Finance (Research)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/courses/ucas-listings?course=dphil-finance

Our doctoral training will immerse you in all aspects of academic life.

You will be both a student and a junior research colleague. We provide courses in a wide variety of methods and specialist, subject-specific theory. You will work closely with your supervisors to define your research question and develop your thesis. You will also have opportunities to gain teaching and research assistant experience and become involved with the intellectual community within both Saïd Business School and the wider University. You will attend academic conferences, make presentations, organise lectures and seminars and contribute to management and academic decisions.

Both of our doctoral programmes run in parallel, with only differences in taught courses and preparation for writing in relevant journals to your subject of choice.

We have deliberately kept the programmes small which means that in the vast majority of cases, students are fully funded to allow them to devote their energies to research. The DPhil corresponds to a PhD degree offered at most other universities.

Examples of previous research topics include asset-pricing and corporate finance, the design and regulation of securities markets, corporate financial policy, and the impact of financial markets on real economic activity.