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MSc

Professional Practice

Explore your field of professional practice and acknowledge your advanced level of skill and knowledge in your profession.

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Key Course Details

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Pontypridd

  • Campus Code

    A

Fees

  • Home students

    £10,800*

  • International students

    £16,900*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Pontypridd

  • Campus Code

    A

Fees

  • Home students

    £1,200*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

The MSc Professional Practice course focuses on the professional development necessary for higher level practice and leadership roles. On successful completion, you will have gained an internationally recognised qualification that is designed to prepare healthcare professionals and professionals in the health and social care sector take up posts within health and social services globally.

DESIGNED FOR

Suitable for experienced and inexperienced healthcare practitioners and professionals in the health and social care sector, the MSc Professional Practice facilitates the use of the latest research, and aims to transform your practice, and improve the quality of care.

Career Paths

  • Nurse (all fields)
  • Health Visitor
  • Occupational Therapist
  • Social Worker
  • Midwife
  • Healthcare practitioners
  • Health and social care professionals

Skills Taught

  • Leadership
  • Research

Module Overview

The MSc Professional Practice offers a wide choice of modules to meet the needs of career pathways for qualified health and social care professionals, including nurses of all fields, health visitors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers and midwives.

In consultation with the Programme Leader, you will devise an individual programme (180 credits) that meets your own needs. You will also have the flexibility to study at your own pace, finding a balance between work, education and everyday life. Your individual programme can run from one year to up to six years depending upon your other commitments.

Modules

  • Research methods
  • Dissertation (completed during year one for full-time students)
  • Professional Practice Project 

Optional Sample Modules

  • Leading Effective Teams in Health and Social Care
  • Legal, Ethical and Professional Issues in Safeguarding
  • Clinical Conditions One
  • Clinical Conditions Two
  • End-of-Life Care
  • Clinical Assessment and Diagnostics
  • Nature and Scope of Palliative Care

 

Course Highlights

How you’ll learn

Teaching and assessment methods vary depending on the choice of modules/pathway. Teaching methods include lead lectures, student-led discussions, case studies, debate, reflective accounts of practice, workshops, group work and tutorials.

Assessment methods include written assignments mainly based on issues from practice, presentations, scenario-based role plays and critical literature reviews.

Teaching staff

  • Meirion Williams, (Course Leader)
  • Martin Evans, Deputy (Course Leader)

Facilities

The University’s online learning environment, Unilearn, provides information about your course, including support materials and resources for each of your modules.

There is a dedicated Librarian for the Faculty of Life Sciences and Education, who can help students with many different queries, including relevant journals and books, or even assist with literature searches. 

Careers and Employability

Graduate careers

Employers value and welcome international healthcare professionals who have gained a Masters degree within the UK. Within the faculty, our engagement and partnership with numerous organisations has led to high levels of post-study employment both within the NHS and within the independent sector.

Possible career paths

The planning of this MSc Professional Practice has taken into account the development of new roles in the fields of health and social care. Students will focus on the latest research and development evidence for their professional role. As a result, this award will meet the requirements of the demanding and dynamic environments that health and social care practitioners work in today.

Careers Support

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Typical qualification requirements:

  • Applicants must normally have an Honours degree and be a professionally qualified health or social care professional, including those without registration status working at a senior level in health and social care.
  • For home students without an Honours degree, you may be allowed to undertake this award after discussion with the course leader.

International applications welcomed:

We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence please view our dedicated country pages.

English language requirements

International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.5 with a minimum of 6.5 in each component or equivalent.

Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.

If you have previously studied through the medium of English IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.

If you do not meet the English entry criteria please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.

Contextual offers

We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.

USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.

 

We're here to help

Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.

 

Fees and Funding

UK Full-time Fee

£10,800

per year*
International Full-time Fee

£16,900

per year*
UK Part-time Fee

£1,200

per 20 credits*

Further Information

Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).

*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.

Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy.  We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.

 

Fees and Funding Scholarships and Busaries Alumni Discount

Additional Costs 

As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment. 

An Enhanced DBS is required for the Independent Prescribing Module. All students should have this through their Health Board Roles.

Cost: £64.74 annually

University Quality Assurance

At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.

If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.

Studying at USW

Our courses are designed with industry leaders and provide the practical skills and experiences industry demands. Our flexible courses reflect the need for life-long learning. If you value education in practice, not just in theory, then USW is for you.

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Postgraduate fees and funding
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Pontypridd Campus, Glyntaff
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Postgraduate Open Events

How to apply

There is an online application process for this course. Please choose the application form for your preferred start date and mode of study (i.e. full-time or part-time).

International admissions

Please see our international admissions advice for further information about how to apply as a prospective international student.

Related Courses

Advanced Clinical Practitioner - MSc Learn more

Next Steps

How to Apply
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