MSc Advanced Leadership for Professional Practice (Nursing)

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)
  UK students (per annum): £12,100
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £29,400

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 .

The postgraduate loan is only available if you choose the 1 year full-time or 2 year part-time course. For part-time routes, full-time fees will be split over two or three years as appropriate.

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

International student CAS deposit

Self-funded international applicants are required to pay a deposit of £2500 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. Some applicants will be required to pay a higher deposit. More information on tuition fee deposits .

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 unit has been developed to help the learner understand and use research to inform and transform their practice rather than to design and conduct a piece of primary research /evidence synthesis, as independent researchers. It helps serve as a platform for the dissertation unit where students are required to complete an adapted systematic review or a proposal for service transformation. Teaching is offered via two options 1) a blended model of delivery (synchronous face-to-face and asynchronous online teaching) or 2) online with synchronous and asynchronous delivery. The teaching team aim to energise students to engage with, understand and critically review research findings to inform and transform practice.

The unit aims to:

1. Furnish students with the knowledge to understand the research process and the steps   required to formulate a specific and answerable question with which to interrogate the literature.
    
2. Equip students with the skills needed to match study designs to answer outstanding questions regarding health and social care practice including qualitative, quantitative and mixed methodologies.
    
3. Equip students with the knowledge and skills to critically evaluate primary research and evidence synthesis to inform and transform their own health and social care practice and that of their colleagues. 

The unit has a blended approach incorporating both in-person and online learning. A session at the start of the unit helps orientate students to the unit content and teaching/learning approaches which will be offered throughout the semester. Teaching activities will be supplemented through the use of in-person/remotely delivered journal clubs.

• Describe in detail different types of research methodologies.
• Understand some basic statistical concepts required to interpret research/evidence synthesis.
• Identify strengths/weaknesses of different study designs.   
   

• Critically review the importance of the role of Patient and Public Involvement in the research process.
• Think critically about whether research studies are using the most appropriate study design. 
• Apply research findings in the context of their own health/social care practice and propose changes (or not) as a result of research findings. 

• Participate in robust debate regarding whether various approaches may be appropriate/inappropriate for their work based health and social care practice.   
• Practice the use of a variety of critical appraisal tools and assess the quality of each tool.
• Search for a diverse range of sources quickly and efficiently.
• Identify areas of uncertainty to formulate focused, answerable questions which are of relevance to practitioners and the patients/service users they work with.   
   

• Evaluate the impact of their work on their own and other professionals practice
• Demonstrate self-direction and originality in identifying, tackling and solving problems
• Communicate complex ideas in concise written formats

Students will be offered the opportunity to submit and thereby to receive feedback on formative work submitted prior to their (final) summative assessment. Online feedback on formative and summative work is provided via Grademark. Grademark is used across all postgraduate programmes within the School and it enables teacher to provide detailed and constructive feedback on each component and aspect of assessment such as areas of strength and aspects which could be enhanced. Provisional feedback based on internal marking of summative work will be made available prior to an Assessment Board on the basis that this is pending ratification of marks at an Assessment Board and therefore may be subject to change. There are also opportunities to discuss the assignment in class and through online discussion boards.

Students can evaluate the unit via forma University evaluation forms and an in-house evaluation at the end of the unit.

• Centre for Society and Mental Health. (2023). Quantitative Research Methods. Research Methods for Society and Mental Health. [Available online: https://researchmethodstoolkit.com/methods-and-approaches/quantitative-research-methods/]
• ‌Centre for Society and Mental Health. (2022). Qualitative Research Methods. Research Methods for Society and Mental Health. [Available online: https://researchmethodstoolkit.com/methods-and-approaches/qualitative-research-methods/]
• National Institute of Health Research (2021) Embedding a research culture. [Available online: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/career-development/health-and-care-research-introduction/embed-a-research-culture]
• Social Care Institute for Excellence (2025) Social Care Using evidence in social services and social care in Wales SCIE. [Available online: https://www.scie.org.uk/wales/using-evidence/]
• Subramanyam, R. (2013). Art of reading a journal article: Methodically and effectively. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, 17(1), 65–65. [Available online: https://doi.org/10.4103/0973-029x.110733]