Programme Specifications

Programme summary

1. Programme Aims

This multi-disciplinary Postgraduate Programme in Healthcare and Societal resilience is aimed at professional healthcare practitioners, those wishing to move from another field within or outside of healthcare and those working in specialist management areas wishing to broaden their expertise.  The programme’s specific aims are:

• To promote knowledge and understanding in the subject of Healthcare and Societal Resilience, incorporating emergency preparedness, resilience and response as it specifically pertains to the field of Healthcare; encompassing, both organisational issues and specialist areas. 

• To promote the integration of emergency preparedness resilience and response strategies into strategic and operational planning for the provision of high quality health services

• To provide advanced training where an opportunity is afforded for healthcare and resilience professionals to bring together professional expertise and growing academic abilities

• To promote Healthcare and Societal Resilience as serious subjects for academic study within the field of organisational resilience

• To enhance the self-esteem of the participating students and to establish healthcare and societal resilience as relevant (and connected) disciplines within the corporate environment in order that it might rank alongside other management disciplines

• To assist individuals with career development, advancement of their professional competence and standing, and their lifelong learning.

• To provide an opportunity for healthcare professionals from uniformed and public sector backgrounds to migrate into the corporate and private sector healthcare and resilience domains.

• To provide a unique academic qualification in Healthcare and Societal Resilience, that brings together professional expertise and academic disciplines relevant to this interdisciplinary field.

• To assist with entry into academic and civil protection representative bodies, for example The Institute of Civil Protection and Emergency Management and the Emergency Planning Society and to assist in gaining Fellow status. To similarly assist with entry into professional networks with a view to expanding the employability and commercial traction of the candidate in their post-graduation professional life. 

2. Relevant subject benchmark statements and other external reference points used to inform programme outcomes:

• Framework for Higher Education Qualifications/Descriptors for a Higher Education qualification at Level 7.

• The benchmark statement for Masters awards in business and management

• School of Business and Economics Business Plan

• 含羞草视频 Learning and Teaching Strategy.

• The University academic quality procedures

3. Programme Learning Outcomes

3.1 Knowledge and Understanding

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

K1  The theoretical and analytical perspectives within the study of healthcare and societal resilience particularly those of emergency preparedness, resilience and response, as deployed at the forefront of current research;

K2  The professional standards of behaviour and ethical conduct, required in the application of Healthcare and Societal resilience strategies in society today;

K3  The applicable statutory obligations and due legal process associated with emergency preparedness, resilience and response and associated healthcare perspectives;

K4 The ways in which risk is assessed, managed and communicated within crisis and emergency preparedness, resilience and response situations in the Healthcare setting;

K5  How the relevant guidance issued by statutory and advisory bodies in relation to emergency planning, civil contingencies and resilience can impact upon healthcare resilience strategies and similarly how theories and insights from case studies and past incidents help to inform this work;

K6  How their work fits into domestic and international healthcare and societal resilience contexts, and so gain a better understanding of the political and social impacts of healthcare resilience initiatives over a target population or society. 

Specific to the MSc:

 K7 How to research design and apply methodologies appropriate to the study of healthcare and societal resilience, towards the successful completion of independently researched projects.

3.2 Skills and other attributes

a. Subject-specific cognitive skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:

C1  Identify and critically evaluate theories and conceptual approaches appropriate to the study of healthcare and societal resilience and its associated emergency preparedness, resilience and response processes;

C2  View healthcare and societal resilience challenges not only in problem solving mode but conceptually and be able to identify methods for establishing effective emergency preparedness and resilience systems;

 C3 Conceptualise various healthcare and societal resilience risks and problems, appreciate the various consequences, costs and positive externalities of various courses of action;

 C4 All the solutions on offer from students must be based upon credible evidence and strong conceptual understandings and graduates must be willing to challenge conventional wisdom;

 C5 Demonstrate skills of research design and research methodology relevant to the study of healthcare and societal resilience.

b. Subject-specific practical skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:

 P1  Understand and debate the changing nature of HealthCare and societal resilience strategies as it is applied to populations and societies as well as critically analysing the nature of management and motivators within healthcare resilience context.

 P2 Appreciate the importance of professional standards and ethical frameworks and workplace diversity within a security and risk management context.

 P3 Appreciate the evolving nature of legislation, hazard and threat behaviours and be able to construct coping/preventative strategies for dealing with nefarious activity.

 P4 Apply the various resilience theories in a practical setting. They must be capable of devising policies and procedures to deal with threats to organizational resilience, including terrorism, physical, data protection and information technology security issues, these to include risk assessment, business continuity and contingency planning.

 P5 Formulate research questions and research strategies for resilience in a Healthcare setting.

 P6 Develop research frameworks for the completion of an independent research project/dissertation pertaining to the study of healthcare and societal resilience.

 P7 Manage research, source materials, data and referencing, and research findings relating to the study of healthcare and societal resilience, including translation into policy orientated products and services (where appropriate).

P8 Demonstrate timely management of a research project on healthcare and societal resilience that is consistent with both professional practice and the principles of research ethics.

c. Key transferable skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:

T1  Write a good quality academic report in both a logical and coherent fashion in a variety of healthcare and societal resilience settings by making use of a variety of information sources.

T2  Critically analysis of source material and have the ability to work to a pre-set timescale, and independently of others, in an organised fashion.

T3  Present complex ideas orally, and to work within groups to produce and disseminate an appropriate deliverable.

T4  Design and complete a research project, manage data and demonstrate independent learning ability and self-learning skills (using the Library and other printed, audio-visual and electronic resources; time management).

T5  Demonstrate decision making abilities in complex situations and exercise of initiative and leadership.

T6  Demonstrate sophisticated written and oral communication and ICT skills.

T7  Discuss networking, team working and human resource management issues 

4. Programme structure

4.1       Core Modules

* partially by distance learning (>50%)

To complete the PG Cert in Healthcare and Societal Resilience students must complete 4 x 15 credit modules.  To complete the PG Dip in Healthcare and Societal Resilience students must complete 8 x 15 credit modules.  To complete the MSc in Healthcare and Societal Resilience students must complete 8 x 15 credit modules and a 60 credit research project.  Section 5 outlines the specific modules required for each degree award.

4.2 For full details of the specific assessment requirements for each module see the Module Specification.

5. Criteria for Progression and Degree Award

5.1 In order to be eligible for an award, candidates must not only satisfy the requirements of Regulation XXI but also:

5.1.1 To be eligible for the award of Postgraduate Certificate, candidates must have accumulated at least 60 credits from the modules listed in Section 4 specifically, BSPR01; BSPR02; BSPR23 and BSPR30.

5.1.2 To be eligible for the award of Postgraduate Diploma, candidates must have completed modules with total modular weight of 120.  Specifically, candidates must have completed all of the compulsory modules from Section 4 (not including BSPA01).

5.1.3 To be eligible for the award of MSc candidates must have satisfied all the requirements outlined in 5.1.2 and in addition must have achieved 60 credits module BSPA01.

5.2 Candidates who have the right of re-assessment in a module may choose to be re- assessed in the University’s special assessment period.

6. Relative Weighting of Parts of the Programme for the Purposes of Final Degree Classification