Architectural History (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 via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.

The DPhil in Architectural History is an advanced research degree, awarded on the basis of successful completion of an individual research thesis and an oral examination.

The course has links with other parts of the University, particularly the Faculty of History, the Department of History of Art, and Kellogg College, amongst the fellows of which is the largest concentration of architectural historians associated with the University.

The part-time DPhil regulations require a period of five to eight years’ part-time study. You may be required to undertake appropriate research training provided within the department. Doctoral training is provided through the department’s Graduate School, and other agreed learning requirements (eg foreign languages) can draw on the resources of both the department and the wider University.

You will be strongly encouraged to participate in seminars and informal meetings with staff and other researchers both within the department and elsewhere in the University. The major commitment of time will be to individual study and research, involving wide and intense reading, data collection (which may include fieldwork) and analysis, and writing.