Description
We are passionate about delivering this programme, which we have designed for senior managers and senior practitioners in health and social care. During your first two years with us, you will study seven modules which offer a sound grounding in research theory, methods and application. Our modules offer you extensive opportunities to work directly with a range of different types of data, including that arising from your own project work. Assessments include presentations, proposals, academic posters and a journal article which you may choose to submit for publication.Our programme team is made up of Professors and Associate Professors from the Faculty of Health, Education and Society, and we carefully plan our delivery to enable you to make links from research specialists from across the institution and further afield. During the second year of your studies, you will be allocated a critical friend; a senior researcher within the institution, who will support you to finalise your thesis idea into a detailed proposal, ensuring that you are ready to hit the ground running with your own research from the start of year three.
From the start of year three, you will work with a supervisory team of at least 2 senior researchers, chosen to meet your support needs of both your research topic and the research methods you will use. The research study (thesis) element of the course can last up to four years, culminating in a viva voce examination where you will defend your thesis with both internal and external examiners. The thesis element of the programme follows the same procedures and regulations as our PhD students, including annual reviews and an internal presentation to other staff and students plus a viva which takes place after the first 18 months to endure adequate progress. All of these are designed to support your progress through the programme. The thesis is examined to the same standard as conventional PhDs but is typically half the length (with a proportionately small research project) to recognise the assessments that were undertaken in the first two years. Unlike a PhD, there is a requirement that the research for the thesis element should make a contribution to practice.
Postgraduate Research Student satisfaction with our extensive support programme can be seen with the university ranking 1st in the 2020 UK Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES), up 3 places from 4th in 2018. In the 2019/20 PRES results, 91% of students taking the survey were satisfied with their research degree experience. Our staff are proud of what we do, and even prouder of what our students achieve.