About Nuffield College

Nuffield is a graduate college of the University of Oxford specialising in the Social Sciences, particularly Economics, Politics, and Sociology. It aims to provide a stimulating research-orientated environment for postgraduate students (about 70 in number) and faculty (approximately 75 academic fellows of the College). Nuffield College, which was founded in 1937, is located in the centre of Oxford.

Around a half of Nuffield's fellows hold appointments at the University of Oxford as lecturers, readers or professors. In addition the College fully funds around a dozen Official Fellowships, which the College views as tenured research professorships (although most also teach on the University's graduate programme), and supports about a dozen three year post-doctoral research fellows. Finally, the College houses a number of young scholars who hold distinguished awards, such as British Academy post-doctoral fellowships.

The College has been - and continues to be - the source of some of the major research developments in social science. These include the British Election Studies and the major programme of research on Social Mobility in Britain. It was the birthplace of the "Oxford School" of Industrial Relations; it pioneered the development of cost benefit analysis for developing countries; and it has made a major contribution to the methodology of econometrics.

Most of the College's graduate students are interested in Economics, Politics or Sociology. The College also encourages interdisciplinary research which crosses the boundaries of these subjects and sometimes admits students who are interested in neighbouring disciplines such as recent social, political and economic history, social and medical statistics, medical sociology, international relations, social policy, American studies, Commonwealth history, social geography and European studies. Nuffield also recently set up a Centre for Experimental Social Sciences.

The activities of the College are largely funded by the College's endowment and monies raised to support research projects. It receives no direct block grant from the government and nor from the University of Oxford. The College's financial independence means it has a high degree of autonomy rare amoungst social science institutions.

The College is governed under its Statutes by its academics and is led by the Warden.