MSc Mathematics and the Foundations of Computer Science (2025-2026 Entry)
7. Role of the Supervisors
7.1 “General” supervisor
In assigning general supervisors, your background and indicated interests have been taken into account.
Your general supervisor will be responsible for guiding you through the course. You should see him/her almost as soon as you arrive, and in particular in the week before teaching starts, to discuss the range of courses that you propose to take. There is no need to know exactly at this stage but it is important to discuss your background in mathematics and/or computer science so that your supervisor can assess whether taking particular courses is realistic, and whether you are taking a sufficiently coherent set of courses (especially in the first term) to ensure a passage through the remainder of the year.
Your supervisor will also be able to give you guidance on material that they think is appropriate for you to study by yourself to prepare you for courses that you want to take, either by reading, or by attending undergraduate
lecture courses that do not feature within the MFoCS list of courses. (This is especially true of courses given in Hilary term for which you may lack some of the prerequisites.)
More generally, you should keep in contact with your supervisor, and in particular let him/her know exactly which courses you finally decide to take for assessment. He/she is also the person who can give you general guidance.
During the second term in January, you should expect to have a preliminary discussion of the general area in which you will be hoping to write your dissertation. Often you will find that the most appropriate person to talk
to after that is the person who has given lectures in that area, but your supervisor may well suggest that there are others to whom you should talk.
At this time too, your supervisor will provide you with some feedback on your performance in the mini projects on the previous term’s courses, and will be the person who formally reports on your work to the Director of
Graduate Studies for Taught Degrees and to your college.
Your general supervisor is also responsible for ensuring that you find a dissertation supervisor. This may seem a hard task, but in practice there has rarely been any difficulty at this stage. While then you will be working with
your dissertation supervisor (primarily during Trinity term), your general supervisor will still be the person with overall responsibility for you, as before.
Those acting as general supervisors are experienced in the MFoCS programme and it is not necessary that they be experts in the particular direction that you plan to take; it may turn out that they will also be your dissertation supervisor, but this is most often not the case.
Your supervisor may not help you with your mini projects as such. However, he/she may answer general questions by directing you to appropriate reference material, but not to answer specific questions relating to the actual mini project. In the case where English is not your native language, supervisors are allowed to see a draft of mini projects and to comment on grammar, spelling and usage only.
Your general supervisor can also read and comment on a draft of your dissertation – especially with regard to its general presentation.
7.2 “Dissertation” supervisor
Your dissertation supervisor will guide you while you are preparing and writing your dissertation. Normally, students “find” their dissertation supervisor before the end of Hilary term so that they can start some specialised reading after completing that term’s mini projects, and before the beginning of Trinity term. At the beginning of that term, you should prepare a “dissertation proposal” with your intended dissertation supervisor and submit it for approval. It is normal to have around eight meetings with your dissertation supervisor, mainly during Trinity term, but possibly continuing into July, but the exact arrangements are made mutually. Your supervisor will read and provide feedback on the initial draft of your dissertation (provided that it is submitted to them in good time!).
Your dissertation supervisor will normally be a faculty member or senior postdoc. If you would like to be supervised by someone more junior you should consult the Course Director, who will need to approve any such
arrangement, possibly with the involvement of a more senior co-supervisor.
Your dissertation supervisor should normally be based in the Mathematical Institute, the Department of Computer Science or the Department of Statistics; if you are considering a potential supervisor outside these departments or outside Oxford, you should consult the Course Director at an early stage. Also, if work on your dissertation should require you to work out of Oxford at any point during Trinity term, you must consult the Course Director before making any arrangements.