Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, this year a special exception has been made for students in your position.  You should email graduate.admissions@admin.ox.ac.uk to explain that you wish to apply to ILESLA in addition to the other three applications you have submitted, and they will advise you on the next steps to achieve that.  This is only in place this year, and next year ILESLA will be one of the three applications you can make.

Please note, this is only the case where you had already submitted your three applications prior to the announcement!!  Students who have not yet submitted an application or have only submitted one or two applications are still subject to the maximum three applications rule. 

Not necessarily.  If the programmes are in related fields you can apply for up to three programmes and only pay one application fee.  You need to contact graduate.admissions@admin.ox.ac.uk to get a waiver code, or for any other questions that relate to the application form itself.

In addition some students do not have to pay an application fee at all, this is classed as a fee waiver.

If you have a collaborative project then you may work with a supervisory team consisting of supervisors from more than one ILESLA organisation and conduct research in more than one location, but your lead supervisor will be in the institution you are registered at. During the rotation phase you will be required to undertake at least one rotation with a lead supervisor in the institution you are registered at. You cannot transfer institutions in order to undertake a substantive doctoral project with a primary supervisor employed by a different institution after acceptance.

You can apply to more than one institution, depending on your research interests and potential supervisors. If you have separate projects and potential supervisors at more than one institution in mind, it could well be appropriate to apply to two or three institutions, depending on where lead supervisor for each would be based. If you apply to more than one institution and are shortlisted for interview you will be interviewed only once for entry to all the institutions you have applied to. However, it is essential that you submit an application form for each institution you wish to be considered for entry to.

AI may be used to assist in researching application materials, but any submitted documents must be written by you and must adhere to our plagiarism policy, and any text that is not your own should be referenced. All supporting documents must be in English, unless stated otherwise on your course page.  

Supporting documents may not be translated into English by an AI tool, as our academic assessors need to understand your powers of expression in English. Our application assessors will be evaluating your ability to undertake critical analysis, so using AI for more than assistance with initial research is likely to reduce your chances of success.      

If academic assessors consider that inappropriate use of AI was made in application documents, they may reject your application. Please note that AI technology to assist with a disability (such as voice recognition software for transcription or spelling and grammar checkers) may be used.  

No, you do not need a project proposal.  You will apply to one of the five research themes and you will state that research theme in the field where you would normally put a project title, on the application form. 

It is helpful to our admissions processes if you indicate any research areas you are particularly interested in or specific groups that you are interested in working with.

No, your application(s) should be based on whether there is an eligible supervisor based at that university.  We are working collaboratively across the six hosting partners and so theme leads are drawn from all of them across the themes.

No, it's not a requirement and is not considered as a factor during admissions.

No, we do not support research focused on specific human diseases and human disease processes or abnormal conditions. We do support some research into viruses that spread from animals to humans, in particular via research at The Pirbright Institute.

We normally require a 2.1 or a Masters degree (which can supersede a 2.2). We do also take relevant experience gained through employment into account. 

We welcome applications from students who are interested in changing disciplines and can support applicants in identifying suitable training opportunities to help with this transition during their studies. In your application you may wish to explain why you are interested in making this change and how your previous experiences demonstrate your ability to learn and give you a unique perspective.   

We are able to allocate up to 30% of our UKRI-funded places to international students. International students may additionally be considered for a range of scholarships offered by the University of Oxford and other partners. Applicants can find more information on the scholarships they may be eligible for at the University of Oxford here: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/fees-and-funding/fees-funding-a....

There are processes by which international tier 4 students can extend their visa to continue their course and complete their studies when required as long as they are still registered at their institution. However, we generally try to support students to submit within 4 years (or the part-time equivalent).   

No, we expect students to apply to and remain registered at a specific institution unless their primary supervisor moves to a new institution, in which case appropriate action can be considered.  

Students at the University of Oxford are funded through a variety of funding mechanisms including programme or department-specific studentships and University-wide scholarships. Therefore, while a department and ILESLA each award specific funding opportunities, they may both also nominate candidates to the same University scholarships. 

Leave this section blank.  You will automatically be considered for funding by ILESLA and will be put forward for any other scholarships for which you are eligible.   

Once students accept their offer, we will meet with them to discuss their personal circumstances and agree the optimal solution to address their individual circumstances. Students who are planning to undertake their doctoral research at a site some distance from Oxford (e.g. The Pirbright Institute or the Open University) will normally be encouraged to be resident in or near Oxford (their normal place of work) during their first term where feasible (or for their first six months if they are likely to undertake one rotation in Oxford or at Harwell and then move to another institution). If it is not feasible for students to be resident in Oxford, arrangements for remote or hybrid working can be made. Students undertaking a rotation at the Pirbright Institute will be able to request free accommodation in Pirbright-owned accommodation for the duration of their rotation. After their first term students will be able to request reasonable travel expenses to attend ILESLA events in Oxford or at other partner sites if they work with, and live locally to, geographically-distant partners such as Open University or The Pirbright Institute. 

ILESLA offers a range of core and advanced training courses, with a particular focus on computational and quantitative skills, and students can, to a certain extent, select courses at a relevant level or with relevant content in consultation with their programme mentor. As we are an interdisciplinary programme that supports students in developing the ability to collaborate effectively across disciplines you will be exposed to a wide range of research topics during your studies.

If this course is relevant to your project, and the course running at the same time in the DTC is not, then it is possible to sign up for external courses, or to undertake relevant training at a later date. All students develop an individually tailored training plan in consultation with their programme mentor.

Yes, many DTC courses are offered across multiple programmes, but they do often run concurrently so you will need to consider in consultation with your programme director which will serve your interests and professional development best.

No, the training network with E5 and other programmes is for short, specialised training courses rather than PhD projects.  It is possible for students to have an external co-supervisor who is employed by a non-ILESLA organisation in cases where their expertise would benefit the project, but this would be in addition to the core ILESLA supervisory team.  

All part-time students need to commit at least 50% of their time to doctoral study, but specific arrangements may vary between students, so we will develop an individually-tailored training plan for each student. Where it is not possible for a student to attend a course full-time it will be possible to spread training across multiple terms, for students to attend some courses remotely/hybrid or for students to use lecture recordings and course material to study independently with support from mentors. Where possible we encourage students to attend induction and initial training courses full time, but we appreciate that this may not be possible for all students.

The initial training programme (September-December) and our core professional development programme is based at the Doctoral Training Centre in Oxford. Rotation projects (January-July) may be undertaken with any of the six partner organisations, and in some cases in collaboration with collaborative or Open-IIC partners.

In the UK data on participation in higher education is collected and published by HESA: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/. You can read more about the University of Oxford's work to support graduate access here: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/access.

The Intelligent Earth CDT is primarily about developing new AI techniques in Environmental Science. As it is a CDT, it is a far more focused programme and is funded by NERC so is limited to NERC remit projects. The remit of the ILESLA programme is far broader and spans the remit of two Research Councils. AI would constitute only one of many possible Transformative Technologies within the programme and there will be many projects not involving AI in ILESLA.