Social Policy & Intervention

The Social Policy and Intervention pathway at Oxford provides research training in two main areas, Comparative Social Policy (CSP) and Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation (EBSIPE).

1+3.5 route is available in either area, with training starting with a one-year MSc. Admission directly to the DPhil for +3.5 (3 and a half years full-time) candidates is possible if they have completed core training that meets the ESRC 2022 Training Guidelines.  Further information about the various courses can be found on the Department’s website:

• MSc Comparative Social Policy
• MSc Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation
• DPhil in Social Policy and DPhil in Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation

Recent activities include establishing links with policymakers, governments and non-governmental organisations in South Africa to encourage the adoption of our research findings into practice. One ESRC-funded student took part in a number of collaborations during her study (2011-14) to help provincial and local governments develop action plans for children affected by HIV. Under the ESRC Initiative on the UK in a Changing Europe funding scheme a student’s project aims to strengthen the evidence base that can inform political debate and policy in the UK. This concerns the practical opportunities and barriers that EU Citizens face in exercising social rights, housing, health care and education while living and working in the UK. ESRC doctoral students have also carried out internships in the Japanese Ministry of Health, the Rand Corporation and the World Health Organisation and a doctoral student has organised events for the ‘Open Forum: Working with EU Migrant Citizens in Oxfordshire’.

There is a wide range of arrangements in place to support research students’ career development, such as embedding them in the intellectual life of the department through the Research Groups which have regular meetings to foster intellectual exchange and debate or giving research students an opportunity to ‘pre-publish’ their work in the departmental working paper series.

A large number of former DPhil students have gone directly into academia, obtaining lectureships, assistant professorships, or postdoctoral positions at various research universities, including Bath, Bocconi, Brown, King’s College London, Kyoto, LSE, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Michigan and Oxford. Others enter senior policy roles in Governments, multilateral organisations and NGOs.