Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

We aim for members of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences’ postgraduate community to become future leaders in their fields. Through our supportive environment, talented supervisors work to provide some of the best opportunities to help every student reach their potential and achieve their goals. Here you can get to know a few of our students and find out how they also make a difference to the world-class research and teaching in our department.

Filmed January 2020.

DPhil students are the future generation of research leaders. The questions they’re asking will help generate tomorrow’s evidence base. They challenge traditional perspectives, question their supervisors’ assumptions and adapt tired methodologies creatively. Best of all, they get together and generate new interdisciplinary synergies. In doing so, they push us senior academics to acknowledge that the cutting-edge research we did a few years ago is now yesterday’s evidence. We all gain from their intellectual excitement and their future orientation.

For me, having DPhil students is very rewarding. They bring new ideas and enthusiasm to the department and make a huge contribution to the outputs of our research group. I believe supervising DPhil students makes you a better academic and has benefited my own career progression.

Graduate students are a key part of our academic strategy of investing in the research capacity in academic primary care. Some of you will make use of your time with us to launch successful independent academic careers and we hope that the very best of you will want to compete in that career at Oxford. And, even if a glittering academic career is not your main aim in seeking to complete a DPhil with us, the opportunities for personal thinking and development through a graduate studentship are very worthwhile.