishing and the civil service.

Students who progress from an Oxford MPhil in English Studies to the DPhil in English may be able to progress more rapidly through the DPhil, completing in 2-3 years rather than 3-4 years. In all cases, fee liability after the MPhil would be limited to two years only.