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Recognised Students and Student Visitors

Following University guidance relating to graduate research student visitors, the processes for admitting visiting students to psychiatry is as follows;   

  • Graduate students visiting for 3 months or longer will be processed by the Academic Administration Team (AAT).
  • Graduate students visiting for one term or longer (< 3 months) must now apply for Recognised Student Status.  The maximum length of a visit being 3 terms (1 year).  An application fee of £50 is payable.
  • Graduate students visiting for less than 3 months will continue to be processed by the HR Team.

Eligibility for Recognised Student status

  • Graduate research students who are registered with another university and are coming to Psychiatry to undertake research for a minimum of one and maximum of three terms.
  • Students must be currently enrolled on a course equivalent to a UK post-graduate degree and their research in Oxford must directly contribute to their course in their home country.
  • It is not possible to be admitted as a Recognised Student if the student has already been matriculated as a member of the University of Oxford.

Dates of Visit

  • Where possible, the dates of visits should align with Oxford’s term dates. The student contract will be dated from the start of the academic term even where visits start mid-way through the term. This has implications for visa applications as well as the total length of stay (no more than 1 year from the start date of the first term). It is therefore recommended to try and align visit start dates with the University term dates.
  • A visit of one term can extend into the vacation following that term, providing that the visit ends before the start of the next term.
  • Visits for more than 12 weeks in the summer vacation can be accommodated but the student contract will be dated from the beginning of Trinity Term.

Recognised Student Tuition Fees

  • Tuition fees are payable to cover the cost of access to the University facilities and the guidance provided by the student’s supervisor. Recognised Students are liable to pay a Recognised Student fee which is currently £4,973 per term (2026/27).
  • This fee is aligned with other MSD departments and charged to ensure equity with DPhil students who receive similar academic services and student support facilities and pay fees each term.
  • If a visit crosses over 2 terms, then the student will be liable for 2 terms’ worth of fees

Application Process

Recognised Student requests (for visits >3 months) are to be sent to graduatestudies@psych.ox.ac.uk  at least 4 months in advance of the term the student wishes to visit (this allows sufficient time for the processes involved, including applying for Recognised Student status, Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) and visas).

Where a student submits an application direct to the AAT or HR, this will be forwarded to the proposed supervisor to confirm they have had contact with the student and are supportive of the proposed application.

The AAT will send instructions to the student on how to apply to be a Recognised Student, via the University’s online graduate application form.

Once the application has been submitted and checked by central admissions, the AAT will receive a notification by email. The application will then be assessed to ensure it meets the minimum academic criteria (in line with all our postgraduate programmes).

Where the criteria are met, the AAT will process an offer and set any conditions that are required for the student to meet before their visit. This could be a language condition, for example, if they have not met the required level (this is in line with all conditions that other graduate students are subject to). The student is sent a conditional offer letter, which includes details of the agreed fees. Once the conditions have been met, an unconditional offer letter is sent. The offer letter also provides information on how to apply for a visa, if required.

The AAT will send information on ATAS (if applicable) as soon as the offer letter has been sent as this process can take a long time (typically up to 30 working days).

A University card form will be sent with the unconditional offer the student to complete and return to the AAT.  The card form will be sent to the card office for processing and details of arrival confirmed with the student.  On arrival the necessary enrolment checks, including checking on payment of fees will be carried out before the student can begin their studies.