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 research methods and you will work closely with your supervisors to define your research question and develop your thesis. In addition, you will 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.

Our DPhil offers students the opportunity to engage with internationally renowned faculty who are here to help you become an academic scholar.

The DPhil in Finance embraces subjects such as 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. During your first year, you will be required to attend taught causes where foundational economic and financial theory will be studied. Based on previous years, these may include, but are not limited to, modules that cover topics such as financial economics, microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics.

Following successful completion of all necessary courses, and by the end of your 4th term, you are expected to have successfully submitted and been assessed for your Transfer of Status. This process provides the opportunity to discuss your work with two independent members of staff under examination conditions and to receive feedback.

By the end of their 9th term you will be due to complete your Confirmation of Status. This process allows you to have your work reviewed by two assessors, to give a clear indication of whether it would be reasonable to consider submission within the course of a further three terms, if work on the thesis continues to develop satisfactorily.

You are expected to attend training, workshops and seminars on job applications, teaching, learning and assessing, interviewing and presentations skills. You'll will have the opportunity to improve your teaching and research skills by applying for remunerated positions as teaching and research assistants within the school or at colleges.

Thesis

The doctoral thesis should not exceed 100,000 words. It must be a significant and substantial contribution to the field of learning in finance. It should be good enough to be published in book form or as a series of academic articles. You may even adopt a range of different methodologies and approaches. Your contribution can be in the field of theory, methodology or empirical results.

The course fee in 2024-25 is £23,580

Fees usually increase annually, please see the University's guidance on likely increases to fees and charges.

Course fees are payable each year for the duration of your fee liability. Following the period of fee liability, you may also be required to pay a continuation charge. Information regarding continuation charges is available on the University's continuation charges page. 

For more information about fees, fee liability and continuation charges, please see the University's fees page.

Cost of living

Please view the University's living expenses page.

There are no compulsory elements of this course that entail additional costs beyond fees (or, after fee liability ends, continuation charges) and living costs. However, depending on your choice of research topic and the research required to complete it, you may incur additional expenses, such as travel expenses, research expenses, and field trips. You will need to meet these additional costs, although you may be able to apply for small grants from your department and/or college to help you cover some of these expenses.

Doctoral students admitted to our programme receive full funding over four years.

This includes course fees and an annual living expenses stipend. To maximise the overall availability of funding for candidates, we will identify suitable alternative scholarships and may ask you to submit funding applications. We also ask that you identify and pursue any other funding opportunities, including external funding.   

For some scholarships you are required to submit a scholarship essay and/or tick the relevant box in the Funding section of the application form.

2023

• University of Michigan Ross School of Business – Assistant Professor of Finance

2022

• Vanderbilt University – Assistant Professor of Finance
• Ivey Business School - Assistant Professor in Finance
• University of Warwick - Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• International Monetary Fund - Economist (Economist Program), Research Department

2020

• Harvard Business School - Post-Doctoral Fellow
• University of Hong Kong - Assistant Professor of Finance
• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Tinbergen Institute - Assistant Professor of Finance

2019

• Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland – Research Economist
• Indiana University – Assistant Professor of Finance

2018

• City University of Hong Kong - Assistant Professor