MSc by Research in Musculoskeletal Sciences at University of Oxford

A research-based master's in which students join one of the Botnar Research Centre's research groups and work on a project supervised by a principal investigator and supervisory team. It explores arthritis, bone cancer, tendinopathy, infections, ageing, tissue engineering and data science through laboratory work, clinical trials and computational methods. There is no formal taught component.

Faculty: Medical Sciences  |  Department: Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (Botnar Research Centre)  |  Duration: 1-3 years full-time; 2-6 years part-time  |  Intake: 4 October 2027  |  Study mode: full-time or part-time  |  Location: Oxford, England, United Kingdom

What you will study

First-year research training including compulsory core lectures on immunology, inflammation, tissue engineering, clinical trial design, epidemiology, rheumatology, orthopaedics and musculoskeletal diseases, a compulsory two-day statistics and clinical research design course, and annual institute student symposia. Research themes include immune-mediated inflammatory disease, mechano-inflammatory disease, bone cancers, infections, epigenetics, metabolism, ageing, microbiome, computational and systems biology and tissue engineering.

Career pathways

The department reports that alumni are employed in clinical professions (for example rheumatology, orthopaedics or physiotherapy) and non-clinical roles such as postdoctoral academic and industrial research, teaching, pharmaceuticals, marketing and scientific writing; some have set up their own businesses.

Official programme page