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Oxford University

Medical Sciences Doctoral Training Centre

The Medical Sciences Doctoral Training Centre (MSDTC) accommodates the interdisciplinary, cross-departmental DPhil programmes in medical sciences.

Looking through a microscope in a Medical Sciences Division laboratory.

Looking through a microscope in a Medical Sciences Division laboratory. Credit: Oxford University Images / Ian Wallman

Overview

The Medical Sciences Doctoral Training Centre offers several structured DPhil programmes, which provide students with the opportunity to undertake two or three rotation projects and relevant course work in their first year of each four-year structured programme. The main doctoral project starts in the second year of such programmes. Other programmes are wholly research based, allowing students to take a research project from the initial proposal through to submitting their thesis. Most of our programmes receive external core-funding, for example from Cancer Research UK, GSK, and EPSRC.

The MSDTC also accommodates the DPhil in Cancer Science programme funded by CRUK which welcomes applications from clinicians, basic scientists, and medical undergraduates, and the DPhil in Healthcare Data Science (EPSRC CDT), a four-year doctoral cohort-based training programme offering opportunities for doctoral study in computational statistics, machine learning, data engineering and infectious disease analytics. In 2025 the DPhil in Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (Oxford-GSK) was launched to provide a unique opportunity for clinical academics to gain early-career experience in industry-sponsored translational medicine.

Each programme has a distinctive intellectual flavour, designed to nurture independent and creative scientists. Students are supported in their development through:

  • supervision and mentoring by world-class academics training in a wide range of research techniques
  • a nurturing research culture with development of student resilience and maintenance of mental health and wellbeing from the start and throughout each programme
  • being part of a supportive community within individual programmes and across the multi-disciplinary MSDTC

Courses offered

Medical Sciences Division

The Medical Sciences Division houses some of the strongest biomedical research in the world; Oxford is repeatedly placed first in clinical, pre-clinical and health in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

The Medical Sciences Division at Oxford is an internationally recognised centre of excellence for biomedical and clinical research and teaching, made up of 16 departments.

The Medical Sciences Division's departments and institutes in Oxford and overseas are home to some of the strongest biomedical research in the world, regularly appearing at the highest levels in world rankings and rated world-leading and internationally excellent.

The division’s 2,000 researchers cover a wide range of research, from atomic-resolution molecular structural biology to epidemiology as applied to very large populations. This enables students to work on virtually any biomedical problem.

The division provides a stimulating and challenging environment for more than 2,000 talented graduate students with excellent new facilities and close personal supervision by world-class researchers. To complement research supervision and course teaching there is a wide range of facilities aimed at the personal and professional development of students, strengthening their existing skills and developing new skills.

All candidates who apply by the December or January deadline shown on the course page are automatically considered for full funding awards, irrespective of their nationality. The majority of students accepted by the Medical Sciences Division secure full funding, covering both fees and living expenses.

Further information