ObjectivesThe programme aims to provide a high quality, vocational education which is intellectually rigorous and up-to-date as well as relevant to the needs of existing and future managers, executives and clinicians in the healthcare sector. The programme has a business management orientation related to the service sector and draws upon a range of cognate areas of study to explain and analyse the sector. The objectives of the programme are to provide the opportunity for clinicians, managers and others to direct their education toward the field of advanced management; to provide an education that is both intellectually challenging and directly relevant to the field of healthcare management; to deliver an educational programme which is designed to provide participants with concepts, models, techniques and examples relevant to healthcare management, which will enable them to improve the provision of care to patients. The Health Care Management programme applies the School of Management's expertise in the service sector to the field of health. There are extensive links with healthcare through the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and the Health Economics Group within the Department of Economics.
Entry requirementsTypical entry requirement sApplicants should usually hold a bachelors degree (UK Lower Second/2.2 or above) or equivalent qualification from a recognised British/overseas university. Every applicant is assessed individually on their own merit. Higher level professional qualifications may also be accepted. Relevant work experience could be an additional benefit where applicants have not reached the standard entry requirements, although it is not an admissions requirement for this particular degree programme. Candidates for whom English is not their first language will normally be required to have taken an English language test and achieved a score of either TOEFL 550 or above, IELTS 6.0 or above, or Cambridge Advanced Certificate in English Grade C or above. This test must have been taken within two years prior to the start of the programme you are applying for. The School also assists students whose first language is not English through close cooperation with the University's Language Centre.
Academic titleMSc/PGDip/PGCert in Health Care Management
Course descriptionMSc/PGDip/PGCert in Health Care Management Module overview
This programme consists of six compulsory modules, two elective modules from a range of six modules, and a dissertation.
Compulsory Modules
Resources and Operational Management in Health Care
This module provides a detailed learning course focused upon the resource concepts of managing people, information and services. These concepts are operationalised into the management of a health service unit.
Financial Management
This module provides the foundations for understanding, analysing and interpreting financial information, and enables students to apply accounting principles and financial theory across management disciplines and organisations.
Health Care Quality Management
Having studied Resources and Operational Management in Health Care, this module develops the notion of a quality service in healthcare settings. It focuses on management as a means to achieving quality standards and patient satisfaction.
Health Care Systems, Structure and Functions
This module explores the complex management and administrative demands of a modern health system. Its role in the programme is to apply the general management principles, learned in other prescribed modules, to healthcare.
Organisational Behaviour
This module integrates the study of forms, structures and processes of organisations with the human aspects of psychology at work. The module provides an insight into the fundamentals on which organisations are built and provides analytical processes for understanding behaviour at work and managerial processes.
Research Methods
Introducing the process of research project formulation and the key elements of research design, this module should prepare students to design and execute their research study for their dissertation in a systematic and scientific manner.
Elective Modules
Analysis and Integration of Health Information
Evidence-based practice is becoming more important in health services. Therefore, the management of information is perceived as an important part of healthcare management.
Education and the Development of Health Care Professionals
An issue in the healthcare systems is that of succession planning and developing a commitment to lifelong learning. This module attempts to address the issue of educating managers for the future.
Healthcare Philosophy and Ethics
This module is designed to enable students to inform their decision-making processes in the light of medico-legal and ethical implications and to develop best practice accordingly.
Project Appraisal
For the successful development of healthcare programmes, projects must be planned carefully and fully appraised for their costs and benefits. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is a multidisciplinary subject linked with both economics and finance, and is a valuable tool in decision making.
Other elective modules include Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction Management, and Strategy
Programme length
12 months full-time, 24 months part-time day release, up to 72 months flexi-study