PD Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care

• Normally, you’ll have at least an upper second class honours degree (2.1) in a relevant subject, or a master’s degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject.
• You’ll also possess credible and relevant experience in a health or social care profession or occupation. Example professions and occupations include doctors, nurses, medical/paramedical practitioners, allied health professionals, midwives, health and social care managers and health care educators.
• We welcome your application if you hold a degree awarded by an overseas institution. The University will assess the equivalence of your qualifications.
• We'll also consider applications where appropriate work experience can be demonstrated in lieu of, or in addition to, the published academic qualifications in line with the University’s Recognition of Prior Experiential Learning (RPEL) procedures.
• The University of Bolton recognises prior learning, whether gained through academic credit and qualifications or through your professional and employment experience. Previous learning may be used towards meeting the entry requirements for this programme or for exemption from part of this programme. It is your responsibility to make a claim for recognition of prior learning, and each claim will be considered in accordance with the University’s policy and regulations for the recognition of prior learning.
• You may be required to attend an interview and/or provide a portfolio of work.
• If English isn’t your first language you’ll also need IELTS 6.0 with no less than 5.5 in any band (or equivalent). We also accept a range of other English language qualifications – please visit our English Language Requirements web page for more details.

Want some reassurance or advice? Speak to one of our advisors. Email us at enquiries@bolton.ac.uk or call us on +44 (0)1204 903 903.

Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.

The Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care is designed for a range of advanced health and social care professionals who are interested in enhancing their expertise through research in practice. Completing this programme will allow you to gain the high level skills needed to generate new knowledge at the cutting edge of practice development. It will help to develop your career in leading and developing practice as you pursue excellence in your chosen field.

As a graduate of this programme, you’ll be able to demonstrate a significant contribution to your professional area, and possess a range of advanced skills such as research planning, use of research methods, research analysis, innovation, conference writing and presentation.

What can I do with this qualification?

Possession of the Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care demonstrates your credibility in undertaking vocationally related research enquiry in the health and social care sector. It will support you to follow a wide range of career paths in health and social care whether in the NHS, private and third sectors or in education. As a graduate of this programme, you’ll be ideally prepared for roles that demand reasoned evidence informed thinking and critical analysis, and the development of evidence based practice in the context of complex health and social care problems and challenges. You’ll be in a strong position to develop further post-doctoral research with your networks and with health and social care partners.

Graduates from this programme can go on to be senior leaders, researchers and academics in their professional field. Completing a research degree can open up career paths in commercial research and development and consultancy. Often people will undertake this programme to develop their own professional knowledge in order to develop practice within their own specialist field.

Alternative career options

Graduates can also use the qualification to enter a range of other careers, and for some of these roles, both relevant experience and/or postgraduate study may be required. Some of these careers include:

• Education
• Public sector health and social care services
• Third sector health and social care services
• Private sector health and social care services
• Industries allied to health and social care
• Publishing
• Political advisors
• Voluntary sector
• Mental health
• Occupational therapy
• Community education
• Journalism
• Educational psychology
• Product development
• Policy development
• Nursing
• Consultancy

The fees for a student’s course of study will be set for the normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.

The university is currently awaiting government guidelines as to EU fee charges for students commencing study in 2021/2022.

Bursaries

Click here for more information on our 2020 Master's Bursaries.

Our teaching and learning strategy uses a flexible blended learning model that includes a range of online resources alongside a series of contact or online workshops. We focus on building our student community through a range of activities that include discussion, networking, and presenting. The aim is to develop shared and peer learning that operates within our supervision framework. This education journey promotes your academic citizenship and helps you build relationships with peers in your discipline through active participation in communities regionally, nationally and internationally. It also helps you to develop the networking skills that will support your ability to engage in the global context of research enquiry and dissemination to make a positive impact.

During the taught elements of the programme you’ll be expected to attend workshops that are designed to promote collaborative learning and student peer support. Being part of regular discussions and critiques should facilitate the development of your confidence and competence in producing high quality scholarly work, and your independent defence of it as attention moves towards developing impact and dissemination.

The teaching and learning philosophy for the field work and thesis modules centres on promoting your individual development as an independent researcher. We’ll guide and support you through supervision. As you undertake your research, your supervisor(s) will support you to develop your skills in critical examination of ideas and problem solving during each phases of your project(s). We’ll encourage you to develop dissemination via scholarly publications and presentations throughout the programme.

Formative and summative assessments are conducted periodically to determine whether you’re meeting the learning outcomes of the programme. The range of assessments include written work, presentations and oral examinations. These are designed to build up sections of your final thesis, develop your skills of presentation and defence of your ideas (including a viva voce examination) and produce work of publishable quality to develop your impact in your chosen field of enquiry.

Modules

The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.

• Introduction to Doctoral Studies
• Research Design in Health and Social Care
• Contextualising Enquiry
• Research Methodology, Methods and Analysis
• Fieldwork Project
• Doctoral Thesis Planning and Writing 1
• Doctoral Thesis Planning and Writing 2
• The Thesis

Assessment methods

Learning activities

Disclaimer

The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.