oxford university department of education

Education Library

Opening hours

Monday – Friday: 8.30am – 5.30pm

The Education Library will be closed from Saturday 24 August – Monday 26 August (inclusive).

Monday – Friday: 8.30am – 7pm Saturday: 1pm – 6pm Sunday: 11am – 6pm

[email protected]

About the library

Located within the Department of Education at 15 Norham Gardens, the Education Library supports all members of the University studying and researching in the field of education. We have books, journals, online resources, study spaces and super staff to help you throughout your studies and research.

Education Library 15 Norham Gardens Oxford OX2 6PY

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Using this library, for disabled readers, services and facilities, collections and resources.

Department of Education

The department of education is located in two buildings, contact details.

Department of Education University of Oxford 15 Norham Gardens Oxford OX2 6PY

[email protected] 01865 274024 www.education.ox.ac.uk

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We do research on global higher education, its inequalities and its future. Hosted by the University of Oxford's Department of Education, our partnership brings together colleagues from universities in the UK and across the world.

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Continuing professional development

Online and in-person courses for professionals

Our extensive range of continuing professional development (CPD) courses are designed for those who wish to update their skills, change career, or earn a qualification. We work with academic experts across the University and beyond to deliver world-class programmes to professional learners from across the globe, both in Oxford and online.

Our professional courses benefit from Oxford University's excellence in research and teaching as a globally top-ranking university and offer a dynamic and supportive environment that promotes valuable professional networks.

From business and management to diplomatic studies, ethics to medicine, technology to urban studies, we have a programme for you.

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We have extensive experience of working with clients locally, nationally and internationally in designing and delivering high-quality, cost-effective training solutions tailored to your exact requirements. We can create customised online, in-person and/or hybrid courses, or you can choose one or more courses from our existing portfolio to be delivered where and when you want it. You can also select aspects of our existing course content and combine them with personalised course elements.

If you’d like to discuss a customised course or training package, please contact us at:  [email protected]

Please note that our customised courses are aimed at companies and large organisations. Unfortunately, it is not possible to offer customised courses to individuals.

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Our wide range of career development programmes are grouped by subject below.

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Short intensive practical courses for managers, project managers, engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs.

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Expert tuition for those with a keen interest, professional or personal, in archaeology, historic buildings and cultural heritage.

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Courses for early-to-mid career diplomats, as well as those who are new to the field of diplomacy and international relations.

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Short, part-time and online courses in education and study skills at the University of Oxford

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Courses in the environment, sustainability, urbanism, wildlife conservation and ecology - whether your interest is professional or personal.

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Postgraduate qualifications, short courses, part-time study and online courses in medical and health sciences

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Short, part-time and online courses in psychology and counselling at the University of Oxford

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High-quality short training courses for professionals in electronic systems and signal processing; mobile networks and satcoms; high-speed digital, analogue and EMC engineering; AI, robotics, data science, IoT, cyber security and information engineering.

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Contact details for the relevant team can be found on each course page.

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Language Centre joins the Department for Continuing Education

The Language Centre becomes part of the University of Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education (OUDCE) from Thursday 1 August.

The move will build on the shared strengths of the Language Centre and OUDCE in support of language learning across the University.

There will be no immediate changes to Language Centre courses, which we expect to continue as usual in the 2024/25 academic year.

Background The Language Centre is currently part of the Academic Administration Division within the University Administration and Services.

In June 2023, the University’s Education Committee approved proposals to integrate the Language Centre with OUDCE, building on the strength of each in supporting language learning.

An integration project took place throughout the 2023/24 academic year to prepare for the integration with oversight from the Committee for the Language Centre.

What it means for Language Centre users In the immediate future, the Language Centre academic English and modern foreign languages courses will continue to be taught as they are at present at Woodstock Road and online, and are expected to continue as usual throughout the 2024/25 academic year.

OUDCE’s own language courses will also continue to be offered separately as at present.

As part of the integration, and following consultation with the academic and librarian community, many of the resources in the Language Centre Library will be integrated into the Bodleian Libraries collection, including the OUDCE library, where they will be more widely available. 

Tutors will continue to have access to some resources at the Language Centre to support teaching and learning, but the library will be closed for a time over the summer while the moves take place. Please email [email protected] if you need access during the vacation.

What happens next The integration project will continue during the 2024/25 academic year, considering how best to provide high quality support for learners across the Language Centre and OUDCE into the future. 

The Committee for the Language Centre will continue to provide academic oversight during this period.

Any planned changes to current arrangements will be communicated as soon as they are available, via this website, wider University communications channels, and direct to Language Centre customers.

Professor Matthew Weait, Director of the Department for Continuing Education, said: “As a truly global organisation, the University values languages as an essential part of its academic mission. We are thrilled to welcome the Language Centre into Continuing Education and look forward to working together to support language learning in Oxford and beyond.”  

Professor Katrin Kohl, Chair of the Committee for the Language Centre, added: “The formal move of the Language Centre marks an important next step in the integration process. I look forward to working with the Continuing Education and Language Centre teams to build on this progress to develop an ambitious languages strategy that supports Oxford’s global status and aspirations.”

If you would like more information about the integration or have any questions, please contact [email protected] .

Quick links

• Teachers, University Leaders Discuss Education's Toughest Problems

National Center for School-University Partnerships talks chronic absenteeism, math proficiency

OXFORD, Miss. – Education leaders from across the country gathered Friday (Jan. 26) at the University of Mississippi to discuss ways to tackle some of the most pressing and persistent challenges in K-12 education.

Multiple Mississippi school districts as well as leaders from Arizona and Chicago, all members of the National Center for School-University Partnerships , discussed chronic absenteeism and math proficiency in students with disabilities during the consortium's second convention.

Since the pandemic, students in every state have missed school at record rates. In the 2022-23 school year, 23.9% of Mississippi students missed more than 10%, or 18 days, of the school year, compared to only 13% in 2018-19 , according to the Mississippi Department of Education.

Math proficiency for students with disabilities has also lagged behind those of their peers for more than two decades , according to National Assessment of Educational Progress test scores. The Mississippi Department of Education has designated many Mississippi schools as "in need of improvement" because of the lack of math proficiency in students with disabilities, said Bradley Roberson, superintendent of the Oxford School District and the center's program coordinator.

"Oxford School District has two schools in improvement right now for that reason," he said. "That's why everyone in this room is so excited to be here. We all share the same problems. 

Bradley Roberson (standing), superintendent of the Oxford School District and program coordinator for the National Center for School-University Partnerships, says chronic absenteeism and mathematics proficiency for students with disabilities are two major issues plaguing K-12 education. Photo by Thomas Graning/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services

"With both of these problems, we hope to see gains within a year." 

Chronic absenteeism leads to poorer grades and lower graduation rates, said Manuelito Biag, managing director of the Center for Post-Secondary Education at the Carnegie Foundation's Center for Postsecondary Innovation. 

"For early elementary, if these kids are missing more than 10% of classes, that leads to significant cognitive delays," Biag said. "It really pushes them further behind." 

Aside from falling behind in class, chronic absenteeism also leads to a loss of critical experiences for students, said Ilana Dawson, a teacher and assistant principal in Arizona's Avondale School District.

"When students miss school, they don't just miss the content, they miss out on socialization and the soft skills that come from it," Dawson said.

"They also miss out on things that can't be 'made up': that cool lab experiment, that field trip or pep rally that you remember when you think back on being a kid."

The Ole Miss  School of Education and the Oxford School District partnered to create the center in 2023 to address challenges in K-12 classrooms, said David Rock, dean of the education school.

The center grew out of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's Improvement Leadership Education and Development network.

The purpose of the center is to "collect, aggregate and disseminate strategies to tackle problems in education" not just in Mississippi, but across the nation, Rock said. 

Twenty-five schools, school districts and universities from Washington, D.C., to Arizona have joined the center since its founding last year.

Carnegie started the conversation about improvement science, but Rock and Roberson said they wanted to create a permanent hub for districts to share their strategies and successes. 

Through the center, university partners will be able to better prepare future teachers to handle issues such as absenteeism and special education, said Denise Soares, professor of special education and the center's interim director.

"We are sending our students out into these school districts," Soares said. "Working alongside these districts to gain insight and understand these problems, it's going to change how we prepare our future educators."

Throughout the year, the school districts will work with coaches on a semi-monthly basis and report the data they collect back to the center, Soares said. When one school district finds success, all of them will succeed, she said. 

"The work isn't going to stop here," Soares said. "I think this meeting will propel us forward and help us find real solutions." 

Leslie Joblin

Office, Department or Center

January 29, 2024

• School of Education

Department of

Department of Education

Dphil in education, scholarships.

The DPhil in Education is a full-time programme which takes 3-4 years and is intended to provide graduates with a wide range of research skills as well as in-depth knowledge, understanding and expertise in their chosen field of educational research.

The DPhil in Education is an advanced research degree of a high standing and is awarded on the basis of a thesis and an oral examination.

A full-time programme takes 3-4 years to complete and is intended to provide graduates with a wide range of research skills as well as in-depth knowledge, understanding and expertise in their chosen field of research.

About 80 DPhil students are attached to the Department, researching a wide range of topics, normally linked to one or more of the Department’s Research Groups. Students come from over 40 different countries and are supported by a variety of scholarships and grants. Entry is highly competitive, and applicants are required to have a strong academic background and are required to submit a research proposal.

It is also possible to study part-time for a DPhil in the department. For more information, visit our part-time DPhil page .

The Department offers some part and full scholarships to attract the very strongest students who would otherwise not be able to come and study in Oxford.

It is committed to developing the number of fully-funded studentships it can offer to DPhil students, given their importance to the Department’s research culture. The funding deadline for all graduate courses in the Department of Education is January application deadline. Applications submitted after this date will not be considered for funding offered by Oxford. Funding deadlines for other University courses can be found on the relevant course page on the Graduate Admissions website . These are all highly competitive, and require high-quality, well-crafted research proposals.

All eligible applicants for graduate study are automatically considered for the University’s prestigious Clarendon Scholarships and the departmental scholarships. You will be notified around the beginning of March if you are being considered for any of these funding opportunities.

Reparative Futures of Education Scholarship

The Reparative Futures of Education (REPAIR-ED) research project is awarding two fully-funded doctoral scholarships based within Oxford University’s Department of Education.

The REPAIR-ED project involves working with primary school communities in the city of Bristol to examine the features and mechanisms of structural inequities in education. The project will use its empirical findings to facilitate dialogues with stakeholders (schools, their communities, policy-actors and the broader public) to explore how reparative justice in education might be conceptualised and enacted.

More information about the REPAIR-ED scholarships and how to apply.

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

The ESRC is the UK’s largest organisation for funding research on social and economic issues. The University, in collaboration with Brunel University and the Open University, hosts the Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership – one of 14 Doctoral Training Partnerships accredited by the ESRC as part of a Doctoral Training Network.

In order to be considered for a Grand Union DTP ESRC studentship, you must select ‘ ESRC Grand Union DTP Studentships in Social Sciences ’ in the University of Oxford scholarships section of the University’s graduate application form. You must also complete a  Grand Union DTP Application Form and upload it, together with your graduate application form, by the funding deadline for your course.

Information about ESRC studentships at Oxford can be found here . Please ensure you have read all of the guidance available on the website before you complete the Grand Union DTP Application Form . If you have any questions, get in touch with the Grand Union DTP Office .

Talbot Scholarships

This scholarship fund is the result of a bequest to the Department in honour of Ms Elfrida Talbot, who ran the first women’s hostel for Education students in the University in the early years of the twentieth century. It is normally used to part-fund a UK/EU doctoral student for three years who was seen as strong contender for an ESRC doctoral studentship. Strong contenders for ESRC studentships will be automatically considered for this scholarship: no separate application process is needed. This scholarship is usually offered once every three years.

Clarendon scholarships

The very strongest applicants for all our MSc and DPhil programmes are automatically considered for University Clarendon scholarships. There is no separate application process. These are highly competitive and each year only one or two of our students are successful. During our initial admissions screening, supervisors nominate applicants with outstanding academic records to be considered. These supervisors then prepare a supporting statement.  A departmental panel ranks these candidates and the Director of Doctoral Research puts forward a shortlist of the strongest applicants to the divisional committee.

Departmental studentships

The Department is keen to attract the very strongest MSc students and encourage them to stay on for doctoral study. The shortlist will normally be made up of those students shortlisted for the ESRC and Clarendon scholarships. Interviews and decisions will be made once the ESRC and Clarendon awards are announced.

Awards will vary in range, but will seek to make a significant contribution to the overall cost of fees. Successful candidates will be expected to make an active contribution to the academic and professional life of the doctoral students within the Department. These scholarships may not be offered every year.

Further information on graduate scholarships and awards offered by the University and external agencies can be found on the  Student Funding Services  website.

Self-Funding

Scholarships are awarded on entry to the doctoral programme, not at any later point. If you are not awarded a scholarship in your first year, but elect to self-fund, you will be asked by the University to sign a declaration that you have the money to cover your fees and your living expenses for the first year. It should be noted that although you are only asked about the first year, it is extremely unlikely that you will acquire funding after that. There are no additional scholarships within the University for continuing doctoral students. The Department in general and individual staff members work hard to bring in funding for doctoral students, but we cannot fund everybody. It is worth carefully considering which colleges might have scholarships for which you are eligible when you apply.

Most colleges will offer some very small grants for fieldwork, travel or conference attendance. These are in the region of a couple of hundred pounds at most.

You can work part time during your doctorate, subject to the requirements of your visa, but you must obtain the support of your supervisor to do so, and it can have detrimental effects on your progress. There are occasionally some paid research assistant posts within the Department which are advertised to the doctoral cohort but these tend to be highly sought after. We do not have undergraduates so you are unlikely to be able to supervise as graduate students outside Education do.

There are some charitable trusts outside of the University to which you might be able to apply for some funding; we cannot keep track of all the potential requirements, so you should seek these out for yourself. However, they are not likely to be sufficient to cover fees and living expenses in their entirety.

Financial assistance run by colleges tends to be for ‘unexpected circumstances’; self-funders not getting any funding in second or subsequent years is not seen as unexpected. Both the University and the Department have some limited funds for those writing up the final stages of their doctorate. These are highly competitive and there are always more requests than there is money to fulfil them.

This advice is not intended to put you off, but it is important for self-funders to have a realistic view.

WHAT QUALIFICATIONS DO I NEED TO APPLY?

For more specific details of our admission criteria please visit the DPhil in Education course page .

HOW MANY STUDENTS DO YOU RECRUIT TO THE DPHIL IN EDUCATION PROGRAMME?

Approximately 25-35 students are recruited to our DPhil in Education programme each year.

CAN I STUDY ONLINE OR THROUGH DISTANCE LEARNING?

It is not possible to study at a distance or on-line on our DPhil programme.

What if I have already completed research training as part of a Masters degree?

All PRS students no matter what their previous training are required to undertake the Research Training Seminar course. This is the seminar specifically for PRS students, preparing you for the Oxford DPhil structure, creating a supportive cohort and enabling you to begin professional development for an academic or non-academic career. Other research training courses are: Beginners and Intermediate Quantitative Methods; Perspectives and Debates in Qualitative Research and Philosophy of Educational Research. The exact courses you will be required to take will depend on your previous training and experience, and the decision will be based on the evidence you provide in your application and in discussion with the Director of Doctoral Research on matriculation.

WHAT ARE THE BACKGROUNDS OF STUDENTS RECRUITED TO YOUR PROGRAMMES?

The Department offers a very wide range of courses. As well as a comprehensive Doctoral programme attracting students from all over the world, we offer full-time one year MSc in Education and in MSc Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (ALSLA) courses, as well as a range of part-time courses, some aimed primarily at UK teachers (e.g. MSc Learning & Teaching, MS Teacher Education) and some at distance learning (e.g., Applied Linguistics and Language Teaching). Consequently our courses cater to students from a diverse range of backgrounds.

For example in 2021/22, the Department had a total complement of 780 students of whom 414 were studying full-time and 366 were studying part-time. For 2021/22, across the MSc Education, MSc ALSLA, and DPhil programmes, approximately 29% of our students came from the UK, and the remaining 71% from the EU or overseas. The cohort from those programmes included students from Afghanistan, Australia, Japan, Germany, India, Malaysia, China, Mexico, Estonia, Australia, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States, among many others.

What our students share is exceptional academic achievement in their previous learning and an ambition to excel academically.

CAN I STUDY PART TIME?

Although doctoral research training programmes across the University tend to be structured around the needs of full-time students, we are able to offer a part-time DPhil option for students who reside and are employed locally.   See here for more information about studying for a part-time DPhil with us .

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST TO STUDY AND LIVE IN OXFORD?

To find out how much it will cost to undertake your studies at the University, please  visit the Fees and Living Costs webpage  for details.

CAN I APPLY FOR MORE THAN ONE COURSE?

We would strongly encourage you to focus your application on the course for which you have the most interest and experience.

CAN I APPLY FOR YOUR COURSES IF I AM IN THE PROCESS OF ACHIEVING MY QUALIFICATION TO GAIN ENTRY ONTO THE PROGRAMME?

Yes, you may apply for any of our courses whilst studying for another degree. If you are successful in achieving a place on one of our programmes, we would make a conditional offer which would include the condition of you achieving your qualification. You are required to submit an interim transcript at application. However, your final outcome would need to be available prior to you commencing the course at Oxford.

CAN SOMEONE CHECK IF MY RESEARCH PROPOSAL FITS INTO THE RESEARCH INTERESTS OF CURRENT MEMBERS OF STAFF BEFORE I SUBMIT AN APPLICATION?

Prospective DPhil applicants are expected to browse the online profiles of current members of staff to identify academics whose research interests overlap with theirs. If you can’t locate any academics with overlapping interests with yours, it is likely that your proposed area of research does not fit into the interests of current members of staff or the Department’s research centres.

ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE; WHICH HIGHER LEVEL LANGUAGE QUALIFICATION IS ACCEPTABLE? AND WHAT SCORE DO YOU REQUIRE?

If you do not have English as your first language, we would like you to have achieved the higher level competence in English Language proficiency i.e. IELTS 7.5 overall with at least 7.0 in each component, or TOEFL 110 (Internet-based).

We do not accept tests which are more than 2 years old. We encourage applicants to apply with a successful IELTS test. If evidence that you successfully meet the English language condition cannot be provided with your application, the language requirement will be set as a condition if an offer is made.

For further information, please  visit the Application Guide .

CAN I APPLY FOR A WAIVER OF PROOF OF PROFICIENCY IN ENGLISH?

For information on applying for a waiver of the English test requirement, please  visit the application guide .

HOW DO I APPLY?

For information about applying, see the University Admission’s DPhil page . For a more detailed explanation of the process, please  click here for the application guide .

NOT ALL OF MY QUALIFICATIONS WILL FIT ON THE APPLICATION FORM, WHAT SHALL I DO?

If you require more space on the application form, please contact Graduate Admissions for advice.

I HAVE BEEN OUTSIDE OF AN ACADEMIC SETTING FOR SOME TIME NOW; WHO SHALL I HAVE TO ACT AS MY REFEREES?

We strongly recommend that you have at least one reference from your most recent academic tutor. If you are currently in employment, you would be expected to provide a reference from your employer as well as an academic referee who is able to comment on academic capability/suitability for Higher Degree study.

WHAT DO I NEED TO INCLUDE FOR THE SAMPLES OF WRITTEN WORK?

Two essays, a maximum of 2,000 words each.

The written work should be related to the DPhil in Education and should be on separate topics. If you do not have any existing material that fits this requirement, you may wish to critique an article or write a book review based on the course subject.

You may submit written work previously completed for a prior course of study if the topic is relevant, eg an assignment or chapter of a dissertation etc, provided it meets the requirements. If your work is significantly longer than the guide length it should be edited to meet the requirements.

A list of relevant references is required for your written work and should be included in your word count. [If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.] This will be assessed for understanding of the subject area, an ability to construct and defend an argument, and proficiency in academic English.

WHAT DO I NEED TO INCLUDE IN THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL AND PERSONAL STATEMENT?

If you are applying to the DPhil programme you need to submit a personal statement of a maximum of 1,000 words and a research proposal of a maximum of 2,500 words. Your statement and proposal should be submitted as a single, combined document with a clear subheading for each.

You should submit a convincing personal statement (statement of purpose) explaining your reasons for applying to the programme and highlighting your relevant academic and professional experience. The final line of your personal statement should indicate your future plans after a doctorate.

You should also submit a research proposal written in English. An indicative bibliography is required but you do not need to include this in your word count. Your proposal should include an indicative title and a short introduction/synopsis, a discussion of the most relevant scholarly literature, and a research question or hypothesis. This issue or question should emerge from your review of the literature. Please also provide a rationale for the importance of this research topic.

Your proposal should also indicate your proposed methodological approach. This will depend on the kind of research you envisage. If empirical research is planned, then please discuss the likely ‘data’ to be collected. At this stage these ideas are exploratory, and likely to develop and change once you are accepted.

This will be assessed for your potential to carry out doctoral research, the quality and coherence of the proposal and the originality of the project.

It will be normal for your ideas to subsequently change in some ways as you develop your project. You should nevertheless make the best effort you can to demonstrate the extent of your research question, sources and method at this moment.

Your proposal should focus on your proposed research topic, rather than personal achievements, interests and aspirations.

HOW IS MY SUPERVISOR DECIDED?

Although supervisors will be allocated by the Department and it is not necessary for you to contact academic members of staff directly, prospective applicants are encouraged to approach academics whose research interests overlap with theirs to informally solicit their capacity and interest in supervising new DPhil students. You may also ask them to share with you specific publications that they have authored that you can’t access otherwise and that may help inform your research proposal. There is a section in the application form in which you can indicate your suggested supervisors. You are strongly encouraged to fill it in with two names of suggested supervisors when you apply.

AM I REQUIRED TO ATTEND FOR INTERVIEW?

Interviews are normally held with two interviewers using Microsoft Teams. Interviews will normally take place in February.

WHAT WILL THE INTERVIEW BE LIKE?

We are keen to find out more about you and your interests, and how these might tie in with the research specialisms of academic staff within the department.

For DPhil applicants, we will ask you to talk in detail about your research proposal, its design, your methodological choices and potential challenges you might face. For MSc applicants, we will ask you about your knowledge of the course, your reasons for wanting to study in this area, and initial ideas for their dissertation research.

Applicants may be asked to explain how their areas of interest link to those of the departments’ research groups, centres and academic staff.

WHEN WILL THE OUTCOME OF MY APPLICATION BE KNOWN?

Applications will be considered by the admissions panel within the Department and decisions will be made in accordance with the following deadlines:

January application deadline – mid March

You will be informed of our decision by email to ensure that you receive the outcome as soon as possible.

In the event that we are not able to offer you a place, we regret that it is not possible to provide you with feedback on your application.

CAN I DEFER ENTRY TO A COURSE?

The University will only consider requests for deferral of entry due to exceptional unforeseen circumstances, and only after all conditions set for the offer (both academic and financial) have been met.

Couldn’t find your answers under our FAQ section?

Please direct all enquiries to our Higher Degrees Office and a member of the administrative team will be happy to assist you.

Email: [email protected]

• Entry requirements
• Fees and Funding

Meet our DPhil Students

How the Education Department Wants to Police Online Education

The department says it needs more data about online education to hold those programs accountable. Institutions say the agency is overcorrecting.

By  Katherine Knott

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More than half of U.S. students took at least one online class in the 2022–23 academic year. The Education Department is proposing a number of changes to gather more data about how students fare in those courses.

Alena Butusava/Getty Images

The Education Department wants to collect much more information about distance education courses and the students enrolled in them as part of a broader effort to increase oversight of online programs.

The department’s proposal would require colleges and universities to take attendance in distance education classes, which include those offered online or via correspondence. Institutions also would have to provide more information to the agency about those classes’ enrollment. Additionally, the department proposes to end any asynchronous options for students in online clock-hour programs, which are typically workforce training programs that lead to a certificate.

The proposed changes worry some higher education groups, which say they could hamper innovation, unfairly target online classes and limit access for students who could benefit from the flexibility that online education provides. The department and advocates say the new regulations are needed to ensure oversight of online education—which increased during and following the pandemic—and track the outcomes of students in those programs. In the 2022–23 academic year, about 53 percent of U.S. students enrolled in at least one online course.

Edward Conroy, a senior policy manager at New America, a left-leaning think tank, said the additional data will shed light on whether the programs are effective—and for which students.

“Schools should want this information, because if it’s not proving to be effective, then we need to find ways to improve it,” he said. “I don’t think online education is going away, and so if it’s going to be part of our lives, then we need to make it good.”

The proposals are part of a package of draft regulations that also include provisions to open up a federal college-prep program to undocumented students. The regulations were posted on the Federal Register last week and are open for public comments until Aug. 23. If they are finalized and issued before Nov. 1, they would take effect by July 1 of next year.

With this package and other regulatory changes still in the works , the Biden administration is aiming to better protect students and give them greater control over how their financial aid is used, while increasing oversight regarding colleges. Critics say the changes reflect the Education Department’s growing skepticism of the quality of online education and whether these programs pay off for students.

Jordan DiMaggio, vice president of policy and digital strategy at UPCEA, the online and professional education association, said that the department’s goals are laudable, but this proposal and other actions raise questions about the agency’s motivations.

“There’s questions on whether the department is truly focused on protecting students’ outcomes and taxpayer dollars,” he said. “Or do they kind of reveal an antiquated bias against online education that’s framed by some suspicion and distrust of the field as a whole?”

He added that the department’s rationale for some of the changes seems to be rooted in the assumption that online education is bad—and is drawing from data from the early days of the pandemic, when universities quickly switched to remote instruction.

“It sort of feels like using last month’s weather forecast to plan today’s outfit,” he said. “We’re looking at the worst of the worst in a time when [some] institutions had no idea how to teach online … We’re in a vastly different place.”

What the Department Wants to Change

The department says it’s simply trying to ensure that students are getting what they pay for with distance education programs. The various changes will help the department “better measure and account for student outcomes, improve oversight over distance education and ensure students are receiving effective education,” according to the proposed regulations. One big change: Colleges would be required to create a virtual location to house all their programs that are offered entirely online or through correspondence, which would not have to be approved by accreditors or state officials. ( Note: This paragraph originally stated that accreditors and state officials have to approve new virtual locations, and has been corrected to reflect that they do not. )

In 2022–23, a little over 3,700 institutions of higher education offered at least one distance education course. But current federal reporting requirements don’t distinguish between on-campus programs and those offered online or in a hybrid format. The department also can’t tell how much federal financial aid is going specifically to distance education programs. To address that information gap, the department is proposing new reporting requirements related to distance education enrollment along with the virtual location.

The reporting requirements would require colleges to break down whether students enrolled in a distance education course are fully online or hybrid, though the specific details have yet to be determined.

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Next, all distance education courses will have to take attendance as part of a proposal to more accurately determine when a student withdraws from a program, except for doctoral dissertation research courses. That withdrawal date is key to calculating how much federal financial aid should be returned to the government by either the institution or the student. The department says the proposal will help students better pay down any balance owed after they withdraw while simplifying the calculation for institutions.

DiMaggio and others said that implementing the attendance requirement will be complicated and likely require more systematic changes to institutions’ learning management systems and other software. The department is underestimating the difficulty institutions will face in complying, they say.

The department expects an institution to spend about 10 hours to initially implement the attendance requirement and then about 10 minutes a day to capture the necessary information for their records. The agency estimates that about half of the institutions offering distance education courses are already taking attendance.

“Institutions can often easily determine when students stop attending because a school’s systems can often identify when students submit assignments or interact with instructors and students during lectures and course discussions,” officials wrote.

DiMaggio said he doesn’t think that’s the case. “And many of our institutions have indicated to us that that’s not the case,” he added.

Another key change in this package rolls back a 2020 rule change that allowed asynchronous learning activities—such as watching a prerecorded video—to count toward the required number of clock hours in a distance education course. Clock-hour programs tend to be shorter term and career focused, requiring hands-on instruction to prepare students for employment in a certain field.

The 2020 change “puts students and taxpayers at risk,” officials wrote in the proposed rule, citing its oversight and compliance activities. Officials added that “asynchronous learning in clock-hour programs has often consisted of playing videos, reading assignments or scrolling through pages,” which results in a “substandard education” for students. Additionally, students have told the agency that a lack of direct engagement with instructors “hampered their ability to obtain the skills necessary to pass certification exams or obtain a job in their field.”

The department believes that “very few institutions” would be affected, though it doesn’t have data about how many programs include asynchronous elements.

Conroy of New America said that the changes to the distance education regulations reflect the “huge shift in how people go through higher education.” That includes more students enrolling in a mix of in-person and online classes.

“If that’s going to be a big part of how higher education is delivered, we need to know what’s happening with it, and we need to be able to provide students who enroll solely online with similar or the same protections if something goes sideways, as we do for students who enroll in person,” he said.

‘Needs to Be a Better Solution’

Critics of the proposal say that the department is making unnecessary and sweeping decisions in response to some bad practices, particularly when it comes to the changes to asynchronous learning activities in clock-hour programs.

“They’re right that there’s some really bad practices out there, but they’ve also said themselves that there are institutions that have spent a lot of money and spent a lot of time and effort in order to make sure that they’re right,” said Russell Poulin, executive director of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education’s Cooperative for Educational Technologies, or WCET. “There needs to be a better solution than this one.”

Poulin and others at WCET say the proposed changes will make it more complicated for institutions to offer distance education rather than simplifying processes. For example, complying with the attendance requirement is more complicated than just “counting noses.” For distance education, it’s not just a question of whether a student showed up or logged in but also whether they participated in the class. That would have to be determined by the faculty member reviewing a student’s file, they said, and measures of academic engagement could vary depending on how the class is structured.

“There are loads of little processes that get put into this that’s far from simplification,” Poulin said.

Emmanual Guillory, senior director of government relations at the American Council on Education, said that eliminating asynchronous instruction in the clock-hour programs could hinder students considered nontraditional, such as parents.

“Because they can do it at their own pace,” he said. “They’re working two or three jobs. They’re trying to support their families in whatever ways, and they don’t have the luxury to have a carved-out time every week to go sit in the classroom with their peers and learn. What you’re doing is you are limiting the ability of these students to access postsecondary education by using student aid funding, and this could have a huge impact on low-income students.”

Guillory added that the other changes, from the attendance requirement to the virtual location, will likely mean that colleges—some of which are already underresourced—will have to expend more resources and manpower to comply.

“It just adds more stress and burden upon the men and women on our campuses that are really trying to best produce quality academic programming, ensure teaching and learning on campuses, and it’s just more red tape that they have to deal with,” he said.

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Course fees for 2024 entry

The course fee you will be charged and the support available is determined by your fee status, which will be Home or Overseas

Course fees

The course fees paid by matriculated students* are for the provision of tuition, supervision, academic services and facilities by the University (including your department or faculty) and the colleges, but do not include residential or other living costs.

Up to and including the academic year 2018/19, separate figures have been published on the university website for university fees and for college fees: the total payable is the sum of these two figures. From the academic year 2019/20, course fees for matriculated students are published as a single figure. This change is intended to ensure that the total level of fees payable is in all cases completely clear. Home undergraduate and PGCE students can access a tuition fee loan from the UK government to cover their course fee in full.

The course fees you pay include your fees for both University and college services and are divided between the University (including your department or faculty) and your college on a formula basis. More details are available from the  Student Fees Team  on request.

*For an explanation of the term ‘matriculated students’, see our  Matriculation  page.

Home students

I feel very fortunate that I have faced no financial difficulties whatsoever at Oxford. This is entirely due to the extremely generous bursary support, which means I can focus on my studies (and hobbies) without financial anxiety. Chris

If you are a Home student undertaking your first undergraduate degree, the course fee for 2024 will be £9,250.

Home students can access a tuition fee loan from the UK government for the full amount of your course fee and  do not need to pay any fees upfront . 

If you wish to pay your own course fees upfront rather than accessing a loan, further information on the arrangements for this can be found in our  Payments and Refunds  and  Fee Liability  pages.

Previous study

If you are a Home student who has already completed a previous undergraduate programme of study you will be classed as an  Equivalent or Lower Qualification (ELQ)  student.  Your course fee for 2024 will be the same as the standard Home course fee rate, and you will not be eligible for any financial support from Oxford or the UK government. If you did not complete your course, you might not receive funding for the full length of your studies at Oxford.

Information for applicants from the EU, EEA and Switzerland

On 11 May 2021 the UK Council for International Student Affairs published  new regulations and guidance  to be used in assessing the fee status of students commencing courses in August 2021 and later. We will be using this guidance to carry out fee status assessments for students commencing courses in 2024/25, including students from the EU, EEA and Switzerland. 

If you are an EU national and do not live in the UK then you are likely to be charged Overseas fees. Students with settled and pre-settled status in the UK and some other categories of students who work in the UK can qualify for Home fee status as long as they meet the residence criteria.

Overseas students

If you are not classified as a 'Home' student you will be classed as an 'Overseas’ student and you should be aware that you will not be eligible for a tuition fee loan from the UK government. If you are an Overseas student, you will be charged a significantly higher level of course fee, which will vary according to your programme of study (see the  courses listing  for full details).

* Clinical medicine fees will be significantly higher for Overseas students, please visit the dedicated Fees and Funding section within the  Medicine course page  for full details.

Additional information for medical students

If you are a Home student on the six-year medicine course, you will have different course fee arrangements in years five and six. Course fees for UK students in these years of study will be covered by the NHS. Course fee support arrangements for ROI students in years five and six are not yet known. Visit the  Funding for UK Medical Students page  for more information. Medical students with Overseas fee status should note that the course fees for the clinical years of their course will be considerably higher.

How do I determine my fee status?

Your fee status is based upon where you usually live, your nationality, and in certain cases, the level of any previous study. Please visit our  fee status page  for more information.

Students with a full year abroad as a compulsory part of their degree

Home students will be required to pay a year abroad course fee of 15% of the full course fee that applies in that year. Overseas students will be charged a reduced rate of course fee for their year abroad. Visit the  Year Abroad Fees  page for further information on fee rates.

Changes to Fees and Charges

Fees and charges will usually increase annually. For details, please see our  guidance on likely increases to fees and charges .

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