Leading Clinical Research Delivery (Online) MSc | Postgraduate Taught (2024)

Entry requirements

Normally a minimum 2.2 Honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant discipline. Relevant clinical or professional experience (more than two years post-qualification) may be taken into consideration as evidence of equivalency.

Applicants will be experienced healthcare professionals from any registered healthcare discipline, such as medicine, nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions (including pharmacists and healthcare scientists), or those who have worked in a relevant role for at least two years (e.g. clinical trials manager, clinical research practitioners, university postdoctoral researcher).

Read more

Course content

Healthcare is becoming increasingly complex, with clinical work and clinical research requiring unprecedented levels of cooperation between diverse providers and multiple sectors. We will provide you with a strong theoretical foundation covering topics such as research leadership, equality, diversity and inclusion, as well as planning and piloting to ensure study feasibility and optimal delivery.Alongside this, you will consider the practicalities of doing clinical research and ways to improve participant recruitment. Our Research Practice Experience modules enables you to put theory into practice by being directly involved with a clinical research project.

This programme has been developed in line with the NIHR-AoMRC Clinician Researcher Credentials Framework to support practising healthcare professionals aspiring to work in clinical research delivery. Through the programme, you will continue developing your patient-centred approach to research delivery and understanding of measures of health outcomes.With a strong emphasis on using reflective practice to apply and transfer learning from the course, you will develop yourself as an adaptable, reflexive practitioner ready to lead clinical research delivery.

Specialisms

Students following the MSc will be able to specialise in one of four areas:

• leadership,
• research methodologies,
• genomic medicine
• or public health,

by taking relevant 15-credit modules and choosing a related dissertation topic.

Contact dates

Leading Clinical Research Delivery contact days timetable 23/24

Please note: This timetable is draft and subject to change.

Modules

The programme is divided into study units or modules which are assigned a number of credits. The credit rating of a module is proportional to the total workload, with one credit being nominally equivalent to 10 hours of work. Each 15-credit module in theMSc Leading Clinical Research Delivery therefore requires 150 hours (around 12 hours of study per week, across a term). The 60-credit Master’s project is a full-year project that should take around 600 hours to complete. Most of your study will be asynchronous, allowing you to work through the online material at a time convenient for you. Modules will also have some compulsory contact days, where you will meet with your tutor and peers via Teams or Zoom (dates will be provided in advance to aid your planning).

The modules we outline here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.

Fees

2024/25 entry

UK fees per year:

MSc: £5,800pa part-time 2 years, £3,900pa part-time 3 years
PGDip: £3,900pa part-time 2 years
PGCert: £3,900
Standalone module fees: UK: £1,100 per 15-credit module

International fees per year:

MSc: £13,750pa part-time 2 years, £9,250 pa part-time 3 years
PGDip:£9,250pa part-time 2 years
PGCert: £9,250
Standalone module fees: International: £2,500 per 15-credit module

Scholarships

We invest heavily in scholarships for talented prospective Masters students. This includes over £5 million in scholarships for international students, such as our Global Excellence Scholarships*.

For more information on scholarships, please visit our scholarships and bursaries page.

^{*Selected programmes only. Please see the Terms and Conditions for each scheme for further details.}

Funding and scholarships

The MSc, PGDip and PGCert Leading Clinical Research Delivery course attracts funding from the DHSC and other funding bodies. To be considered for a bursary you must have been allocated a place on the LCRD course (for the one-, two- or three-year pathway). Please ensure you make your application to the course as well as for a bursary. Your bursary application will be disregarded unless you have been offered a place on the course. Some DHSC bursary funding is available to eligible applicants in the 2024-25 academic year.

Applications for 2024/25 DHSC bursary funding are now open, and close at 11:59 BST on 01 August 2024. For full details and to apply, please visit the NIHR Clinician Researcher Credentials Framework website.

Teaching and research

Our online programme has been designed with flexibility in mind enabling you to enhance your knowledge and skills around your current schedule. The programme will include a combination of evidence-based educational formats, including workplace-based learning. You will have access to high quality interactive online learning to develop knowledge and insight in respect of the approaches to, and delivery of, clinical research. You will develop key knowledge, skills and behaviours to enable you to demonstrate capability as a clinician researcher when delivering aspects of networked research within your own practice.

During the Research Practice Experience (RPE) and Advanced RPE (ARPE) modules, you will develop practical experience in the supportive context of a clinical research network while working on existing research studies.

You will participate in activities such as scoping current evidence and maximising the potential of routinely collected data, to tasks such as project planning and budget management. Through facilitated group discussions and the use of case studies, you will explore different types of research studies and explore the potential challenges such as how to improve participant recruitment and how to problem solve whilst doing clinical research.

In addition to core modules you will also choose an optional module which will enable you to excel in an area of importance to research delivery in the NHS, such as epidemiology, clinical trials, research methods, genomics or public health related modules.

Careers

The NHS needs to develop and retain a broad range of clinician researchers, individuals with responsibility for leading or contributing to research locally within their clinical setting, to lead and support high quality clinical research in areas where there is the greatest disease burden. The Leading Clinical Research Delivery porgrammes provide an alternative route into clinical research for experienced clinicians who are new to clinical research.

The programme will provide the necessary networks, skills and confidence needed for clinicians to lead and support clinical research.

Careers support

All University of Exeter students have access toCareer Zone, which gives access to a wealth of business contacts, support and training as well as the opportunity to meet potential employers at our regular Careers Fairs.

Related courses

View all Healthcare and Medicine courses