MSc Occupational Medicine

Fees for entry in 2027 have not yet been set. For reference, the fees for the academic year beginning September 2026 were as follows:

• MSc (full-time distance learning)
  UK students (per annum): £15,200
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £31,500
• MSc (part-time distance learning)
  UK students (per annum): £6,080 for year 1 and 2, and £3,040 for year 3
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £12,600 for year 1 and 2, and £6,300 for year 3
• PGDip (part-time distance learning)
  UK students (per annum): £6,100
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £12,600
• PGCert (part-time distance learning)
  UK students (per annum): £3,000
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £6,300

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

Students opting for MSc 1 year full-time or 2 year part-time course of study could qualify for a PGT loan from the UK government. Please see our university pages or contact admissions.

Students studying our MSc programme over 3 years part-time may also be eligible for a postgraduate loan if there is no other suitable full time equivalent course available in the UK at the time of application. Please contact our admissions for more information.

Please note: The fees do not cover any costs for travel or accommodation related to any optional on campus events.

Several of our students are sponsored by their employers or the governments of their home countries.

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).

For the latest scholarship and bursary information please visit the fees and funding page.

A limited number of Equity and Merit scholarships are available to applicants from Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Please visit the Equity and Merit scholarships page for full details.

The practice of occupational medicine covers a broad range of industries, jobs and hence ‘exposures’, against changing demography and culture within the workplace and wider society.  The identification, prevention and management of occupationally linked disorders can be challenging and these issues are discussed within this unit, illustrated by specific examples. Topics explore occupational disorders within the context of respiratory, musculoskeletal, skin, infectious diseases, occupational cancers and medically unexplained symptoms (including bio-psychosocial challenges). 

This unit aims to enable students to develop an understanding of the steps required to identify whether a disease is work-related or not and to critically evaluate the prevention and management of occupationally linked disorders including aspects of chronic disease management. 

The learning outcomes intend to:

• provide an understanding of the main occupational disorders in terms of epidemiology, investigation, diagnosis, management and prevention;
• enable students to critically examine the methods of identification of occupational disorders and their causes and to know when reporting of an occupationally related disorder is required;
• illustrate the role of early detection of occupational diseases in their prevention and management and the range of methods by which this might be achieved; and
• enable students to evaluate the role of risk assessment in the management and prevention of occupational disorders.

• Respiratory Disorders
• Occupational Dermatoses
• Musculoskeletal Disorders
• Occupational Cancers
• Aviation Medicine
• Occupational Infections
• Medically Unexplained Symptoms
• Shift Work and Daily Rhythms
• Work and the Older Employee

Learning and teaching will take the form of online supported by online lectures, webinars, group discussion, tutorials, and optional on campus workshops, where applicable. Canvas will be used for course materials, group discussions, announcements, reading lists and online assessments.

On completion, the student should be able to:

• critically evaluate occupationally related diseases by body system, and advise on their prevention and management
• demonstrate understanding of the range of industrial situations where disorders may occur, and be able to make an initial differential diagnosis and assessment of these diseases;
• critically examine methodologies to classify and investigate occupational diseases;
• identify and evaluate risk factors for occupational diseases; and
• demonstrate understanding of the fundamental principles of risk assessments in relation to causal agents.

On completion, the student should be able to:

• critically examine knowledge limitations within occupational health, and identify the need to seek further (specialist) advice;
• reflect on the impact of a wide range of influences (such as cultural background and intellectual capacity) on the working environment;
• synthesise and evaluate the relevant medical and scientific literature relating to occupational health practice; and

• demonstrate the ability to solve problems and make decisions about occupational health issues.

   

On completion, the student should be able to:

• make an initial differential diagnosis and assessment of occupational diseases;
• apply the principles of assessing fitness to work for people with occupational diseases; and
• assess medically unexplained symptoms in the context of a workplace setting.

On completion, the student should be able to:

• independently gather, organise, and evaluate information from a variety of sources and develop an evidence-based approach to clinical practice;
• integrate knowledge of health, legislation, and business in the management of work-related issues affecting both individuals and groups of employees; and
• apply the clinical knowledge of occupational diseases to wider clinical practice.

• Baxter P, Aw T, Cockroft A, Durrington P, Harrington J. Hunter’s diseases of occupations 10th ed. London: Hodder- Edward Arnold 2010. ISBN 9780340941669.
• McDonald, C (ed.) 2000, Epidemiology of Work Related Diseases, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, Newark. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [29 July 2024]. 

Students enrolled on the course can access recommended resources through their University of Manchester library account

If you have any questions regarding the content of this unit, please contact the Course Unit Leaders, David Fishwick (david.fishwick@manchester.ac.uk) or Nicola Gartland (nicola,gartland@manchester.ac.uk)

If you have any other queries, please contact the Programme Admin team via shs.programmes@manchester.ac.uk.