* subject to final UWE Bristol approval
This course is open for applications
Page last updated 28 June 2024
Our MRes Health and Care Research course is for health and care professionals. Join the course to develop research knowledge and experience to advance your career. Studentships are available for this course funded by the NIHR INSIGHT programme.
The MRes Health and Care Research course provides an excellent foundation in health and care research. It will enable you to understand the nature of research evidence and its application for informing practice and policy. It provides formal training in research methods and practice-based experience of managing and delivering research that aligns to contemporary research needs and priorities. The course is suitable for registered healthcare, social work, and public health professionals from any workplace setting who wish to advance their research knowledge and skills and want to conduct a research project that could result in a publication.
UWE Bristol has experienced staff that deliver excellence in health and care research with highly rated research impact. Our research centres, the Centre for Health and Clinical Research, Centre for Public Health and Wellbeing and Centre for Research in Bioscience are vibrant hubs for students, staff, and practitioners to engage with current research and contemporary research practice. In addition, the course is supported by expertise drawn from across the University, our local and regional NIHR and NHS organisations and other sector providers.
There are NIHR funded bursaries available to undertake the MRes on a full-time or part-time basis for eligible registered health and care professionals for 2024-2025, 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 academic years.
The course has been designed in partnership with NIHR and NHS organisations to develop registered health and care professionals as highly skilled researchers ready to carry out health and care research. You could develop a career in research delivery, combining research with professional practice or working as an academic or clinical academic. The course will support you to build your research track record by providing an opportunity to publish and disseminate your research findings. You may also develop onto leadership opportunities in health and care research in your profession/service area.
The below information is indicative of the structure and content for this new course, and is still subject to final UWE Bristol approval. The approved details will be published here as soon as possible.
The University continually enhances our offer by responding to feedback from our students and other stakeholders, ensuring the curriculum is kept up to date and our graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need for the real world. This may result in changes to the course. If changes to your course are approved, we’ll inform you.
The course is delivered by experienced academic and clinical academic staff with extensive research experience in health and care settings. Many of the staff are active members of our research centres and are involved in externally funded research projects and programmes that are relevant to this course.
The MRes course is delivered as a blended learning to provide flexible learning opportunities whether you prefer to study on a full or part-time basis. It’s student-centred, allowing you to tailor your learning to your professional or research interests and to engage in multi-professional student academic learning communities to enrich your learning experience.
You’ll complete three compulsory modules, two 15-credit and one 30-credit modules to provide a foundation for the compulsory 90-credit research project module. The project involves independent research work and you’ll be supported by an experienced research supervisor. You’ll then choose a further 30 credits from optional modules to complete the course.
See our glossary of teaching and learning terms.
This course lasts one year full-time or two years part-time. It starts in September, and you’ll study on a modular basis. Module credit ratings are proportional to the expected study time; for 1 credit, 10 hours of study time is required.
Your study time will involve a mix of scheduled sessions for lectures, seminars and workshops, online activities, and self-guided/independent study. For the compulsory modules, in-person sessions are usually scheduled for two days per week.
The course includes a 90-credit extended project module where you will work independently with supervisory support to plan and deliver a research project.
Depending on the module, the assessment methods may include coursework, presentations, written examinations, or a portfolio. Some of the assessments will provide opportunities to apply your learning to an area of professional or research interest. The extended research project, a major part of the master’s course, will be assessed through a report written as a journal article, a poster presentation and oral discussion. These assessments will provide experience of common dissemination methods practiced in health and care research fields.
Learn more about our assessments.
Research practice placements providing experience of health and care research in a real world context are available as an option for NIHR funded bursary students. We work with a diverse number of partners in the West of England region including NIHR infrastructure organisations, commercial and clinical research delivery teams, and academic research teams.
You'll work with a host research supervisor or team with skills and experience of health and care research as an enrichment opportunity. We’ll discuss your options and arrangements for research practice placements with you on an individualised basis to establish how best to meet your learning needs.
The School of Health and Social Wellbeing is mainly based at the Glenside Campus where you’ll find an extensive range of teaching facilities and learning resources. The Glenside Campus Library focuses on healthcare resources and, in addition to physical materials, has a huge selection of online books, journals and audio-visual materials. You’ll have access to various health and social care and science databases to support you to carry out searches and access literature on areas of interest.
Our IT provision delivers excellent facilities for teaching and learning activities such as smart boards, multicasting, and multimedia laboratories and you can access various specialist software packages relevant for research such as NVIVO, R, SPSS.
Depending on your professional area, there are a range of well-equipped laboratories for research and teaching on Glenside and Frenchay Campuses for bench-based science, clinical and human investigations.
Learn more about UWE Bristol's facilities and resources.
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There are a broad range of careers available to registered healthcare, social work and public health professionals that will use the research knowledge and skills developed as part of this course. Within health and care organisations and the related health sector, there are career opportunities in research delivery supporting and leading high quality research within the NHS and industry, in academic research to address contemporary health and care challenges and/or to incorporate research within professional practice as part of a portfolio career. Our MRes also provides a route to further career development awards provided by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Our award-winning Careers Service helps you develop your employment potential through career coaching, a vacancy service for internships, placements, jobs, global opportunities, volunteering and community activity plus support for entrepreneurial activity, and access to employer events.
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You'll have:
In addition:
Shortlisted applicants will be invited to attend a 30 minute interview. This will be conducted virtually on Microsoft Teams.
International and EU applicants are required to have a minimum overall IELTS (Academic) score of 7.0 with 6.5 in each component (or approved equivalent*).
*The University accepts a large number of UK and international qualifications in place of IELTS. You can find details of acceptable tests and the required grades you'll need in our English language requirements.
Find out more about postgraduate applications.