Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) has successfully launched a new part-time programme for experienced health and social care professionals to develop research skills without needing to step out of practice.
The first participants on the Professional Doctorate, which started on 14 January, will spend two years being taught by MMU staff through a combination of face-to-face and online learning before taking on a three-year research project relevant to their professional practice.
Completion of the programme will lead to a Professional Doctorate with an award in one of a number of specialisms – health, nursing, community health, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, counselling, social care, biomedical science, dental technology and clinical physiology.
Programme leader Dr Carol Taylor said the course was an important development for the sector. “There are very few doctorate programmes available for health professionals and the attraction of a Professional Doctorate, as opposed to a PhD, is that participants don’t have to give up their careers to study,” Dr Taylor explained. “The time will come in the allied health professions, in particular, where doctoral qualifications will be used for applications to consultancy positions. Therefore this programme can support personal and professional development.”