M.St. International Human Rights Law, Oxford

Hi all,

Wondering if there are any prospective or current students for this program. Wanting to get your thoughts and perspectives on admission requirements, how to manage the program with full-time work, and value-add to your career.

By way of background, I hold a BA in IR and an LLB from a University of London uni with a mid 2.1 (around 66%). 5+ years work experience in the humanitarian sector including in the field (Middle East) in refugee response and emergency management, and a few (now aged) publications. Would be looking to focus my courses and thesis on the intersection of emergency management and international human rights law in crisis situations.

Thank you in advance!

Postgrads don't tend to stick around so you may not get many responses from current or previous students. You may want to check out the Oxford forum even though it's mainly undergrads. The Oxford postgrad applicants thread is here. Are you doing the course full time or part time? Either way you will not be able to work full time and if you do you really need to check that with the uni as I think they actively discourage that. Masters courses are very demanding and you don't want to overstretch yourself and end up with a bad result after the effort time and money this requires. All admissions info will be on the website. You may also want to start thinking about who may be potential supervisors if you have a topic in mind and get talking to them early. Having fixed ideas about what you want to do is good but you have to be prepared to be flexible if there isn't someone who can supervise you.

Thanks alleycat393, this is really helpful. I will indeed follow up in the other fora you suggest.
The course itself is a distance education course, so meant to be completed over two years with the presumption that the student is working part or full-time alongside studies. Believe there are two in-house five-week sessions as part of the course.

Regarding reaching out to supervisors, is it standard to reach out to supervisors/faculty with a topic of interest in mind prior to applying to the course? Thanks for any input you have!

Ah ok. I didn’t realise it’s a distance learning course. It’s really a question of managing your time well and using the resources available to you. Make sure you take the time to study do your work and get some downtime. Having supportive people around you also helps.

It isn’t common for masters courses really but it’s a good idea if you’re fixed on certain ideas. If you’re decided on the course irrespective then you can start talking to potential supervisors after you’re on the course. However depending on a number of factors it may help to show that you’re keen and enthusiastic about the course.