Overview
- Developed in line with the NIHR-AoMRC Clinician Researcher Credentials Framework to support practising clinical professionals aspiring to work in clinical research. We are one of only two HEIs to receive development funding from the NIHR-AoMRC to develop an online PGCert to launch in 2022.
- Gain the necessary networks, skills and confidence needed to lead and support clinical research by focusing on the practical elements of clinical research
- Benefit from flexible access to high-quality interactive online learning and modules that have been tailored to meet the challenges and opportunities for clinical research in the 21st Century NHS
- Examine the infrastructures and policies shaping clinical research, learn how to engage with patients, plan projects, manage budgets and gain practical experience by supporting a current clinical research project
- The programme will support the Government’s plan to create a world-leading UK clinical research environment. The report Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery provides further detail of the ambitious vision for the future of clinical research delivery.
- For September 2022 entry, we are delighted to be able to offer 39 Department of Health and Social Care bursaries, covering full tuition fees for eligible applicants. Bursaries will be awarded to NHS / publicly-funded healthcare workers in England on a first come, first served basis. Eligible applicants will be offered bursaries via email after the offer of a place on the programme has been made.
We are Top 10 in the UK for our world-leading and internationally excellent research in clinical medicine
Our Public Health research is 11th in UK for Research Power
Major capital investment in new buildings and state-of-the-art facilities
Accreditations
As announced on the NIHR website on 28 September 2021, the Postgraduate Certificate was partially funded by the NIHR-AoMRC Clinician Researcher Credentials Programme (project number CRC Programme PGCert1 UoE). The Postgraduate Certificate 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
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 may be experienced healthcare professionals from a registered healthcare discipline, such as medicine, nursing, midwifery, allied health professions, 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).
We also welcome professionally registered applicants from social care, public health and academia, both in the devolved UK nations and countries outside the UK, for whom the content is relevant.
Please note that healthcare professionals in England will have the opportunity to be matched with a project/mentor for the Research Practice.
Please download and complete the LCRD Expression of interest form. You will need to upload this with your online application form when you apply.
English language requirements
• IELTS: Overall score 6.5. No less than 6.0 in any section.
• TOEFL: Overall score 90 with minimum scores of 21 for writing, 21 for listening, 22 for reading and 23 for speaking.
Please visit our entry requirements section for equivalencies from your country and further information on English language requirements.
Please visit our international equivalency pages to enable you to see if your existing academic qualifications meet our entry requirements.
International students are normally subject to visa regulations which prevent part-time study. It is recommended that international students apply for the level of the final award you intend to complete i.e. PGCert, PGDip or Masters, due to the associated cost and requirements for a Tier 4 student Visa.
Accreditation of prior learning for Masters courses in Healthcare and Medicine
Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) is a process whereby students, who have already gained relevant skills and knowledge prior to the start of their course, may be granted a partial credit exemption from their programme instead of unnecessarily repeating work. Find out more about APL
Research Practice Experience core module
For the Research Practice Experience core module on this programme, you will need a project to work on and a supervisor. The expression of interest form that you are required to submit as part of your application (located under "Typical Offer" at the top of this page) is designed to help facilitate these arrangements. We are only able to support you with finding a project and supervisor if you are a registered healthcare professional working in England, owing to our contract with the funders and the networks we have access to. Please note that if you do not work in a registered healthcare discipline, or you work outside England, you will need to provide evidence to our admissions team that you have a project and supervisor in place before the RPE module commences in January 2023.
Entry requirements for international students
Please visit our entry requirements section for equivalencies from your country and further information on English language requirements.
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Entry requirements for international students
English language requirements
Please visit our entry requirements section for equivalencies from your country and further information on English language requirements.
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 module enables you to put theory into practice by being directly involved with a clinical research project.
Developed in line with the NIHR-AoMRC Clinician Researcher Credentials Framework to support practising healthcare professionals aspiring to work in clinical research delivery.
Modules
The programme is divided into units of study called 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 this PgCert therefore requires 150 hours of study (around 12 hours of study per week, across the term). Typically, you will take two modules in term one and two modules in term two. Most of your study will be asynchronous; you will work through the online material at a time convenient for you. Modules will also have some 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.
The last contact day and assessment deadline for the programme will be earlier than the actual end date of your registration with the University, to allow a period of time at the end of your active studies for further support and mitigation, if needed.
45 credits of compulsory modules, 15 credits of optional modules
Fees
2022/23 entry
UK fees per year:
Standalone module fees: UK: £900 per 15-credit module
International fees per year:
Standalone module fees: International: £2100 per 15-credit module
Find out more about tuition fees and funding
Fee information
Fees can normally be paid by two termly instalments and may be paid online. You will also be required to pay a tuition fee deposit to secure your offer of a place, unless you qualify for exemption. For further information about paying fees see our Student Fees pages.
Scholarships
We invest heavily in scholarships for talented prospective Masters students and have over £2.5 million in scholarships available, including our Global Excellence Scholarships* and Green Futures Scholarships* for international fee paying students.
For information on how you can fund your postgraduate degree at the University of Exeter, please visit our dedicated funding page.
*Selected programmes only. Please see the Terms and Conditions for each scheme for further details.
Funding and scholarships
There are a generous number of bursaries available to applicants who are healthcare professionals in England for September 2022 entry to the PGCert Leading Clinical Research Delivery, which will be funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and will cover full tuition fees for those students in receipt of them. Bursaries will be awarded to NHS / publicly-funded healthcare workers in England on a first come, first served basis. Eligible applicants will be offered bursaries via email after the offer of a place on the programme has been made.
UK government postgraduate loan scheme
Postgraduate loans of up to £10,609 are now available for Masters degrees. Find out more about eligibility and how to apply.
Funding
The Funding website has information on all available options for funding open to prospective students of taught Masters programmes. You can also use the searchable database of all Scholarships and Bursaries to find funding for which you are eligible.
There are various funding opportunities available including Global excellence scholarships. For more information visit our Masters funding page.
Scholarships
The University of Exeter is offering scholarships to the value of over £4 million for students starting with us in September 2021. Details of scholarships, including our Global Excellence scholarships for international fee paying students, can be found on our dedicated funding page.
Pro Vice Chancellor's NHS Postgraduate Scholarship
The College of Medicine and Health is delighted to offer the Pro Vice Chancellor's NHS Postgraduate Scholarship of £5000 to two NHS staff who accept a place to study on one of our Masters programmes. Please check your eligibility before applying.
University of Exeter Class of 2022 Progression Scholarship
We are pleased to offer graduating University of Exeter students completing their degree in Summer 2022 and progressing direct to a standalone taught Masters degree (eg MA; MSc; MRes; MFA) or research degree (eg MPhil/PhD) with us a scholarship towards the cost of their tuition fees. These awards are worth 10% of the first year tuition fee for students enrolling on a postgraduate taught or research programme of study in 2022/23, with the exception of the PGCE programme. Find out more
There are various funding opportunities available including Global excellence scholarships. For more information visit our Masters funding page.
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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) module, 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.
Professor Karen Mattick
Professor of Medical Education and Director of Postgraduate Education
Dr Kerry Gilbert
Inaugural Programme Lead
Dr Anne-Marie Russell
Senior Lecturer
Professor Karen Mattick
Professor of Medical Education and Director of Postgraduate Education
Professor Karen Mattick is Professor of Medical Education and Director of Postgraduate Education and is overseeing the development of the online PGCert in Leading Clinical Research Delivery, which aligns well with her commitment to interprofessional learning and seeing research inform practice. Her research interests are the experiences of doctors-in-training, especially in relation to feedback conversations and prescribing, and the impact of these on careers and wellbeing. She is Deputy Editor for the journal Medical Education and Director of Awards for the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME). She is also Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a National Teaching Fellow.
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Dr Kerry Gilbert
Inaugural Programme Lead
Dr Kerry Gilbert is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Education and is the Inaugural Programme Lead for the online PGCert in Leading Clinical Research Delivery. Kerry has a background in Medical Education spanning 15 years with particular expertise in curriculum creation, development and delivery across several areas of learning, including Enquiry and Problem Based Learning curricula, widening access to medicine, developing reflective writing skills and reflexive practice in medical students and development of self-guided learning to promote critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills, including the innovative assessment of these skills in practice. Kerry has demonstrated expertise in development of learning materials for online delivery and delivered online educational learning sessions locally, nationally and internationally. Kerry is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE).
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Dr Anne-Marie Russell
Senior Lecturer
Dr Anne-Marie Russell is a Senior Lecturer and has extensive experience in clinical research and global collaborations with interdisciplinary professionals specialising in interstitial lung diseases. She maintains clinical activities through honorary appointments with Royal Devon and Exeter and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trusts and maintains a strong commitment to shared decision making and delivering research informed clinical care.
Anne-Marie’s research is focussed on patient reported measures including experience, engagement and health outcomes employing mixed methods and patient-centred approaches. Anne-Marie works collaboratively with ILD charities in the UK, US and Europe. She has experience of post-graduate teaching in advanced practice and research methods, pre-doctoral and doctoral supervision and mentorship. She maintains a keen interest in primary care and the management of long-term conditions. Anne-Marie also has extensive experience of supporting early career researchers and completed a two-year secondment to the NIHR 70@70 senior research leader programme. She is the module lead for Integrity and Leadership in Research for Health and Healthcare.
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Careers
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 PGCert in Leading Clinical Research Delivery provides 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 to Career 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.
