Applicants should explore the MPhil PHS course website and pre-application self-screening tool before completing their application. 

Applicants should carefully follow all instructions given here and in the Applicant Portal. 

Before applying, applicants should consider how they will address each of the questions on the application form. Your answer to each question should be no more than the stated character limit: we value clarity and succinctness, and longer answers may impact negatively on the impression you create. 

Please note that we are interested in your academic motivation for taking this course. We explicitly discourage the use of personal anecdotes describing the particular circumstances of an individual’s poor health or death to illustrate a desire to pursue a career in population health. Please remember that our discipline is about populations rather than about individuals. More guidance on this (from medicine, but applicable more widely) is available on ethics of confidentiality, storytelling ethics, and ethics of medical memoirs.  

Guidance on specific questions: 

Career goals

Candidates must be clear why they are doing the MPhil and how it will help them to achieve a career in population health sciences in service, academic or other settings. Include mention of how this MPhil will impact both your longer term (5 to 10 year) and shorter term (1 or 2 year) career options. (1000 character limit)   

Verification of Qualifications

Please confirm (answer yes or no) that your qualifications meet all the course entry requirements (check entry requirements on the course website and then verify international qualifications if necessary). If you do not fully meet these course entry requirements, please explain why your application should be considered (300 characters). 

Statement of interest

Explain why you are interested specifically in this MPhil course. Briefly discuss two population health problems that interest you and align with material taught in our modules (see course website) including some causes and potential solutions to those problems. (2500 character limit) 

Relevant Experience

describe how your prior experience (research, academic, work, extra-curricular) might be relevant to your application for this MPhil, and your success on the course. (1000 character limit) 

Maths and Stats experience

Explain how your previous experience in maths and statistics has helped prepare you for the course. Your response must include reflection on your engagement with our pre-application mathematics and statistics self-screening tool on our website. (1000 character limit) 

Theme choice

Consider your first and second choice specialisation theme to follow. Note that while this is necessary for triage in our admissions process, at this stage your choice of theme is indicative, and can be changed during the course. Your prospects of admittance to the course will be enhanced if your interests, qualifications and experience align well with the themes you indicate.  You are required to select your first and second choice from: Epidemiology, Global Health, Health Data Science, Infectious Diseases, Primary Care Research, Public Health.

Widening Participation

In support of our widening participation, equality and diversity goals, we are keen to take the full context of your education into account when assessing your application and allocating our limited number of departmental scholarships. In the UK, applicant circumstances that might fit with this goal include, for example: 

• Having been eligible for Free School Meals at secondary school 
• Having spent at least three months in the care of your Local Authority whilst at secondary school 
• Living for the majority of your secondary school years in an area of high deprivation, as defined by the UK government’s IMD postcode database, ranking 16250 or less (check your postcode at that time here: https://imd-by-postcode.opendatacommunities.org/imd/2019) 
• Living for the majority of your secondary school years in an area where it is unusual for young people to go to university, as defined by the UK government’s POLAR4 classification database, falling into Quintile 1 or 2 (check your postcode at that time here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/young-participation-by-area/search-by-postcode/) 
• Being in the first generation of your family to go to university 
• Entering undergraduate study as a mature student (21 or over) 
• Being, or becoming during the course of your full-time undergraduate course, a single parent, lone foster parent, or lone guardian of a person who is aged under 18 and/or still in full-time education 
• Being estranged from immediate family or care-givers for the duration of your undergraduate course (for more information on what estrangement is, see http://www.thestandalonepledge.org.uk/) 
• Being a full-time undergraduate student with caring responsibilities for an ill or disabled family member who could not manage without this help 
• Being in receipt of full state support for maintenance for your undergraduate course 

This list is unlikely to be exhaustive, and other markers of significant adversity may apply in other countries. Please do tell us about relevant circumstances that may be specific to you and your context if you would like to answer this question. (Note: this question is optional; 2000 character limit)