MSc Occupational Medicine

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

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

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.

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

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

All fees for entry will be subject to yearly review and incremental rises per annum are also likely over the duration of courses lasting more than a year for UK/EU students (fees are typically fixed for international students for the course duration at the year of entry).

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.

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

The University permits applicants with comparable previous experience to apply for consideration of Accreditation Prior (Experiential) Learning (AP(E)L). The maximum AP(E)L is 15 credits to a PGCert, 45 credits to a PGDip and 60 credits to an MSc.

If your AP(E)L application is successful, the University charges £30 for every 15 credits of AP(E)L. The overall tuition fee is adjusted and then the administrative charge is applied.

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.

This unit focuses on specific physical hazards found in the workplace and their effects on health, including noise, vibration, radiation, environmental temperatures (heat and cold), raised atmospheric pressures and lighting conditions.

The unit explores in depth the workplace exposure to physical agents, enabling the student to apply principles of risk management to a range of physical hazards that may be encountered in the workplace, and to demonstrate knowledge of how physical agents can be measured and controlled.

 The learning outcomes intend to:

• provide an understanding of the effects of noise on hearing and health, and the concept of hearing impairment and its assessment, prevention and control;
• enable students to investigate the factors causing vibration and its effects on health; including hand-arm and whole-body vibration, the recognition of and how to control symptoms and prevent ill health;
• provide an understanding of ionising and non-ionising radiations and their biological effects;
• provide an overview of the mechanisms and short/long term effects of working in environments where there is increased ambient pressure;
• enable students to assess the effects of heat and cold on occupational health and productivity; and
• assess how common causes of visual dysfunction may interfere with the ability to work, and the effects of the physical environment (lighting) on function at work.

• Noise
• Vibration
• Radiation
• Compressed Air Work and Commercial Diving
• Temperature and Work
• Light and Vision

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

On completion, students should be able to:

• understand how to evaluate the likely effects of physical hazards on health, and advise on their prevention and management;
• know about the current legislation and guidance on the control of occupational exposure in relation to physical agents;
• be aware of measures that can be used to control exposure of workers to physical hazards and how to protect persons against the effects of these hazards; and
• understand the role of health surveillance for workers exposed to physical hazards.

On completion, students should be able to:

• understand the principles relating to the mechanisms and effects of physical agents on health and performance;
• be familiar with ways of measuring exposures to physical agents;
• understand the requirement for health surveillance for workers exposed to specific physical agents;
• appreciate the effects of co-morbidities on fitness for work in environments where there may be exposure to physical agents; and
• be familiar with short and long term effects of physical agents on workers and how these should be managed – including both clinical and workplace/environmental management.

On completion, students should be able to:

• understand how environmental/workplace noise is measured, the relevance of exposure(s) to noise for individuals, and how to test/interpret audiological function;
• understand how environmental/workplace vibration is measured, the relevance of exposure(s) to vibration for individuals, and how to perform/interpret health surveillance on workers exposed to vibration;
• understand the pathology, diagnostic features and treatment of decompression illness, and the effects of co-morbidities on workers’ fitness;
• be familiar with how the environmental/workplace thermal environment (temperature and humidity) is assessed, physiological responses to the thermal environment, and treatment for conditions caused by the thermal environment; and
• be familiar with how environmental/workplace lighting is assessed, how to perform/interpret health surveillance on workers’ visual function, and to advise on the effects of lighting and vision on performance.

On completion, students should be able to:

• understand the physical environment, in terms of measurement of physical exposures and effects on health; and
• know about health surveillance for workers exposed to physical agents and the effects of co-morbidities can be used in many fields of medicine (i.e. beyond the workplace environment).

Description	Weighting	Length
Presentation and briefing note advising a Board of Directors on health hazards due to physical agents which workers are likely to be exposed to in a defined project and the measures needed to minimise the risks from these agents	100%	15 minutes presentation 500 word briefing note

Formative assessments with automatic feedback are available throughout the unit as an aid to understanding the course materials. Feedback for the summative assessments is provided by tutors via Canvas. Students may also receive direct feedback from interaction with session leaders throughout the course of study.

• Agius R, Seaton A. Practical occupational medicine 2nd ed. London: Hodder Arnold 2005. ISBN 034075947X OR Tar-Ching A, Gardiner K, Harrington, JM. Occupational health (Pocket Consultants) 5th ed. Wiley-Blackwell 2006.  ISBN- 10 1405122218; ISBN-13 978-1405122214.
•  Palmer K, Brown I, Hobson J (Eds). Fitness for work: the medical aspects 5th ed.  OUP 2013. ISBN 0199643245.
• Griffin MJ (Ed). Handbook of human vibration. London: Academic Press 1990. ISBN 0123030412
• Parsons KC. Human thermal environments. The effects of hot, moderate, and cold environments on human health, comfort, and performance 2nd ed. London: Taylor and Francis 2003.  ISBN 0748400419
• Bove AA, Davis JC. Bove and Davis Diving Medicine 4th ed. Elsevier Saunders 2003. ISBN 0721694241
• Boyce PR.  Human factors in lighting. Barking, Applied Science Publishers: 1981.  ISBN 0853349126

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 Leader Anne Clayson via anne.clayson@manchester.ac.uk.

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