6. Choices

6.1 Exit Points

We hope, and expect, that you will enjoy studying Mathematics and Philosophy at Oxford and will successfully complete your degree. A high proportion of those admitted to read Mathematics & Philosophy elect to stay for 4 years to complete the MMathPhil; of the remainder, almost all obtain the B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy after 3 years. Some students may opt to switch to another Oxford course or, exceptionally, to a course at another university.

6.1.1 Three Years or Four Years?

The choice of which degree you take will be based on your interests and aptitudes, your performance in the first three years and your career intentions. You may wish to discuss your decision with your college tutors, who will be able to advise you on which course is more appropriate for you.

You will need to achieve overall a 2.1 or better in your second and third year exams to progress to Part C.

By default, all students are registered for the MMathPhil. If you subsequently decide to take the BA option you must inform your college office who will in turn inform the central administration and the departments. Around the time that you enter for your Part B examinations you will be asked to confirm whether or not you intend to stay for the fourth year. The decision you declare at this point is not immutable, but should be final if at all possible, and you are strongly advised to take a final decision before the start of your Part B examinations. Please ensure that you have consulted your college tutor(s) before making your decision. It is important that your college knows your intentions as early as possible in order to plan for the following year.

It could happen that, having embarked upon your fourth year, you are for whatever reason unable to complete the Part C course, or decide that you do not wish to do so. In these circumstances you are advised to discuss your situation with your college’s Senior Tutor at the earliest opportunity. Students who withdraw partway through Part C will graduate with a BA degree.

6.1.2 Changing Course

We very much hope, and in the great majority of cases can confidently expect, that you will do well in this course and benefit from your studies. At the same time, you should not feel that your original choice is irrevocable if it is not turning out as you had anticipated. In any degree course, a very few who embark upon it may come to feel it is not the right course for them. Mathematics & Philosophy is no exception and a few students doing the course change to another (and a few doing some other course change to Mathematics & Philosophy).

If you feel that you should change course, the best thing to do is to be patient at first. You may be finding the course difficult or overwhelming but this is perfectly natural and your tutors are there to help and support you. You should seek their advice, and maybe share your feelings with your fellow students: you may not be alone in your feelings, and they may be able to help. You are not in competition with them, and it is good to get into the habit of helping and being helped. Despite this, you may decide that the course is not right for you. 

If you are considering changing from Mathematics & Philosophy to another Oxford course, the possibilities are to change to Mathematics, to some other course involving Philosophy, or to an entirely different course. The latter is the most radical and its feasibility depends on particular interests, background and circumstances. The first two are generally more feasible. You will find it helpful to talk to fellow students on the course or courses to which you might like to change and to consult the University Prospectus and course documentation available on the web. Normally your college will have admitted you to read for a specific undergraduate degree (consisting of the sequence of First Public Examination followed by Final Honour School). If you wish to explore the possibility of changing course, first talk to one of your current tutors or, if you prefer, to the Senior Tutor or to someone else in your college with responsibility for academic welfare of students. After that, talk to tutors in the subject to which you wish to change.

If you have already made a substantial start on your course then it is likely that your tutors will advise you to stay with it until you have completed your First Public Examination. By proceeding in this way you may be able to change course without losing a year, since you must pass a First Public Examination in some course or other before you can proceed to any Final Honour School and any First Public Examination counts as a qualification for any Final Honour School.

Changing to Mathematics, or another course joint with Mathematics

If you are considering changing to Mathematics (or to Mathematics & Statistics) before Prelims, then you need to be aware that besides catching up on course work in applied mathematics that you will have missed, you may also need to work through the Computational Mathematics course and submit the required Computational Mathematics projects (see the Mathematics Course Handbook for details).

To change to single-subject Mathematics after Prelims will involve studying over the summer some of the material examined in the two Applied Mathematics papers of Prelims in Mathematics. Your tutors will advise you what to concentrate on. 

Changing to another course joint with Philosophy

Philosophy is studied at Undergraduate level in Oxford only in combination with other subjects. You will need to look at these other combinations to decide which would be best for you in terms of your interest and background. The Undergraduate Prospectus, and the Handbooks for each course available on the Philosophy website, will give you basic information. 

Changing to another Oxford course: the formalities 

If you decide you do want to change course, there are three bodies that must approve: your college, the University, and those who are paying for you. Permission from your college will be needed for change to another course. This is liable to be refused if the receiving tutors think you unsuited to their course, or don’t have room. The University is unlikely to be a problem, as it accepts for any examination all candidates who are suitably qualified and supported by their colleges. However, a few departments do have quotas for acceptance on to the courses taught in them; so it always best to speak to your college about changing to another course in the first instance. See below as regards financial issues in connection with a change of course.

Moving to another university

The most occasional change is to decide to study at another university, either because the course you realise you want to do isn’t offered at Oxford, or because you feel that you will do better somewhere else. Before deciding to pursue such a step be sure to get lots of advice, both from tutors and from family and friends. If in the end this is the right choice for you, you should be able to ask your college to support your application for a place at another university.

6.1.3 Financial Issues

Please be aware that any change to your choice of degree may impact on your level of maintenance funding and the time taken to receive your student loan. You are advised to contact Student Finance, https://www.gov.uk/student-financefor further enquiries. If you have financial support for your studies from an award, scholarship, or sponsorship, this is likely to be on the basis of the specific course you are pursuing, in which case permission from your funding body to change course, even within Oxford, will be required if this support is to continue. You will need to ask your Senior Tutor to write to your funding body to certify that you have been given permission to change course.

The MMathPhil is recognized as a masters-level qualification. For students not classified as Overseas, there may be adverse financial consequences in taking the MMathPhil (rather than the BA) if they wish thereafter to take another masters-level taught course. This arises because of ELQ (Equivalent or Lower Qualifications) fee liabilities: universities do not receive any government funding for ELQ students and consequently adopt a special ELQ fees rate, which is likely to be roughly double that of the standard fee for graduate taught courses. Information can be found at https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/fees-funding/fees/elq.