Offering financial support to exceptional graduate students through the Dean’s Scholars Fund
In 2021, Mindy Chen-Wishart, then Dean of the Faculty, established the Dean’s Scholars Fund with the aim of providing financial support to exceptional graduate students who, due to financial constraints, were prevented from taking up their places at Oxford.
To date, the Fund has raised £130,000 and has funded 12 scholars to study at Oxford to join the Faculty’s taught and research post-graduate programmes, and to undertake varied research in areas spanning human rights law, environmental law and taxation. It is financed purely from the generosity of alumni and friends of the Faculty.
This year, the Faculty was delighted to welcome four new Dean’s scholars, Peter, Yasemen, Ayushi and Martje.
Martje is a DPhil candidate researching the role of climate change law in the Net Zero Transition. Her aim is to contribute to developing rigorous climate legislation in the field of Carbon Dioxide Removal. She says
The generosity of alumni supporting the Dean’s Scholars Fund facilitates crucial and often even ground-breaking research. The scholars’ research focuses on questions that can generate meaningful impact on society.
John Armour, current Dean of the Faculty of Law, explains the importance of the Fund:
Now, more than ever, we need exceptional legal graduates to confront critical global challenges, ranging from AI to the climate crisis. At Oxford, we attract the most talented applicants in the world with the potential to be future leaders, legislators and policymakers. However, socio-economic background remains a barrier for talented students wanting to study here. Your support will help more students follow in your footsteps, shape the future of law and solve the world’s most pressing problems.
John recently caught up with current Dean’s Scholar, MPhil candidate Peter Lernyei, from Liverpool who has progressed through the Faculty’s undergraduate programme to do graduate study and now the MPhil. Peter’s MPhil research focuses on taxation law. John and Peter discussed his experience of studying at Oxford and Peter touches on the impact of being a Dean’s Scholar.