OCMS (www.ocms.ac.uk) -
The Oxford Centre for Mission Studies
Advancing Holistic Mission through Scholarly Engagement

THE PROCESS OF STUDY

To guide such multi-faceted research in and on many different locations of the world, OCMS helps students to discover the subject to investigate which will motivate them to research it and will eventually assist the church to undertake her mission in that particular area.

Once a researcher is admitted to the research programme, OCMS works with a researcher on developing their research focus, the problem that they are researching and the most appropriate method for undertaking the research.

Preparing a Research Topic

Next, OCMS seeks to identify and approach the most suitable supervisors for that particular project anywhere in Britain or beyond. A supervisor more local to the student’s own workplace may also be found to ensure that the student is not left without guidance away from Oxford. Academics are keen to benefit from the first-hand knowledge of mature students in the area of their own research interest, so are often willing to take on some supervisory responsibility for OCMS scholars on top of whatever institutional commitment they might have.

Much effort is put into electronic communications so that the student feels, as one has expressed it, as informed as if they were at OCMS itself.

OCMS has been at the forefront of a shift towards using supervisory teams, with two or three or even more qualified academics guiding the student in different aspects or stages of the work. When these are in place, one is appointed as Director of Studies to ensure a sufficiently common purpose in the direction for the student. British universities are now discovering how often the precious relationship between a research student and a single supervisor over several years can go wrong for many reasons. In OCMS' process an academic is always available to whom the student can turn, and mechanisms exist for keeping supervisory activity going through all the changes of life.

Up-to-date information is disseminated to the student of and through the Internet

Each student is given an e-mail address which can be accessed online from anywhere in the world. OCMS has its own library with PCs and carrels for personal study. There are 101 libraries in Oxford, making it an exceptionally concentrated centre of international library and archive resources. For instance there are 90 journals housed in the city dealing with Africa. Library holdings, including those of OCMS which is a member of the Oxford Library Information System, can be searched online. OCMS research students are given Bodleian reader cards for the whole length of their course.

Examination is of the thesis alone. There are no mandatory courses or unseen examinations. Everything depends on the quality of the student’s own research. To stimulate researchers to come up to the required standards of public knowledge, there is a weekly open lecture, when usually visiting academics communicate some of the latest research in areas of interest and a weekly research seminar. As these help culture a fellowship of research in OCMS and show how various kinds of research can best be organized, they are essential part of the process of all research students coming up to the academic speed of Oxford, failitating the broadening of the mind, and perceiving connections in our one world which had not before been traced. The standard of British University doctorates requires that over the course of a research degree, the student should acquire a whole range of skills.

Research skills

For the weekly seminar research students will, usually annually, present a paper, distributed beforehand, for academic discussion. Students are informed of, and encouraged to participate in, seminars and lectures in the University of Oxford and elsewhere, which are relevant to their own research.

Research Programme Guide



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This page last edited on Thursday, 18th June 2009 by WILLIAMS, Andrew

   

 
Study Programmes