Are you a practising health and care professional? Our new Master's by Research gives you the skills to design, carry out and publish health and care research. You will be taught by experienced researchers in the Centre for Health Services Studies.
What is the difference between evaluation and research? What are the evaluative approaches used in the health and care services today? How does evidence-based research influence healthcare practice?
On this course you’ll ask these key questions and many more as you master the basics of research design, ethics and how to design a research protocol. You'll cover key areas in this field including the formative, process and summative research, realistic evaluation, case study design and evaluation methods, action research and participatory methods.
You’ll also learn about the techniques of trial design and the role and importance of discrete projects for the demonstration of ‘proof of concept’, feasibility, efficacy, and effectiveness. You’ll gain a broad grounding in applied research and evaluation each week and examine research articles for discussion in seminars/workshops.
On completion of your studies, you'll have the expertise to evaluate research appropriately, using your knowledge and understanding of the relationship between research, evidence and practice.
CHSS is a centre of research excellence which undertakes high quality research into a wide range of health and social care systems and health and care services issues at local, national and international levels.
Prioritising a creative, inclusive research culture, we build the evidence base for policy and practice to prevent ill-health, promote well-being and meet needs for care, focusing on primary and community services, public health and social care working with academic collaborators across the UK and the world.
If you are interested in studying for a PhD with us, please contact a potential supervisor with your ideas and draft a short proposal. The proposal should include an introduction, theoretical framework with relevant references, research design and methods, sample, research questions, ethical considerations, and a timeline.
For submitting a full application, you will need to apply online. For full details on the application process, please see our how to apply pages.
A good honours degree in the social sciences, an interest in the chosen topic area and a clear idea of your proposed thesis topic. We will also consider candidates with professional qualifications alone and/or relevant experience in the health service.
All applicants are considered on an individual basis and additional qualifications, professional qualifications and relevant experience may also be taken into account when considering applications.
Please see our International Student website for entry requirements by country and other relevant information. Due to visa restrictions, students who require a student visa to study cannot study part-time unless undertaking a distance or blended-learning programme with no on-campus provision.
This course requires a Very Good level of English language, equivalent to a high B2 on CEFR.
Details on how to meet this requirement can be found on our English Language requirements webpage.
Examples:
IELTS 6.5 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component
PTE Academic 67 with a minimum of 59 in each sub-test
A degree from the UK
A degree from a Majority English Speaking Country
Please note that if you are required to meet an English language condition, we offer a number of pre-sessional courses in English for Academic Purposes through Kent International Pathways.
This course uses a combination of taught lectures, seminars, self-directed learning, tutorials and individual research projects.
The following modules are indicative of those offered on this programme. This list is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year in response to new curriculum developments and innovation.
You’ll gain a broad grounding in applied research and evaluation each week. This engaging module explores applied research in health and social care. You’ll consider a key question ‘what is the difference between evaluation and research’ by way of an introduction to evaluative approaches in health services. You will be given research articles that are compulsory reading as a basis for the discussions in the seminars/workshops. By the end of the module, you'll master the basics of research design, ethics and how to design a research protocol. This will include the formative, process and summative research, realistic evaluation, case study design and evaluation methods, action research and participatory methods. You’ll a broad grounding in applied research and evaluation each week you will be given research articles that are compulsory reading for discussion in seminars/workshops. You will then understand the relationship between research, evidence and practice.
Why is qualitative research important in the health and care field? Through learning about approaches, methods, and analysis techniques that are used in qualitative research, you will explore and consider this question. You’ll recognise sampling and recruitment in qualitative research, using different data collection methods (interviews, focus groups, ethnography), approaches to analysis such as thematic analysis and ethical issues raised in undertaking qualitative research. You’ll also be introduced to different data management software tools (a workshop session on NVIVO), secondary data analysis considering reusing secondary data, reading and reflecting on data collected by others, meaning and use of documentation and other contextual materials sampling strategies for secondary analysis. By the end of this module, you’ll be critiquing and assessing rigour in qualitative research and presenting analysis in health and care research reports.
Quantitative research has many applications across a wide range of fields. In this module, you will be acquiring skills to collect and analyse data in health and care research. You will learn critical appraisal skills to apply to quantitative methods, which are used within the routine context of research evaluating health and care interventions. The assessment methods used for this module may include a variety of teaching methods for example, seminar presentations and summaries, coursework essays and assignments, statistical tests and examinations, research proposals, unseen written examination papers, poster presentations, presentations in class, and in-class tests. By the end of this module, you will have gained a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different key study designs and will design a study demonstrating the use of one of the methods introduced in the module.
Advancing skills and knowledge of complex issues in qualitative research are at the core of this module. To this end, you will tackle a range of qualitative research strategies and variety of advanced qualitative methods used in health and care research. These aspects of qualitative research, will provide you with knowledge, insights and techniques that are more comprehensive, advancing your understanding of the theoretical perspectives related to qualitative research design. You’ll also learn the specific qualitative methodologies, including data collection, data analysis and critical appraisal skills. You’ll be able to describe epistemological stances related to appropriate design of a qualitative research study and to understand how theory informs the analysis. You will explore the impact of reflexivity and how it may impact qualitative research. Upon completion, you will have been taught the knowledge and skills required for qualitative inquiry to publish written reports at an advanced level. in formats accessible to a range of potential audiences.
Advanced quantitative research methods can provide robust evaluative evidence about the causal effects of intervention choices. In this module, you’ll be introduced to a range quantitative research methods that are commonly used within applied health research including secondary (meta-analysis) and primary methods (i.e. cohort studies, case control, etc.). You’ll also learn about the techniques of trial design and the role and importance of discrete projects for ‘proof of concept’, feasibility, efficacy, and effectiveness studies. You will consider a range of research designs, strategies and quantitative techniques (e.g., univariate and introductory multivariate statistics). You’ll be taught to identify how to prepare data for analysis. You’ll evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different key study designs and will design a study demonstrating the use of one of the methods introduced in the module. By the end of this module, you will have become a ‘critical consumer’ of research with the knowledge and understanding necessary to evaluate quantitative research appropriately.
You select two optional modules, along with completing the research project / report.
You’ll undertake an independent, in-depth inquiry to investigate an applied health or social care research question(s) of your choice. You’ll apply research skills that will allow you to master how the purpose of the research project is to prepare students to become ‘research-minded’ practitioners. You'll be given the opportunities to undertake an independent, in-depth inquiry to investigate an applied health or social care research question(s) of your choice. You’ll also undertake five workshops to prepare you for your research project. For the dissertation proposals you will finalise the research with your chosen supervisor who you will meet every fortnight to discuss progress. The ethical application will be referred where relevant to the School ethics committee. By the end of the module, you'll be equipped to take a lead role in commencing research in practice settings and in supervising others in such work.
For course aims and learning outcomes please see the course specification.
The atmosphere in the School is informal and friendly and has at its centre a lively and diverse postgraduate community. The weekly staff/postgraduate seminar series is designed to introduce you to the work of major scholars from the UK and abroad, and there is also a wide range of other seminar and workshop series each academic year.
Our postgraduate students have access to dedicated office space within the department and are able to take advantage of excellent library and computing facilities. Where appropriate, research students are encouraged to expand their experience by teaching part-time in the School.
Staff publish regularly and widely in journals, conference proceedings and books, providing support and encouragement for our research students to present and publish themselves. Among others, they have recently contributed to: Journal of Social Policy; Journal of European Social Policy; Voluntas; Social Policy and Administration; and Social Policy and Society.
All students registered for a taught Master's programme are eligible to apply for a place on our Global Skills Award Programme. The programme is designed to broaden your understanding of global issues and current affairs as well as to develop personal skills which will enhance your employability.
Academic staff at Kent share a number of interests, grouped here for your guidance. However, there is often a degree of overlap between groups and your research project does not have to fall neatly within any one of them. The School also has several research centres that bring together experts in the field, co-ordinate research, organise talks and offer opportunities for postgraduate students to get involved in discussions and research projects.
At Kent, research in this area includes the role of global civil society, critical analysis of terrorism and responses to it, globalisation and everyday life, migration, the role of communication technologies, and the global expansion of capitalism and responses to it in social movements.
Within this area, staff have worked on the ‘culture of anxiety’ and the ‘therapy culture’, the impact on individual lives and experiences of masculinity, gender, race and ethnicity, parenthood and nationality. Other interests include the social context in which attributions of mental illness are made and managed, the meaning and construction of pain in late modernity, and the sociology of crime and deviance.
The critical analysis of risk and perceptions of risk have become central issues in the sociology of the ‘risk society’ and this is a major focus of research activity in the School. Staff research includes work on health risks and their management, the implications of attitudes and behaviour concerning risk for the welfare state, the development of a culture of risk and anxiety, moral panics, risk and crime, risk and the life course, suffering and the perceptions of new communications technology.
The School has strong expertise in the area of race and ethnicity, and in the area of migration. Our work includes projects on mixed race, immigrant communities and refugees.
Research at Kent has also addressed diasporas, undocumented migrants and the links between marriage and migration.
Social and political changes have stimulated new forms of political participation and mobilisation, including waves of protest, new social movement organisations focused on old as well as new issues, new political parties and global social movements. Staff interests include environmental movements, humanitarian NGOs, elite networks, and the ‘postmodern’ politics of anti-communist movements in Eastern Europe.
Staff in this research cluster seek to understand the social forces and cultural interests that move people to take moral responsibility for responding to/caring for the needs of others; document and explain the institutional organisation of charitable behaviour and its social impacts; the socio-cultural dynamics of philanthropic behaviour and its effects on society; contemporary humanitarianism and its powers of influence over social policy and political process; and to understand the character of the social ties and cultural values that structure the interrelationships between humanitarian action, charitable endeavour and philanthropic intervention; as well as the bearing of government policies and governmental processes upon the charitable sector and philanthropic activity.
In this research cluster, staff seek to understand the complex relationships between embodied subjects, and the social and cultural forms, relationships, institutions and structures that shape and are shaped by these actors. This includes research on clothing and fashion, the embodiment of age, and the body in health and social care. Thesis topics within this cluster have included female binge drinking, female body builders, tattooing and piercing, and the embodied sociology of private spaces.
Members of the crime, control and culture research cluster are primarily involved in projects and research-centred activities connected with cultural criminology, for example in the areas of subcultures, drug use and intoxification, the night-time economy, the surveillance society, the photographic representation of crime, young people and crime, and the carnival of crime. In addition, work of a more traditional nature is also being undertaken, for example in the fields of international drug policy, the history of crime and punishment, and violence.
Staff working in this cluster study issues such as classical social theory, the impact on social theory of the fall of communism, and the theoretical implications of the changing boundaries of social life. This has further entailed work on the integrity of auto/biography as a form of social information and its impact on diverse disciplines of feminist perspectives.
Research at Kent addresses how gender is constructed and how it operates in a variety of social realms. Some of our recent projects have focused on gender in prisons, on women working as door staff in nightclubs and on how women are addressed in advice on pregnancy. Our research on social policy also includes a focus on gender, examining how men, women and families are affected by legislation and service provision.
Staff share a research interest in the social role of the media, how media are used and how they are changing. Research at Kent has included work on the role of the media in constructing social problems and moral panics, media and crime, new media, media and subcultures, and the role of media in representing space and identity.
Staff share an interest in the visual dimension of social life. How is life seen, how are images created, stored and used? In various research projects, we also explore the use of images in innovative forms of research design and in sharing our findings.
This research cluster represents a long-standing interest within SSPSSR at Kent. Currently, ten members of the School are researching and teaching in this broad field, representing staff in sociology, social policy, criminology and cultural studies. Themes studied include: age, generation and employment; deindustrialisation; gender, ethnicity and class at work; historiography of work sociology; moral economy; organisational sociology; policy effects on formal and informal labour; visual representation of work; work identity and meaning; work/life balance; workplace ethnography and oral histories.
Cross-national study, both among staff and postgraduate students, is widespread throughout the School and relevant to all research clusters. However, some of our research also takes cross-national comparison as its major focus. This includes analysing policy formation and its impact on individuals, families and social groups within different states and within a global context.
Using the framework of different welfare regimes, academic staff research a wide range of topics, while postgraduate students conduct research projects in every part of the world. Many of these projects involve overseas students comparing their own country and European or UK services. Recent cross-national work has included projects examining home care services for older people, formal and informal social care systems, institutional change and the future of welfare reform, gender and family, globalisation, housing, and community activism.
The Centre for Health Services Studies has a strong record in attracting research grants from the National Institute for Health Research, European Union Framework Programme, ESRC, Department of Health, as well as local health authorities and trusts. It is a designated NIHR Research Design Support Service. Particular areas of expertise include pragmatic trials, risk assessment and management, care of vulnerable adults including older people, and public health.
The Centre was established in 1992 in order to consolidate Kent’s leading position in the study in Britain of social and political movements. The Centre is actively involved in international networks of social movement researchers through its participation in the Erasmus network on ‘Social movements, conflict and political action’ and through its members’ activity in the relevant research committees of the International Sociological Association, the European Sociological Association, and the European Consortium for Political Research.
KCJC is a collaboration of senior researchers at the University of Kent, based in the School, the Personal Social Services Research Unit and Kent Law School. It works in partnership with Kent Youth Offending Service and other criminal justice and non-governmental organisations. The core members have a multidisciplinary background, which includes sociology, economics, law and statistics, and expertise in sophisticated quantitative techniques, economic modelling and qualitative methods.
The team at the Centre for Child Protection is leading the way in developing new and innovative ways to deliver training and opportunities for simulated role play for professional development. The serious game concept offers a safe medium to explore and reflect upon child protection assessment. It offers professionals, at all stages of their careers, a unique way to evaluate real-life situations.
The first in the series of games, Rosie 2 promotes the theme of inter-professional practice by exploring the boundaries and challenges of a joint visit to the
family by a health visitor and social worker. Rosie 2 was followed by Visiting Elliot which explores a visit to a sex offender in the community. Zak, the third game in the series, focuses on an aspect of internet grooming.
The Centre for Child Protection’s series of serious game simulations provide research-based case studies and the opportunities to explore the complex dynamics involved in making professional assessments and decisions in these contexts.
The PSSRU is the largest social services research unit in the UK, and operates at three sites: the University of Kent, the London School of Economics and the University of Manchester. Facilities include the Griffiths Library of Community Care, a reference library of more than 10,000 books, journals and other literature linked to the Unit’s field of study. Research focuses on needs, resources and outcomes in health and social care: major concerns are resourcing, equity and efficiency from the perspective of users, agencies and others. The Unit has developed a distinctive analytical framework called the ‘production of welfare approach’ to illuminate this research.
The Tizard Centre runs an annual seminar series where staff or guest lecturers present the results of research or highlight recent developments in the field of social care. The Jim Mansell Memorial Lecture invites public figures or distinguished academics to discuss topics that could interest a wider audience. The Centre also publishes the Tizard Learning Disability Review (in conjunction with Emerald Publishing) to provide a source of
up-to-date information for professionals and carers.
The Tizard Centre provides consultancy to organisations in the statutory and independent sectors, both nationally and internationally, in diversified areas such as service assessment, person-centred approaches, active support and adult protection. The Centre also teaches a range of short courses, often in conjunction with other organisations.
Dedicated to an understanding of the social processes and cultural experiences by which people acquire moral dispositions to care for others, the Centre for Philanthropy offers a focal point for much of this work. Research is conducted into the ways in which our capacity for feelings are socially cultivated, corporately structured, politically mediated and economically expressed. The School is also linked to the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC), collaborating with the University of Birmingham on third sector theory and policy analysis.
Full details of staff research interests can be found on the School's website.
Building on Kent’s success as the region’s leading institution for student employability, we place considerable emphasis on you gaining specialist knowledge in your chosen subject alongside core transferable skills.
We ensure that you develop the skills and competences that employers are looking for including: research and analysis; policy development and interpretation; independent thought; writing and presentation, as well as time management and leadership skills. You also become fully involved in the professional research culture of the School. A postgraduate research degree is a particularly flexible and valuable qualification that can lead to many exciting opportunities and professions.
Recent graduates have achieved senior positions and pursued careers in academia, central government, policy teams and research services.
The 2025/26 annual tuition fees for this course are:
For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.
Tuition fees may be increased in the second and subsequent years of your course. Detailed information on possible future increases in tuition fees is contained in the Tuition Fees Increase Policy. If you are uncertain about your fee status please contact information@kent.ac.uk.
The University will assess your fee status as part of the application process. If you are uncertain about your fee status you may wish to seek advice from UKCISA before applying.
For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.
Tuition fees may be increased in the second and subsequent years of your course. Detailed information on possible future increases in tuition fees is contained in the Tuition Fees Increase Policy. If you are uncertain about your fee status please contact information@kent.ac.uk.
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