Vignettes

Steve Fisher After my M.Sc. in Southampton, I decided I wanted to do a doctorate in voting behaviour. Oxford was an obvious place to return to and I could well have applied to go back to New College where I did PPE. For lots of reasons it was much better to apply to Nuffield instead - good deals on food and accommodation, excellent library, great IT provision, but mostly it is the people at Nuffield that make the difference.

Following the DPhil I became a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and all these reasons for coming to Nuffield still apply. Research resources are great and the College has a host of interesting seminars and academic visitors which keep intellectual life buzzing. The opportunity to pursue a research project for three years is a fantastic one, and Nuffield is great place in which to do it.

Student social life mainly revolves around the bar and mainly by revolving around in the bar. Morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea are the main times when people chat or read papers together in the common room. For a small college there is a lot of sport going on too. If someone can persuade you to play football, cricket, tennis, running or rowing then they will. Nuffield has its own gym and we can also use Worcester College sports facilities, which are just over the road.

Vanessa Gash I came to Nuffield in October 2000 to do a DPhil in Sociology. I did both my Batchelor Degree and my Masters Degree in the Social Sciences in University College Dublin before entering the labour market working for the Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland. I was encouraged to pursue my studies and applied for several positions across Europe. Nuffield College stood out effortlessly as the best place to pursue a research degree. Not only did it appear to offer the 'best deal' for research students my application was dealt with very efficiently and my queries were dealt with very kindly at every stage of my applications procedure. Deciding to leave paid employment to take up life as a student was not an easy choice at the time, since my arrival at the College however I was constantly reminded that I made the right decision. Nuffield College has some of the best scholars in my subject area, an excellent social science library, great student facilities and also has the vital counter balance that is a good social life.

Munyaradzi Majonga I came to Nuffield in October 1999 to do an MPhil in Development Studies. I did my first two degrees at the University of Zimbabwe. The first was a Bachelor of Arts General degree majoring in History and Economic History with Archaeology as a minor subject. The second was an MA in African Economic History specialising on the Agrarian and Labour aspects of African economies. I then enrolled as a Teaching Assistant in the University of Zimbabwe's Economic History Department where I taught undergraduate courses on Economic History of Southern Africa and Latin America. It was when I was teaching at the UZ that I got to know of opportunities for furthering my interest in Third World economies at various institutions abroad. Nuffield's reputation as the best social sciences graduate college made me choose it. They also put the icing on the cake for me by offering me a fully funded studentship for my entire two years in Oxford. Nuffield has the best Social Sciences library in Oxford and its smaller size in terms of student numbers makes it an ideal environment for quiet studying. It has some of the top rank scholars in the broad field of social science. In spite of the academic rigour, Nuffield has also a very lively social and spiritual life. I have enjoyed the company of friends in participating in JCR social activities and as well as contributing to the Chapel services. It is also the place to be for those who have nice food, fitness and sport as hobbies on their CVs. I participated in various sporting activities particularly football where I have been a member of the cosmopolitan Nuffield Football Team. The College also has an excellent gym furnished with state of the art equipment. Student welfare is second to none.

Although situated in the city centre where rentals are quite high, the College provides us with subsidised accommodation for the first two years, so I didn't have to worry about that. The College hosts seminars and conferences on various aspects pertaining to social science. I was also able to gain some experience by presenting seminar papers at Queen Elizabeth House and St Antony's College, which has a strong academic relationship with Nuffield. I was also a member of the African Students Society in Oxford University where we invited some prominent public figures to share ideas and views on various challenges facing African economies such as debt, AIDS and security issues.

Margaret McCown I'm in the midst of a very busy second year to my DPhil in politics at Nuffield. Having done an MSc in comparative west European politics ('European Politics and Policy') at the LSE (and an undergraduate degree in political science in the US), I was admitted to a three-year studentship, here, to write a thesis on judicial politics in the EU. After a relatively quiet first year, during which I explored the resources of college - terrific library with a generous lending and book acquisition policy, really nice provided accommodation, accessible and remarkably patient supervisor - things have become significantly busier. By the end of this year, I'll have done some teaching, worked as a research assistant, co-written a paper with my supervisor, finished the data collection and several chapters for my thesis and presented three conference papers. Needless to say, the support of the College was important to all of this, especially funding the travel to conferences. I do venture outside the walls of academe, though! I'm a member of the University's European Affairs Society, practice my German at the university's language centre, do social sailing and, hopefully, some yachting with the University Yacht Club and have lots of friends from other colleges, especially other graduate colleges such as St. Antony's. The environment for graduate research that Nuffield provides is, I think, really unique in Oxford: one has lots of informal contact with fellows and with the many visitors to College, there are high quality and well attended seminars and a great deal of support for student-organised ones. The combination of the close knit post-graduate community and the atmosphere of a serious research institution allows one to stand, for a few years, with one foot in the world of a student and another in that of professional academia.

Magnus Saxegaard I arrived at Nuffield College in October 1999 to do an MPhil in Economics. Prior to that I had done an undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. I decided on a postgraduate degree in Oxford because the two-year degree structure allowed me to do a substantial piece of research without having to commit to doing a DPhil, whilst allowing me the flexibility to extend my degree to a DPhil at a later stage. In addition the Economics faculty is of a very high quality, in particular in my area of interest. I decided to apply to Nuffield because of its outstanding facilities, especially the library, the accommodation, and of course, the food. In addition, the close interaction with the fellows of the college, provide a stimulating working environment. During my two years I taught undergraduate economics and participated in numerous seminars. Thankfully it was not all work: I regularly played tennis with students and fellows at Nuffield, played a part in the Nuffield pantomime, and relaxed in the common room and the deservedly famous Nuffield bar.