Teaching English Language in University Settings

The MSc TELUS is a degree in applied linguistics and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) taught primarily via distance/online learning. This innovative two-year part-time course offers a cutting-edge introduction to the linguistic and pedagogic knowledge and skills needed for teaching English language in higher education. 

Graduate destinations

The most recent Oxford University Destination of Leavers from Higher Education Survey made contact with 635 master's course students who graduated from the Department of Education between 2012 and 2014. Fully 90.2% of alumni were in work and 5.8% in further study with only 2.0% looking for work, ranking the department in the best 3 of the 20 departments in Oxford's Social Sciences Division.

Past DPhil students from the Department of Education have gone on to academic and research careers at universities in the UK (eg Oxford, Edinburgh, Warwick, UCL, King's College, St. Mary's, Liverpool) and across the world (eg Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Hong Kong, Chile), or are employed across a wide range of other sectors such as policy for government departments or NGOs, international organisations such as OECD, think tanks and administration at local and national levels. The department’s ‘Conversations with Alumni’ feature includes interviews with two DPhil alumni on their career paths after Oxford.

A low-residency course, it is characterised by intense online interaction and feedback, using a range of communication media. Its small-group teaching format pursues the Oxford tradition of demanding much of students and giving them much in return. 

The course is taught over two academic years, preceded each year by a week’s residential module in Oxford. Numbers on the course are kept low, to ensure quality of teaching and learning.

There are four distance-taught modules per year, spread over two eight-week terms from October to April. The assessment for each module comprises a take-home examination. In the third term of the first year you may pursue guided individual study on a chosen topic to begin developing a dissertation project.

Students are admitted in the first instance as students on the Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) in Teaching English Language in University Settings. If you complete the PGDip to a high level you may then progress to the MSc, subject to a satisfactory dissertation research proposal. You will then matriculate at Linacre College in Trinity term of your second year and complete your dissertation during that term, under the supervision of a member of the applied linguistics group.

Applicants are normally expected to be predicted or have achieved a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours (or equivalent international qualifications), as a minimum, in any discipline.

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA sought is 3.6 out of 4.0.

If you hold non-UK qualifications and wish to check how your qualifications match these requirements, you can contact the National Recognition Information Centre for the United Kingdom (UK NARIC).

In addition you should have at least two years’ experience of teaching English to adolescents or adults.

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

• Official transcript(s)
• CV/résumé
• Personal statement: One to two pages
• Written work: Two essays of 2,000 words each
• References/letters of recommendation:Three overall, generally academic

ENGLISH LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS

Higher level

A number of Research Council awards are available each year from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).