3 responses to “The BPhil in philosophy at Oxford”

1. Tomi Francis

   November 30, 2021 at 8:47 am

   Most of these ring true, especially the situation regarding fees and funding, which seems to have deteriorated further since I was on the BPhil several years ago. This is probably the worst aspect of the BPhil. I think the recent student is overly pessimistic on some fronts though:

   . It's true that graduate classes are independent from your assessments, but this isn't obviously a bad thing. (I preferred it that way.) You go to classes in order to (hopefully) learn something interesting and develop your skills as a philosopher, but there's no pressure to be "doing well" in them. It's true that many (but not all) of the graduate classes are overpopulated.
   . Four hours of supervision per eight-week term seems like enough to me (and at the time I wouldn't have been able to write enough for more supervisions to make sense).
   . Six 5,000 word essays and one 30,000 word thesis sounds like a lot, but spread over two years it's not too bad. Unless things have changed, there are only four deadlines on the whole course, and the first one doesn't pop up until just before the summer term of your first year, which is about 5-6 months in. I wouldn't describe the course as deadline-heavy.
   . It's true that there's a lot of independent work, but again this isn't obviously a bad thing — it's what you're going to be doing full-time if you stay in academia.
   . I hadn't heard about the department changing its policy away from automatic progression if you get a distinction. I suspect that this makes little difference in practice. If you got a distinction on the BPhil, you're very likely competitive enough to get a place on the DPhil. That said, there's another snag, which the recent student might not be aware of. Assuming you get funding for the DPhil, for strange administrative reasons it only lasts for two years(!) instead of three. This means that in many cases, progressing to a PhD program at a different university — especially a program that can give you proper funding — is a more prudent choice.
   . The recent student guesses 25-30% of BPhil graduates go on to a PhD. This seems a bit pessimistic to me. For 2018, it was about 60%. For 2017, it was about 60%. Before that, there's a lot of noise, but generally 60%+ on average. There's a dramatic drop for the 2019 and 2020 cohorts (roughly 40% and 30% respectively), but the placement record there is pretty radically incomplete, so it's unclear how reliable those numbers are. It could also just be noise, or (in the case of 2020) covid-related disruption.

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2. Chris Timpson

   November 30, 2021 at 3:25 pm

   Short version: On the contrary, the BPhil remains great! (Though the funding situation in the UK has indeed declined.)

   Long version:

   I would say there are some misunderstandings or infelicities in the linked OP; and other things which (as one might expect) I see rather differently.

   In terms of the overall teaching structure of the BPhil course, it has not changed in about 10 years, and this structure is summarised in about the same detail as in Steven Diggin’s post in the University’s admissions front web pages: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/bphil-philosophy, so one would hope there are no unwelcome surprises once students begin the course. (Though it is indeed worth emphasising – as Steven does – that the course indeed is an intense one; I tend to see that as one of its strengths, however.)

   On fees and funding, our fees are broadly in line with relevantly similar courses at other UK institutions, for example with Cambridge’s MPhil. It’s true that the government funding particularly of postgraduate taught courses has declined in the UK in recent years. I myself am always careful to emphasise to potential applicants (both to the BPhil and to the DPhil) that it is one thing (and it is hard enough) to get admitted onto the course in the first place; it is yet another – and a very challenging one – to get funding. We try and be as helpful and constructive as we can be in supporting students to whom we have offered places in navigating the shoals here, and we are happy to remain in discussion with them whilst they are weighing up their options. Many questions about funding – whether from university or other sources – are, given their complexity, often not settled until quite late on in the academic year, and, as I say, we are happy to remain in dialogue. We certainly do not frown upon those applicants who, regrettably, decide to withdraw their conditional acceptances of our offers later in the spring or summer. On the slightly more positive side, we – and the Oxford colleges – have recently had some success in raising funds for both our postgraduate taught degrees and the DPhil; but there remains much more we’d like to do here. The University has also committed to a significant increase (and intends to protect against inflation) one of the most important internal funding streams – the Clarendon fund – which can be used to support BPhil as well as DPhil students. The average number of students applying to the BPhil over the last few years remains high, at a little short of 300 applicants, for circa 27 places. I’ll note that it was agreed at the University’s Congregation last year that the University graduate application fee would be phased out over the next few years.

   On the question of TAs: indeed there is no option to be a TA during the BPhil. In part this is because it remains the case in Oxford that the majority of teaching is done by permanent academic postholders, often in their respective colleges (thus a large number of academics each seeing a relatively small number of students: no big courses being headed-up by one academic who needs to be supported by TAs). It is also because, as mentioned, the BPhil is an intense course, amongst whose purposes (harking back to Ryle) is to provide one with the breadth to teach across a range of areas of philosophy. By design, there isn’t time during the course to teach; one focusses instead on attaining some of the wherewithal for future teaching. That said, moving on to DPhil students, we do have a training scheme to introduce them to tutorial and class teaching, and to lecturing.

   The Faculty puts on a lot of graduate classes each year (e.g. https://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/files/lecturescheme2021-22pdf ). Whilst this year and last covid related problems and restrictions have meant that we have had less flexibility to avoid some clumping of more popular classes than we would usually, by and large (and in the normal run of things) I do not believe overpopulation of classes is a major problem. The Pro-Seminars, which are specifically tailored to the BPhil students, have on average 6-9 students. In addition to the classes, there is a huge range of other philosophy activities going on – whether advanced lectures, visiting speakers, research seminars or work-in-progress groups (often, several each day). The problem is more of their being too much philosophy from which one could learn going on (and thus of one having to select a fraction) than of one having too few opportunities.

   On the intended role of the graduate classes: their main purpose is to introduce students to new ideas, or new areas that they might be interested in exploring; overall it is to try and help students become better philosophers. They are also useful in giving students ideas for essays they might like to submit for assessment. Again, by design, students do not have the opportunity for individual supervisions on every essay or subject area which they will need to submit for assessment: developing the capacity for independent research is part of the deliberate aim of the course; and there are many, many, opportunities for informal discussion of one’s ideas or interests, whether with other students, Faculty members, or visiting academics. Some students end up basing their submitted essays quite closely on topics raised in classes or discussed with supervisors; others do not. Where students have expressed a preference for a particular supervisor we always try to accommodate it, and typically do, subject to whether someone might be on sabbatical leave, or already heavily loaded.

   On the marking of essays: this is perhaps one of those areas which may inevitably look rather different depending on whether one is on the inside or the outside. Suffice it to say that at Oxford we take marking incredibly seriously: all essays are double marked double blind (triple marked if disparities arise, or it is otherwise procedurally required) by specialists in the essay area, and scrutinised by an exam board with an external examiner who will themselves diligently interrogate the process and double check many sample essays. I’ve never known any examiner, or exam board, not to pursue their activities with the utmost care, judgement, and diligence.

   Finally (forgive me), on the question of progression from the BPhil to the DPhil or to PhDs elsewhere. There has been no change of policy on BPhil->DPhil progression, so a fortiori no unpublicised change of policy. (The very thought makes my head spin! Anyone who doubts it may consult the Course Handbooks for the last n years.) BPhil students have always had formally to make a separate application to the DPhil, and as well as doing well enough on the BPhil, have to have a suitable research project, and for there to be a suitable supervisor available for that project. Those who are doing well enough, for example by seeming on-track for a BPhil distinction (and who have a suitable project etc.) will be made an offer for the DPhil. What has changed in our *practice* though not in our *policy* is that BPhil students aren’t made a conditional offer of a DPhil place irrespective of how well they are doing on the BPhil at the time they apply to continue to the DPhil. All offer-holders have their offer automatically confirmed in the summer if they achieved a distinction; those who have done well enough in the programme, especially in the thesis, but have fallen slightly short of distinction also typically get their DPhil place confirmed.

   In terms of the advantages of applying to the DPhil from the BPhil: it’s true that we do not discriminate against equally qualified external applicants in favour of our internal applicants; but the main advantages of applying to the DPhil from the BPhil are the quality of the philosophical education one receives on the BPhil, and having had the chance to develop one’s research plans with Faculty members over the 15 months from the start of the BPhil course to the DPhil application time (and thence beyond); getting to know potential supervisors and to discuss your projects with them is very valuable. (There are also some more technical advantages, such as being able to re-use material from one’s BPhil thesis in the DPhil thesis, where one would not be able to re-use previously examined material from another institution, and overall potentially being liable for a shorter number of years during which fees would need to be paid on the DPhil). The quality of the BPhil education is also very helpful if applying to PhDs at other institutions (our BPhil placement data from the last couple of years is not up to date or complete at the moment however, but the data from the previous five years shows that more than 50% of our BPhil students progressed to the doctorate).

   Steven kindly closes with some positive comments on studying the BPhil in Oxford. I’d add to these the (independently attested) quality and size of the Faculty and the graduate student body, and the sheer amount of excellent philosophy they do together, along with the extraordinary number of research seminars, conferences, workshops and so, which they organise. It’s really an extraordinary environment to do philosophy in. (If you don’t believe me – come and visit! Covid restrictions permitting…)

   Chris Timpson
   Chair, Philosophy Faculty Board,
   University of Oxford.

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3. Jack Woods

   November 30, 2021 at 6:25 pm

   Speaking as someone who just finished a 3 year stint as the external examiner for the BPhil, I can say they’re doing something dead right. The quality of graduate work there is just, in general, unparalleled. And if that’s not an advantage in applying to graduate schools, I don’t know what is.

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