Personal Professional Development (Public Health and Primary Care)

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2026, the tuition fees are as follows:

• Modular (part-time distance learning)
  UK students (per annum): £1,200 per 15 credits
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £2,600 per 15 credits

Further information for EU students can be found on our dedicated EU page.

The fees quoted above will be fully inclusive for the course tuition and administration costs during your studies.

All fees for entry may be subject to a yearly review and incremental rises per annum are also likely over the duration of courses lasting more than a year.

For general fees information please visit postgraduate fees . Always contact the department if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

The course fees include all the tuition, technical support and assessments required for the course, but you are likely to incur some additional costs:

• maximum of one core text book per unit (approximately £30 per book) where e-books are not available;
• communication costs for internet use and telephone;
• a statistical software package (approximately £20).

A copy of the statistical software for Practical Statistics for Population Health will be provided free for all international fee-paying students.

Costs may also be incurred for travel, subsistence and accommodation charges during the following optional events or units:

• the Arts and Public Health blended learning unit
• the Intercultural Public Health blended learning unit
• the Infection, Prevention & Control blended learning unit
• the Engaging the Hard to Reach for Health Gain blended learning unit

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

 This course unit is one of the blended options we provide. Health Improvement is the new pillar of public health that brings together the scientific and the artistic elements that are increasingly seen as part of the public health toolkit. This course unit will equip students to design, deliver, evaluate and commission services to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes of patients, service-users and communities.  Students will learn health promotion, epidemiology, qualitative research methods, needs assessments, equity audits, programme development, partnership working, community development, advocacy, sustainability and evaluation. Students will learn how to analyse and apply the evidence-base to improve public health in real world settings through use of a wide range of public health practices. 
 

This blended course unit aims to enable students to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to improve health and wellbeing and to reduce health inequalities.

The unit aims to: develop the students’ understanding of health improvement, including how to find the evidence, how to appraise the evidence and how to use the evidence. 

• Introduction and definitions of Arts and Health
• Introduction to epidemiology and qualitative research methods
• Assessing the evidence for health improvement
• Evaluating health improvement interventions
• Conducting health needs assessments including epidemiological, comparative and corporate approaches
• Conducting health equity audits and impact assessments 

This blended course involves working through the course notes provided online, linked references and other online sources of information. It also involves attending a 3 day teaching residential component. You will be use self-reflection to help you think about the ideas discussed and the relevance to their everyday practice. You should work through the unit in a logical sequence using the calendar in Canvas. It is essential you follow this guidance so that you are doing the same topic at the same time as your fellow students.

This is a mandatory course unit for students studying on the on-campus programme, or an optional course unit for students on the web-based learning programme. There will be written materials by the tutors guiding students through the course, illustrated with photographs and figures to illustrate the rich topic areas. Much of the content will be presented through reading, including peer reviewed journals (accessible through the University library), and multimedia, including videos. Students will be directed to a variety of relevant literature each week, but also encouraged to research and explore and find their own sources.  

There will be regular interaction with the tutors through scheduled seminars (which will be recorded for those on the web-based option) and online through the discussion boards. Students will be encouraged to use self-reflection to think about the ideas discussed, and take part in discussion board activities. Students should work through the unit in a logical sequence. The individual course unit timetables will guide what should be done and when. Participation in the discussion boards is greatly encouraged, and can help enhance your learning experience and prepare you for your assessment.

For all students - The majority of the course will be delivered through the virtual learning platform, which will include required and additional reading, self-tests and discussion boards.  

Web-based students - There will be webinars that will be recorded to allow synchronous and asynchronous learning. Web-based students may join webinars live, but it is not mandatory. Recordings will be made of all face-to-face activities and will be made available.

For on campus students - All face-to-face activities are mandatory for all students. Attendance is monitored and an escalation policy is in place for non-attendance. The tutor-led sessions will be recorded and made available for all students as part of good pedagogic practice for accessibility, revision and consolidation. We also have weekly peer-led team study sessions where you will be asked to undertake tasks linked to the course unit materials using the discussion boards.

For all students - In line with guidance from the Office for Students and Quality Assurance Agency, the programme will be augmented by the Programme Director Seminar Series to deliver study skills, written English, academic writing, research skills, critical thinking and understanding arguments, careers and employability skills, revision/assessment/examination skills including time management. 

Students will be provided with personalised feedback for their presentation within 20 working days.

Further opportunities for formative feedback (on non-assessed work) will also be provided during a course unit.

 https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.1201/9781315365442/health-care-needs-assessment-andrew-stevens-james-raftery-sue-simpson-jonathan-mant

The Oxford Textbook of Creative Arts, Health and Wellbeing: International perspectives on practice, policy and research. Clift S, Camic PM, ISBN: 978-0-19-968807-4, OUP (available as an e-book through Blackboard link)

Websites  

• WHO Europe: What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review (2019) Fancourt,D. Finn,S.  
• All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts Health and Wellbeing: Inquiry Report. Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing. 
• Royal Society for Public Health - Arts, Health and Wellbeing beyond the millennium: How far have we come and where do we want to go? 
• PHE - Arts for Health and wellbeing – an evaluation framework 
• https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/11/e053392
• https://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/resources-readers/publications/epidemiology-uninitiated
• https://www.who.int/tools/health-impact-assessments 

If you have any questions about the content of this unit, please contact the course unit leader, Arpana Verma, via email on arpana.verma@manchester.ac.uk. If you have any other queries, please contact the PGT programme administrators via email on shs.programmes@manchester.ac.uk.