About

One of ten Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTP) across the UK, the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP brings together The Open University, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge to provide funding and high-quality training to doctoral students in the arts and humanities. From 2019 to 2023, we will offer at least 77 AHRC studentships each year for doctoral study, of which a number will be Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDAs)

The Management Board is the primary decision-making body for the DTP. At its meetings the Management Board discusses and agrees policy and strategy for the DTP, and has final oversight of recruitment and selection, training provision, placements and partnership work.

Management Board membership 2023-24
DTP Director	Paul Lawrence Asa Briggs Professor of History, The Open University
DTP Associate Director	Sara Haslam Professor of Twentieth-Century Literature, The Open University
DTP Associate Director	Freya Johnston Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford
DTP Associate Director	Emily So Professor of Architectural Engineering, University of Cambridge

To provide innovative research-led training of the highest quality – multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, focusing on the latest and most exciting horizons of theory and practice in the arts and humanities, and developed in collaboration with our students.

To ensure that strategic non-HEI partners are woven into the fabric of the consortium, sharing in its management and assisting in the design and delivery of training and placements.

To incorporate a strong international component, offering our students as much opportunity and encouragement as possible to develop their academic projects and broader interests beyond local, regional and national constraints.

The three universities share extensive expertise in delivering successful doctoral training, developed in collaboration with our students and a wide range of non-HEI partners. We believe that the exceptional breadth, depth, diversity, and, above all, quality of our arts and humanities provision creates a unique environment for creative collaboration and innovation that will promote exciting, ambitious doctoral research and training for the twenty-first century. Blending our diverse strengths also allows us to provide stronger and broader coverage in practice-based subjects such as creative writing, music, art and design.

The Open-Oxford-Cambridge DTP is underpinned by world-class research and training environments, supported by integrated strategic partnerships with the BBC World Service, the National Trust and BT. The consortium is national and international in mindset, and determined to take a leading role in shaping the future of doctoral training in the UK.

As an OOC DTP student you will have the opportunity to gain profound expertise within your field(s), learn to communicate your research to a variety of academic and public audiences and to collaborate across disciplinary and national boundaries. This will enable you to produce rigorous, distinctive doctoral theses and graduate with an exceptional range of skills. Whatever your chosen career, whether within or outside of the academy, you will be able to bring the critical and creative skill-set of the humanities doctorate and the insights it provides into human society, past, present and future.