MSc Occupational Medicine

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2027, the tuition fees are as follows:

• MSc (part-time distance learning)
  UK students (per annum): £6,400 in year 1 and 2, £3,200 in year 3
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £6,400 in year 1 and 2, £3,200 in year 3

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.

Accreditation of Prior (Experiential) Learning, AP(E)L

The University permits applicants with comparable previous experience to submit an application for consideration of Accreditation Prior (Experiential) Learning (AP(E)L). AP(E)L will be allowed up to half of the total credits needed for the programme at the point of application. If you wish to submit an AP(E)L application, please contact the admissions team.
If an AP(E)L application is successful, the overall tuition fee is adjusted accordingly and a small administrative charge 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 course unit provides an introduction to health policy, including approaches to understanding policy making and the policy process, implementation, analysis, and evaluation. The unit is of relevance to a range of professions within health and care services, the wider public services, and those interested in public policy at the local, national and international scales. This includes those within the NHS/health care services, local authorities, the voluntary sector, non-government agencies, policy think-tanks, and consultancies in the health policy world. The overarching significance of policy to public health means that this course complements a range of existing course units, including ‘Health Services Management’ and ‘Implementation Sciences.’ It is unique in its exploration of approaches to evaluating policy and offering students an opportunity to design an outline for their own policy evaluation. This unit is relevant internationally, using both core case studies and inviting examples of health policies from students’ own contexts, to apply and consider concepts from the course in relation to different contexts.  

This is an interactive online course. Students must work through, and reflect on, the online course material independently. Students are also encouraged to engage with the Blackboard discussion boards to ask questions, give feedback to one another, and check their understanding of key concepts and methods introduced during the course unit. 

Critically discuss key theoretical and practical concepts in health policy, from policy conception to implementation and evaluation.

Apply public policy concepts to ‘real world’ case studies of health policy, including those relating to students’ local policy contexts or professionalexperiences.

Explain effective policy communication, stakeholder engagement, and policy influence.

Category of outcome	Upon completion, students should be able to:
Knowledge and understanding	Define and critically discuss the concept of health policy Explain how to identify and engage policy makers and influence policy
Intellectual skills	Analyse the geographic, economic, social and political contexts of policy Critically engage with theories of the policy making process Critically consider different approaches to policy evaluation
Practical skills	Apply policy implementation and policy transfer models and frameworks to case studies
Transferable skills and personal qualities	Communicate policy analysis clearly and persuasively

· What is policy?

· Policy context

· How and why policy is made

· Policy transfer

· Policy implementation models and frameworks

· Synthesised implementation models and barriers to implementing policy

· Evaluation approaches and design

· Why policy interventions work or fail

· Engaging policy makers and influencing policy

This course unit has a high degree of self-directed learning including exercises and assignments which involve active reflection, reading, peer-led discussions, and applying concepts to ‘real world’ examples of health policy. This includes engaging with core case studies of health policies introduced during the course unit and being encouraged to reflect on and discuss examples from the students’ own context and professional experiences. Each week, the teaching team will record a video call ‘topic conversation’ where they discuss the content of the previous week’s topic, apply it to further real world experiences, and reflect on the ideas covered.  

Formative feedback during the unit is given in a variety of ways. This includes written feedback to students that submit a short essay for the mid-term formative feedback opportunity. This essay can then be used to support the final summative assignment. The optional discussion board activities, and forums, provide an opportunity to test learning, ask questions, and receive peer and tutor comments.  

All students will be provided with written feedback in relation to the final summative assignment.

There will be regular interaction with the tutors through scheduled webinars (which will be recorded and made available) and through the online 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.

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 final summative assignment (2,500-3,000 words) within 20 working days for final submission. 

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

Buse K, Mays N, and Walt G. (2012) Making Health Policy (Understanding Public Health), 2nd Edition. Open University Press. ISBN-10:0335246346. 

Please make note of the following further detail regarding scheduled activity hours for this unit: 

Webinars and online Topic Conversations	8 hours
Assessment working and associated tasks	50 hours
Independent study with guided online content	92 hours

 

If you have any questions about the content of this unit, please contact the course unit lead Dr Jonathan Hammond via email at jonathan.hammond@manchester.ac.uk. If you have any other queries, please contact the PGT programme administrators via email at shs.programmes@manchester.ac.uk.