My Experience Researching at Oxford University

I spent 6 months doing my master thesis in a laboratory at the University of Oxford. This gave me the opportunity to experience a unique academic environment.

I took part in various seminars, workshops, and discussions that helped me deepen my knowledge in the field I was working in. I also got the chance to work alongside experienced faculty members and students, contributing to some interesting research and gaining fresh perspectives. The access to Oxford’s research resources was incredibly helpful for my studies and projects. So from an academic point of view, I couldn’t have been surrounded by a better working environment. We regularily had researchers visiting and giving seminars as well as lunches to get to know professors from all over the world. Everyone was very supportive and helpful when I needed help. I really learned a lot during my time there and got to work with amazing scientist, which I wouldn’t wanted to have missed!

I can recommend joining a college, as for myself I was an associate member at New College. And I can say that this really helped me finding friends and a community in Oxford as I met and connected with people from all over the world. I attended several college events and went to formals which defintiely helped me living the Oxford experience. Further each semester there are balls to attend, which are a bit pricy but definitely worth going to. They always offer food and drinks, nice music and good people to hang out with. They are normally organised by the colleges and there are several ones of them throughout the semester.

Beside the University, Oxford is a really pretty city with many nice cafés and pubs to visit. I really enjoyed spending my weekends strolling through town and seeing everything that Oxford has to offer. As a member of the University you get to visit all the colleges for free, which makes it even more exciting since you can almost walk into all the pretty buildings and have a look yourself. Most of the city center is centered around the university, but if you want to get a grasp of Oxford without the influence of the Uni, I can recommend spending some time in Jericho. It is a bit like the Prenzlauer Berg of Oxford, if one may say so. It has so many nice cafés and pubs and the area is just really disconnected from all the academic influence, so I can definitely recommend it if you want to escape academia for a while.

Also if you want to explore some other cities in the UK, Oxford has some amazing train connections which makes it super fast to visit London (50 minutes) or cities like Bath (1.5 hours) or Cambridge (2h). Also the Cotswolds are just next door, and there are direct busses going there to explore this beautiful area. Another thing I can very warmingly recommend is Blenheim Castle, the home of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill. It regularily has exhibitions within the castle and also the castle area is beautiful and an amazing spot for pickniques.

Overall, I can recommend Oxford as a city to live in for a while, my placement has been a great learning experience, but also a great life experience to get to know a prestigous university like Oxford.


Tips for other Interns

 

Visa application

For EU citizens a visa is not necessary for the UK if you don’t want to stay longer than 6 months. Since I only stayed for this long, I did not get a visa but if you want to stay for a longer period of time, I can only recommend starting the visa application process early since it will take a long time, and they want a lot of different documents.

 

Internship search

When I started to look for an internship I sent out emails to different supervisors, with following interviews. Most people in Oxford are very nice and are happy to have international students. So definitely don’t hesitate to ask. I know that for my host institute the application rules for international students changed now, and you have to pay a £50 fee to apply to the university. But I don’t know if that applies to all institutes at the university. Generally, I can just recommend talking to people and sending them an email to see if they have open positions!

 

Apartment search

I started looking for apartments around 3 months before, which should give you plenty of time to find something. The thing I can recommend the most, is joining FaceBook groups and have a look for apartments there. The prices for apartments are very high and an average room in a shared flat is around £800, especially if you live close to the city center. Oxford is sadly almost as expensive as London and the accommodation quality is nowhere close to Germany, but I would say you get used to it. I would also recommend keeping in mind at what time of the semester you are planning on coming to Oxford since obviously for the beginning of the semester (especially Michaelmas term) there are plenty of people moving to Oxford.

 

Insurance

I had an insurance for abroad and

 

Other

If you want to come to Oxford during the term time, I would definitely recommend joining a college to participate more in student activities of Oxford University. I was a member at New College and I had a great time joining college events and going to formals.

 

Going Out Options

Oxford has plenty of pubs in the city centre that can be visited. I personally can recommend Turf Tavern, King’s Arms and The Star. For shopping and pub hopping definitely stay in the city centre. If you want to have authentic Indian or Chinese cuisine, I would recommend trying out Cowley Road, where they have plenty of nice cafés and restaurants. If you want to get a way a bit from the busy town and see a hipper district in Oxford I can warmly recommend Jericho. Even though it’s a bit outside of Oxford, it is an amazing part of the city with plenty nice cafés and pubs as well. And obviously, I would recommend visiting as many colleges as possible, if you do an internship at Oxford you will get a card with which you can enter all of the colleges for free plus an additional guest for free as well.

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