Shuchismita Moitra Ahona, a 20-year-old student with Bangladeshi origin who resides in London, has been admitted to the world-renowned Oxford University to pursue a DPhil (PhD) in Medical Sciences without completing a master’s degree just after finishing her bachelor’s degree.
Ahona will research at Oxford University’s Radcliffe Department of Medicine. The COVID vaccine AstraZeneca was discovered in this same lab. Ahona will also participate in research with the scientists there.
Generally, to pursue a DPhil at Oxford University, students need a master’s degree. Many are specifically required to do an MPhil or MSc research.
However, at Oxford University and some other world-renowned research-based universities, there are precedents of students being admitted directly to a PhD (DPhil) with an undergraduate degree without doing a master’s. Though, this is very rare and usually happens in the case of meritorious students.
Shuchismita Moitra has achieved a first class Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from King’s College London. In addition to the PhD offer from Oxford University, she has also received offers for a master’s programme at Imperial College London and an MBBS course at Norwich Medical School.
Furthermore, she has been selected for a full-funded research fellowship for doctoral training at King’s College London. She has also made significant contributions to modern research through a summer fellowship programme.
At the same time, by receiving admission offers from Oxford, Imperial, and a UK medical school, she has started contributing to medical research at the very beginning of her career.
Shuchismita Moitra studied at the renowned grammar school Southend High School for Girls from 2015 to 2020. She consistently demonstrated extraordinary academic excellence there. She secured first place in the German language competition in Essex.
She achieved top national rankings in Mathematics, English, and Science in the Education Perfect World Championships and came first in the Manga High Mathematics Competition in the UK. She also received recognition from the European Commission.
Shuchismita’s talent was not limited to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). She also achieved extraordinary excellence in the arts. She completed Bronze and Silver Arts Awards from Trinity College London and excelled in public speaking.
She achieved the highest success in LAMDA Grade 5 Speaking in Public. In addition, her linguistic and leadership skills have been proven as a regional finalist in the Jack Petchey ‘Speak Out’ Challenge.
Shuchismita Moitra’s father, Sukanta Moitra, is an expatriate university teacher in East London. Her mother, Kanika Mukherjee, is a former assistant teacher at a school. Her father’s ancestral home is in Rajbari, Bangladesh, and her mother’s is in Barishal. Ahona migrated to the UK with her parents in 2025, at the age of just one.
