MSc in Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science

Mathematics research students collaborating

(Image Credit: Antonio de Capua / Graduate Photography Competition)

Last updated

17 Apr 2024

HomeAdmissionsGraduateCoursesMSc in Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science

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About the course

The MSc in Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science, run jointly by the Mathematical Institute and the Department of Computer Science is a full time course which focuses on the interface between pure mathematics and theoretical computer science.

The mathematical side concentrates on areas where computers are used, or which are relevant to computer science, namely algebra, general topology, number theory, combinatorics and logic. Examples from the computing side include computational complexity, concurrency, and quantum computing. Students take a minimum of five options and write a dissertation. Apart from the dissertation about 75% is taught content and 25% is self-directed learning.

The course is suitable for those who wish to pursue research in pure mathematics (especially algebra, number theory, combinatorics, general topology and their computational aspects), mathematical logic, or theoretical computer science. It is also suitable for students wishing to enter industry with an understanding of mathematical and logical design and concurrency.

The course runs from the beginning of October through to the end of September, including the dissertation.

Supervision

The allocation of graduate supervision for this course is the responsibility of the Mathematical Institute and/or the Department of Computer Science and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Under exceptional circ*mstances a supervisor may be found outside the Mathematical Institute and/or the Department of Computer Science.

Assessment

The course will consist of examined lecture courses, usually taught as lectures supported by classes in groups of 8-10, and a written dissertation.

The lecture courses will be divided into two sections:

Section A: Mathematical Foundations
Section B: Applicable Theories

Each section will be divided into schedule I (basic) and schedule II (advanced). Students will be required to satisfy the examiners in at least two courses taken from section B and in at least two courses taken from schedule II. The majority of these courses should be given in the first two terms.

During Trinity term and over the summer students should complete a dissertation on an agreed topic. The dissertation must bear regard to course material from section A or section B. 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.Between terms there is work on take-home exams (mini projects).

It is intended that a major feature of this course is that candidates should show a broad knowledge and understanding over a wide range of material. Consequently, each lecture course taken will receive an assessment upon its completion by means of a test based on written work. Students will be required to pass five courses that include two courses from section B and two at the schedule II level - these need not be distinct - and the dissertation.The dissertation is marked by the supervisor and a second marker, and the final mark is based on their reports as well as a short compulsory viva held in September.The dissertation submission date is around the beginning of September and you must submit your dissertation proposals by Friday week 2 TT.

Graduate destinations

Graduates pursue careers in research into mathematics and/or computer science or industry.

Changes to this course and your supervision

The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. The safety of students, staff and visitors is paramount and major changes to delivery or services may have to be made in circ*mstances of a pandemic, epidemic or local health emergency. In addition, in certain circ*mstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.

Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include illness, sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.

For further information please see our page on changes to courses and the provisions of the student contract regarding changes to courses.

Entry requirements for entry in 2024-25

Proven and potential academic excellence

The requirements described below are specific to this course and apply only in the year of entry that is shown. You can use our interactive tool to help youevaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive.

Please be aware that any studentships that are linked to this course may have different or additional requirements and you should read any studentship information carefully before applying.

Degree-level qualifications

As a minimum, applicants should hold or be predicted to achieve the following UK qualifications or their equivalent:

a first-class undergraduate degree with honours ina subject with significant mathematical content.

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA sought is 3.7 out of 4.0.

If your degree is not from the UK or another country specified above, visit our International Qualifications page for guidance on the qualifications and grades that would usually be considered to meet the University’s minimum entry requirements.

GRE General Test scores

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

Other qualifications, evidence of excellence and relevant experience

Publications are not expected.

English language proficiency

This course requires proficiency in English at the University'shigher level. If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence that you meet this requirement.The minimum scores required to meet the University's higher level are detailed in the table below.

Minimum scores required to meet the University's higher level requirement
Test	Minimum overall score	Minimum score per component
IELTS Academic (Institution code: 0713)	7.5	7.0
TOEFL iBT, including the 'Home Edition' (Institution code: 0490)	110	Listening: 22 Reading: 24 Speaking: 25 Writing: 24
C1 Advanced*	191	185
C2 Proficiency^†	191	185

*Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English or Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE)
^†Previously known as the Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English or Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)

Your test must have been taken no more than two years before the start date of your course. Our Application Guide providesfurther information about the English language test requirement.

Declaring extenuating circ*mstances

If your ability to meet the entry requirements has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (eg you were awarded an unclassified/ungraded degree) or any other exceptional personal circ*mstance (eg other illness or bereavement), please refer to the guidance on extenuating circ*mstances in the Application Guide for information about how to declare this so that your application can be considered appropriately.

References

You will need to register three referees whocan give an informed view of your academic ability and suitability for the course.TheHow to applysection of this page provides details of the types of reference that are required in support of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Supporting documents

You will be required to supply supporting documents with your application. TheHow to applysection of this page provides details of the supporting documents that are required as part of your application for this course and how these will be assessed.

Performance at interview

Interviews may be held as part of the admissions process, at the discretion of the Admissions Panel and the Supervisory Committee.

If you are shortlisted for interview you will usually be notified within one month of the application deadline which you met. Where applications are still accepted after the final standard University deadline, you will be informed whether or not you areinvited for interview shortly after applications close. In both cases you should expect to receive one to two weeks’ notice of an interview and it is expected that interviews will take place around five to six weeks after an application deadline.

If invited you can expect to be interviewed by at least two people. The interview could take place face-to-face, by telephone or video link such as Teams.

The major part of the interview will be the technical interview in which you will be asked questions on material relevant to the course. In addition, you will be asked why you would like to undertake the course and there will be opportunity for you to ask questions (although these questions are not taken into account when assessing interview performance).

How your application is assessed

Your application will be assessed purely on your proven and potential academic excellence and other entry requirements described under that heading.

Referencesandsupporting documentssubmitted as part of your application, and your performance at interview (if interviews are held) will be considered as part of the assessment process.Whether or not you have secured funding will not be taken into consideration when your application is assessed.

An overview of the shortlisting and selection process is provided below. Our 'After you apply'pages providemore information about how applications are assessed.

Shortlisting and selection

Students are considered for shortlisting and selected for admission without regard to age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief (including lack of belief), sex, sexual orientation, as well as other relevant circ*mstances including parental or caring responsibilities or social background. However, please note the following:

Initiatives to improve access to graduate study

This course is taking part in a continuing pilot programme to improve the selection procedure for graduate applications, in order to ensure that all candidates are evaluated fairly.

For this course, socio-economic data (where it has been provided in the application form) will be used to contextualise applications at the different stages of the selection process.Further information about how we use your socio-economic datacan be found in our page about initiatives to improve access to graduate study.

If you wish, you may submit an additional contextual statement (using the instructions in the How to apply section of this page) to provide further information on your socio-economic background or personal circ*mstances in support of your application.Further information about how your contextual statement will be usedcan be found in our page about initiatives to improve access to graduate study.

Processing your data for shortlisting and selection

Information aboutprocessing special category data for the purposes of positive actionandusing your data to assess your eligibility for funding, can be found in our Postgraduate Applicant Privacy Policy.

Admissions panels and assessors

All recommendations to admit a student involve the judgement of at least two members of the academic staff with relevant experience and expertise, and must also be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies or Admissions Committee (or equivalent within the department).

Admissions panels or committees will always include at least one member of academic staff who has undertaken appropriate training.

Other factors governing whether places can be offered

The following factors will also govern whether candidates can be offered places:

the ability of the University to provide the appropriate supervision for your studies, as outlined under the 'Supervision' heading in theAboutsection of this page;
the ability of the University to provide appropriate support for your studies (eg through the provision of facilities, resources, teaching and/or research opportunities); and
minimum and maximum limits to the numbers of students who may be admitted to the University's taught and research programmes.

Offer conditions for successful applications

If you receive an offer of a place at Oxford, your offer willoutline any conditions that you need to satisfy and any actions you need to take, together with any associated deadlines.These may include academic conditions, such as achieving a specific final grade in your current degree course. These conditions will usually depend on your individual academic circ*mstances and may vary between applicants. Our 'After you apply'pages provide moreinformation about offers and conditions.

In addition to any academic conditions which are set, you will also be required to meet the following requirements:

Financial Declaration

If you are offered a place, you will be required to complete aFinancial Declarationin order to meet your financial condition of admission.

Disclosure of criminal convictions

In accordance with the University’s obligations towards students and staff, we will ask you to declare anyrelevant, unspent criminal convictionsbefore you can take up a place at Oxford.

Resources

The Mathematical Institute’s home is the purpose-built Andrew Wiles Building, opened in 2013. This provides ample teaching facilities for lectures, classes and seminars. The Mathematical Institute provides six lecture theatres and six classrooms.

The Mathematical Institute provides IT support and the department's Whitehead Library, where students will find an extensive range of books and journals. A shared study room with desktop computers is located in the Mathematical Institute for MSc in Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science students.

Graduate students have access to the department common room, where graduate students regularly gather for coffee and other social occasions and the mezzanine level of the Andrew Wiles Building houses a café and teaching spaces.

The Department of Computer Science is located in the Wolfson Building on the corner of Keble Road and Parks Road. Access to this building will need to be activated on your University card at the Department of Computer Science.

Mathematics

Mathematics has been studied in Oxford since the University was first established in the 12th century. The Mathematical Institute aims to preserve and expand mathematical culture through excellence in teaching and research.

The Mathematical Institute offers a wide range of graduate courses, including both taught master’s courses and research degrees. Research and teaching covers the spectrum of pure and applied mathematics with researchers working in fields including:

algebra
geometry
topology
logic
number theory
combinatorics
analysis
mathematical physics
mathematical finance
mathematical modelling
mathematical biology
networks
numerical analysis.

Graduate students are an integral part of the department, interacting with each other and with academic staff as part of a vibrant community that strives to further mathematical study. As a graduate student at Oxford you will benefit from excellent resources, extensive training opportunities and supportive guidance from your supervisor or course director.

The Mathematical Institute has strong ties with other University departments including Computer Science, Statistics and Physics, teaching several courses jointly. Strong links with industrial and other partners are also central to the department.

View all coursesView taught courses View research courses

Funding

The University expects to be able to offer over 1,000 full or partial graduate scholarships across the collegiate University in 2024-25. You will be automatically considered for the majority of Oxford scholarships, if you fulfil the eligibility criteria and submit your graduate application by the relevant December or January deadline. Most scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and/or potential.

For further details about searching for funding as a graduate student visit our dedicated Funding pages, which contain information about how to apply for Oxford scholarships requiring an additional application, details of external funding, loan schemes and other funding sources.

Please ensure that you visit individual college websites for details of any college-specific funding opportunities using the links provided on our college pages or below:

Select from the list:

Please note that not all the colleges listed above may accept students on this course. For details of those which do, please refer to the College preference section of this page.

Further information about funding opportunities for this course can be found on the institute's website.

Costs

Annual fees for entry in 2024-25

Fee status	Annual Course fees
Home	£13,970
Overseas	£36,000

Further details about fee status eligibility can be found on the fee status webpage.

Information about course fees

Course fees are payable each year, for the duration of your fee liability (your fee liability is the length of time for which you are required to pay course fees). For courses lasting longer than one year, please be aware that fees will usually increase annually. For details, please see our guidance on changes to fees and charges.

Course fees cover your teaching as well as other academic services and facilities provided to support your studies. Unless specified in the additional information section below, course fees do not cover your accommodation, residential costs or other living costs. They also don’t cover any additional costs and charges that are outlined in the additional information below.

Where can I find further information about fees?

The Fees and Fundingsection of this website provides further information about course fees, including information about fee status and eligibilityand your length of fee liability.

Additional information

There are no compulsory elements of this course that entail additional costs beyond fees and living costs. However, as part of your course requirements, you may need to choose a dissertation, a project or a thesis topic. Please note that, depending on your choice of 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.

Living costs

In addition to your course fees, you will need to ensure that you have adequate funds to support your living costs for the duration of your course.

For the 2024-25 academic year, the range of likely living costs for full-time study is between c. £1,345 and £1,955 for each month spent in Oxford. Full information, including a breakdown of likely living costs in Oxford for items such as food, accommodation and study costs, is available on our living costs page. The current economic climate and high national rate of inflation make it very hard to estimate potential changes to the cost of living over the next few years. When planning your finances for any future years of study in Oxford beyond 2024-25, it is suggested that you allow for potential increases in living expenses of around 5% each year – although this rate may vary depending on the national economic situation. UK inflationary increases will be kept under review and this page updated.

College preference

Students enrolled on this course will belong to both a department/faculty and a college. Please note that ‘college’ and ‘colleges’ refers to all 43 of the University’s colleges, including those designated as societies and permanent private halls (PPHs).

If you apply for a place on this course you will have the option to express a preference for one of the colleges listed below, or you can ask us to find a college for you. Before deciding, we suggest that you read our briefintroduction to the college system at Oxfordand ouradvice about expressing a college preference. For some courses, the department may have provided some additional advice below to help you decide.

The following colleges accept students on the MSc in Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science:

Balliol College
Exeter College
Hertford College
Jesus College
Keble College
Kellogg College
Lady Margaret Hall
Linacre College
Lincoln College
Magdalen College
Mansfield College
Merton College
New College
Oriel College
Pembroke College
The Queen's College
Reuben College
St Anne's College
St Catherine's College
St Cross College
St Edmund Hall
St Hilda's College
St Hugh's College
St John's College
St Peter's College
Somerville College
Trinity College
University College
Wadham College
Wolfson College
Worcester College
Wycliffe Hall

Before you apply

Ourguide to getting startedprovides general advice on how to prepare for and start your application.You canuse our interactive tool to help youevaluate whether your application is likely to be competitive.

If it's important for you to have your application considered under a particular deadline – eg under a December or January deadline in order to be considered for Oxford scholarships – we recommend that you aim to complete and submit your application at least two weeks in advance. Check the deadlines on this page and theinformation about deadlines and when to applyin our Application Guide.

Application fee waivers

An application fee of £75 is payable per course application. Application fee waivers are available for the following applicants who meet the eligibility criteria:

applicants from low-income countries;
refugees and displaced persons;
UK applicants from low-income backgrounds; and
applicants who applied for our Graduate Access Programmes in the past two years and met the eligibility criteria.

You are encouraged tocheck whether you're eligible for an application fee waiverbefore you apply.

Do I need to contact anyone before I apply?

You do not need to make contact with the department before you apply but you are encouraged to visit the relevant departmental webpages to read any further information about your chosen course.

If you have any questions about the course, you are welcome to make contact with theCourse Director, Professor Paul Goldberg. You will be allocated a supervisor by the department on your arrival, so there is no need to contact potential supervisors.

Completing your application

You should refer to the information below when completing the application form, paying attention to the specific requirements for the supporting documents.

For this course, the application form will include questions that collect information that would usually be included in a CV/résumé. You should not upload a separate document. If a separate CV/résumé is uploaded, it will be removed from your application.

If any document does not meet the specification, including the stipulated word count, your application may be considered incomplete and not assessed by the academic department. Expand each section to show further details.

Referees:
Three overall, of which at least two must be academic

Whilst you must register three referees, the department may start the assessment of your application if two of the three references are submitted by the course deadline and your application is otherwise complete. Please note that you may still be required to ensure your third referee supplies a reference for consideration.

It is recommended that you use at least two academic referees, who can comment directly on your academic work. You may also use up to one professional reference.

Your references will support intellectual ability, academic achievement, motivation and commitment to pursue the chosen course to a successful conclusion.

Official transcript(s)

Your transcripts should give detailed information of the individual grades received in your university-level qualifications to date. You should only upload official documents issued by your institution and any transcript not in English should be accompanied by a certified translation.

More information about the transcript requirement is available in the Application Guide.

Contextual statement

If you wish to provide a contextual statement with your application, you may also submit an additional statement to provide contextual information on your socio-economic background or personal circ*mstances in support of your application.

Submit a contextual statement

It is not necessary to anonymise this document, as we recognise that it may be necessary for you to disclose certain information in your statement. This statement will not be used as part of the initial academic assessment of applications at shortlisting, but may be used in combination with socio-economic data to provide contextual information during decision-making processes.

Please note, this statement is in addition tocompleting the 'Extenuating circ*mstances’ section of the standard application form.

You can findmore information about the contextual statementon our page that provides details of thecontinuing pilot programme to improve the assessment procedure for graduate applications.

Statement of purpose/personal statement:
A maximum of 1,000 words

Your statement should be written in English and explain your motivation for applying for the course at Oxford, your relevant experience and education, and the specific areas that interest you and/or you intend to specialise in.

If possible, please ensure that the word count is clearly displayed on the document.

This will be assessed for your reasons for applying; evidence of motivation for and understanding of the proposed area of study; the ability to present a reasoned case in English; and commitment to the subject, beyond the requirements of the degree course.

Your statement should focus on your motivation for wishing to undertake the course rather than personal achievements, interests and aspirations.

Start or continue your application

You can start or return to an application using the relevant link below. As you complete the form, pleaserefer to the requirements aboveandconsult our Application Guide for advice. You'll find the answers to most common queries in our FAQs.

Application GuideApply

ADMISSION STATUS

Closed to applications for entry in 2024-25

Deadlines

12:00 midday UK time on:

Friday 19 January 2024
Latest deadline for most Oxford scholarships
Final application deadline for entry in 2024-25

Key facts
	Full Time Only
Course code	TM_MS1
Expected length	12 months
Places in 2024-25	c. 27
Applications/year*	123
Expected start	7 October 2024
English language	Higher level required

*Three-year average (applications for entry in 2021-22 to 2023-24)

Further information and enquiries

This course is offered jointly by the
Mathematical Institute and the
Department of Computer Science

Course pageon the lead institute's website
Funding information from Mathematics
Staff and researchin Mathematics
Staff and researchin Computer Science
Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences
Residence requirements for full-time courses
Postgraduate applicant privacy policy

Course-related enquiries

Advice about contacting the department can be found in the How to apply section of this page

✉ [emailprotected]
☎ +44 (0)1865615206

Application-process enquiries

See the application guide

MSc in Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science | University (2024)