2019 Policy Fellowship Programme at Oxford University

Become an Oxford Policy Fellow for a unique opportunity to apply your legal knowledge within an international development context.

The Oxford Policy Fellowship Programme is specifically aimed at placing early-career professionals in low- and middle-income country governments to work as civil servants.

The Fellowship is the start of an exciting new chapter in your career. It opens the door to a career with a range of international agencies, NGOs, development consultancies and governmental organisations.

The Oxford Policy Fellowship aim to provide a valuable service to under-served Ministries in participating host countries. For example, the pilot placements range from working with Ministries of Finance and Planning Commissions, with an emphasis on legal frameworks for Public Private Partnerships, to more general policy advisor roles in Ministries of Agriculture. To date the Fellowship has partnered with ministries of finance, trade, agriculture, environment, energy, health and education in ten countries.

The programme has three key objectives:

• To provide governments with outstanding early-career advisors, where there is a need for additional capacity.
• To create a community of practice of law and policy practitioners across governments.
• To foster a culture of learning through our innovative monitoring and evaluation framework.

The Oxford Policy Fellowship also provides transformative career opportunities for professionals who are passionate about development.

The Fellowship is an initiative of Oxford Policy Management and its major funding partner is the UK Government’s Department for International Development (UK DFID). It has also received funding from the New Venture Fund and a private donation.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Depending on the specific post for which you are applying, a law degree, an LLM, a Masters in Law, a Masters in Public Policy, or a related field will be required. Useful interests and specialisations include commercial/finance law, contract law, environmental law, international law, health law and policy and development studiess
• You must also be willing to commit to a two-year posting in any of the participating countries.
• The commitment from all parties (governments, Fellows and the Fellowship) is for two full years. However, each posting is reviewed at the one year mark by all parties to ensure continued value add. Candidates should only apply if they are prepared to spend the two full years in post; it is very disruptive to the programme and to our relationships with government partners if Fellows leave for non-critical reasons mid-posting. Fellows can continue working with the government beyond two years, but the Fellowship only provides support for two years.
• The Oxford Policy Fellowship are looking for outstanding candidates who have a demonstrable interest and some work experience in law and/or policy; relevant work or voluntary experience in a developing country; and strong computer skills.

Benefits:

• Candidates who are invited for the second-round panel interview will be reimbursed for their travel costs. If they are coming from overseas, we will organise and pay for your airfares and local Oxford accommodation.
• Successful candidates will attend an Orientation training in early September before deploying to their posting. All Fellows are expected to deploy in September/October each year, and by the end of November at the latest. However this will depend on the start date agreed with the government, taking the notice period of the Fellow and the government’s preference into account.

Interview Process:

There are four stages to the recruitment for Fellows:

1. Application – candidates will be required to provide a completed application form along with supporting documents in order to be considered. Details will be made available on the ‘how to apply’ page.
2. Skype interviews – based on the applications we receive, candidates will be shortlisted to participate in a first round Skype interview. These are informal 45 minute interviews over Skype with two Fellowship representatives. Questions at this stage will be focused on hard and people skills.
3. Panel interviews & group exercises – a further shortlist of candidates will be invited to attend an in-person interview and group exercise. Requirements will include a 15 minute presentation, competency based questions and group interaction.
4. Shortlist to governments – the final stage of the recruitment is for Fellowship staff to present the final shortlist of candidates to each government line manager who will select their preferred candidate based on their needs.

Method of Application:

• A completed application form and all other required documentation should be emailed to fellows@policyfellowship.org by Friday 01 February 2019 at 12 noon (GMT), please submit all required documentation in one email.

Application form 2019 – the Oxford Policy Fellowship

Please contact fellows@policyfellowship.org if you have any questions or experience any issues when applying.