There are several course search engines available (Targetjobs Postgraduate Study, Prospects, FindaMasters, FindaPhD) which you can use to create a longlist of courses.
To narrow down your options:
- Ask relevant academics for their recommendations.
- Use academic literature to identify active research groups for your specialism.
- Look at destinations statistics for each course, which should be available from each institution. Review Oxford University destination data if you are interested in courses at Oxford, and to see the further study that others on your undergraduate course progressed onto. Search the LinkedIn University of Oxford alumni page for more insights.
- Talk to others working in your chosen sector for their view. Try the LinkedIn University of Oxford alumni page to find and connect with relevant alumni.
- Teaching quality assessments for UK universities are available from the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), and grades of individual research departments are published as part of the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
- University rankings are widely available. For example:
Note that the reputation of the university as a whole may not accurately reflect the reputation of an individual department. Therefore looking at subject-specific rankings for universities can be more informative for selecting destinations at postgraduate level.
Doctoral Training Centres
There are multiple options for PhD study in the UK. PhDs may be advertised as specific project titles with named supervisors (most commonly advertised on FindAPhD), where you apply to be the student that delivers that project. You may also apply to study a particular PhD subject at a university (e.g. ‘PhD in Biochemistry’). Here in your application you may express a specific area of interest within your field that you wish to develop a project for, or even submit a more detailed research proposal you have developed. Such applications are commonly linked to a supervisor you have spoken to in advance who has agreed to work with you should you be successful. Such projects and courses can vary in length and funding offered.
You can also apply for PhD programmes that combine initial training and short project rotations in their first year, allowing you to develop a project focus to pursue for the remainder of the PhD. Common examples of such programmes are Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) and Doctoral Training Programmes (DTPs) funded by UK Research Councils. These bring together academics from multiple disciplines, and sometimes multiple institutions, to work on common topics of interest. CDTs are more prevalent in the sciences, and in particular the life sciences, but examples exist for social sciences, arts and humanities. Research councils award funding to create new CDTs with new focus areas emerging every few years.
Doctoral training (leading to PhD or DPhil) at CDTs and DTPs is often more structured, offering taught courses in research methods and other areas in a first year followed by three years of research project (though this can vary). They may also provide opportunities to develop employability skills through internships.
Applications for PhD places are usually made directly to CDTs and DTPs, and closing dates may be different (often earlier) to the general graduate admissions deadlines for the wider university. Find lists of CDTs and DTPs for your subject area on the relevant research council website (linked from UK Research & Innovation).
Additional information can be found in useful guide to CDTs and DTPs by FindAPhD.
