Application Procedure
Information on how to apply for the MPhil can be found on the Board of Graduate Studies (BGS) website
Applications can be made either on line or in hard copy. The Board of Graduate Studies co-ordinates all admissions, sets the minimum entrance requirements and ensures that an applicant meets any conditions attached to his or her offer. Once you have completed the online application process please also complete a Route Selection Form and email it directly to the MPhil administrator at graduate@educ.cam.ac.uk We will not be able to process your application until you have submitted this form. It is possible to track the progress of your application through the BGS website.
The Faculty is asked by BGS to make recommendations on applications for the full time MPhil and PhD (full and part time) but all final decisions on admissions to these routes are made centrally by BGS.
The University Graduate Studies Prospectus is a general graduate prospectus for the university as a whole. It contains a detailed explanation of the admissions process and includes the application pack and useful information about scholarships and colleges.
If you wish to submit any supplementary documentation with your application, such as a curriculum vitae, please enclose this with your application to the Board of Graduate Studies. Please do not submit any documents directly to the Faculty of Education unless specifically requested to do so.
Application Deadlines
The Faculty's deadline for applications to commence the MPhil in October 2012 is 19 March 2012. However, the optimum time for full time applicants to get in applications is between October and January. It is in your interests to apply as soon as possible, some routes fill up quickly. Please note that if you are an overseas applicant you need to ensure that your application is in as early as possible in order to enable you to apply for a student visa if necessary.
Also, please note that applications for funding will have their own deadlines that must be adhered to. As some of these deadlines are very early, you should take care to ensure you submit your application in good time.
Availability of Routes
The Faculty of Education intends to offer all of the routes on the graduate programme as advertised in this prospectus and will make conditional offers on this basis. In the light of unforeseen circumstances where recruitment levels make the route non-viable the Faculty reserves the right to withdraw routes and offers.
Interviews
Once the Faculty has received your application we will contact you via email if we require any further documentation or examples of written work. If you are living in the UK, you will be called for an interview.
Applicants with Disabilities & Equal Opportunities Policy
The Faculty welcomes applications from students with disabilities or chronic illnesses and treats them on the same academic grounds as those from other candidates. The Faculty is committed to equal opportunities for all. It aims to ensure that no present or prospective student receives less favourable treatment than another on grounds of any condition or status not directly affecting study or work.
Failure to meet conditions and deferring entry
It is not technically possible to defer automatically an offer of a place to the following year within the university. If you fail to meet the conditions of your offer, you will receive a letter from BGS confirming that your offer has been withdrawn. However, if you wish to reapply the following year, you will not need to make a fresh application. You simply need to inform BGS that you wish to reapply. BGS will retain your application materials and will return them to the Faculty for consideration with a new start date. The Faculty will then make a decision on whether to make a new offer for the next academic year. There will be no guarantee that you will receive a new offer as your application will be considered in competition with new applications.
Complaints Procedure
The Faculty cannot give reasons for not offering admission, nor advise you how to improve your application. However, if you believe that there has been an administrative error, or if you believe you have been treated unfairly because of bias or prejudice, or if there are circumstances unknown to the Faculty that might have affected the decision, you should write to the Secretary of the Degree Committee within three weeks of obtaining the letter notifying you of the outcome, setting out your reasons. Please note, however, that there is no appeal against academic judgements made by the University.
Data protection Act 1988
The University has a legal requirement to collect certain information (including ethnicity and disability information if you choose to provide this), which will be sent to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Information is used in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1988. For further information please see the HESA Fair Processing notice.