The first person to earn a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from the University of Oxford was John Theodore Merz. He completed his PhD in 1885 in the field of history. At that time, the PhD degree was relatively new to Oxford, as it was traditionally dominated by the Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Master of Arts (MA) degrees. Merz's accomplishment marked an important milestone in the university's academic history, as it began to embrace doctoral-level research and advanced academic degrees.