New DPhil Scholarship Established in Memory of Professor Richard Pring

The Department is delighted to announce the establishment of a new DPhil scholarship in honour of Professor Richard Pring’s extraordinary legacy to the education sector, policy and practice, teacher education, the philosophy of education, and to the Department of Education at the University of Oxford.

The DPhil scholarship will be open for entry from October 2026 to applicants from all countries and backgrounds and will be awarded to excellent proposals, with a preference for scholars working on topics in the philosophy of education and vocational education, both areas of particular interest to Professor Pring. The scholarship covers home-level fees plus a stipend benchmarked with UKRI rates.

Professor Pring, who passed away in autumn 2024, was the Director of the University of Oxford’s Department of Education for 14 years from 1989 to 2003, as well as the holder of the first ever Chair in Education at the University of Oxford.

Under his leadership, the Department strengthened its teacher education, MSc and DPhil provision, gained recognition for its research and research-informed teaching, and placed philosophy of educational research at the heart of its research methods training. He also engaged directly with key policy questions such as the nature and aims of 14-19 education, the curriculum, higher education reform, vocational education, or educational inequalities. Professor Pring continued in the Department as Director of the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education between 2003-2009, and as Emeritus Professor thereafter.

The new DPhil scholarship was launched on 9 May 2025 at a symposium hosted by the Department in memory of Professor Pring. The symposium brought together former students and collaborators of Professor Pring, family members and departmental staff, in a celebration of his educational and philosophical legacy. The proceedings of the symposium will be published as a special issue of Oxford Review of Education, co-edited by Professor Michael Hand, Professor Geoff Hayward and Professor Alis Oancea.