Public Policy DPhil

<strong>The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.</strong> <br/><br/>The DPhil in Public Policy provides academically outstanding students, committed to public service, an unrivalled opportunity to study for a rigorous research degree that prepares them to have substantial impact on future policymaking processes.<br/><br/>The DPhil specialises in discipline-based, policy-driven research, applying rigorous social science to analysing policy issues with the explicit goal of prescribing solutions for policymakers. You will concentrate on research that answers policy questions with rigorous conceptual design, theoretical insight, and empirical methods. As well as honing your research skills and developing your interdisciplinary understanding of policy challenges, you will also enhance your ability to communicate your research findings to the policy community in a way that ensures real-world impact. You will join a school which conducts ground-breaking academic research where international leaders will engage with you and your scholarly community on the most pressing issues of our time.<br/><br/>The DPhil in Public Policy is one of Oxfords most selective degree courses and recruits those who are highly academically and professionally capable. Your peer group will include economists, lawyers, political scientists, behavioural scientists, and philosophers with professional backgrounds at international organisations such as the World Bank and the World Economic Forum and senior levels of government. <br/><br/>You will be expected to focus your research on practical challenges facing a range of different governments and publicly-oriented agencies. As well as developing your academic expertise, you will learn how to communicate your findings and analysis effectively so as to have real impact on government and public policy development throughout the world.<br/><br/>You will be given ample opportunities to present your work in the department, and develop your research ideas and proposals with the advice and support of your peers.<br/><br/>Research Development Seminars (RDS) will give you the opportunity to meet and discuss your research with other students, and the Blavatnik School hosts regular seminars and events with leading public policy practitioners, affording further networking and socialising opportunities. There is an array of research seminars that run across the University and you will be encouraged to attend and, if appropriate, to present at events relevant to your areas of interest. Part-time as well as full- time students will normally be required to attend all twelve of the RDS during their first year. This is to help you to establish a clear line of thinking and maximise the opportunity to integrate with all first-year students.<br/><br/>Through the research training offered by the Social Sciences Division you can also take part in a range of skills development training sessions available across departments. Part-time students will be expected to identify, in consultation with their supervisors, their anticipated advanced research skills needs in their first year, and focus on acquiring these additional skills in their second, third and fourth years from the Social Science Division’s research methods and training programme and, as the DPhil in Public Policy is multi- and interdisciplinary in character, from relevant training opportunities in the wider University and nationally.