Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care

The University of Portsmouth was one of the first institutions to respond to the rapid changes within health and social care by offering a Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care Disciplines programme. This programme started in October 2000, and has been highly successful in its delivery to these professionals.

The Professional Doctorate is an alternative pathway to a doctorate qualification. It is a rigorous programme of advanced study and research, designed specifically to meet the needs of commerce, industry and professional groups and is the professionally oriented counterpart to the more theoretical PhD. It enables students to study a specific subject to the same depth as PhD students, but also allows them to apply learning to their professional practice.

This course is recognised internationally as a qualification granted to those who have reached the highest level of professional and academic achievement in their field of endeavour.

What you'll experience
We offer the following health and social care programmes at doctorate level:
October 2021 start

• Doctorate in Biomedical Science (DBMS)
• Doctorate in Health Science (DHealthSci)
• Doctorate in Nursing (DNursing)
• Doctorate in Pharmacy (DPharm)
• Doctorate in Social Work (DSW)

These routes are taught together. This enables students in each cohort to benefit from the experience of others and provides a unique inter-professional learning environment.

Relevance and application of the research to the professional environment will be a pivotal feature of the programme and reflection on practice will be integral to the learning process.

The programme aims to enhance personal development planning for continuing professional development and encourage an advanced level of critical, analytical, debating and publishing skills, plus knowledge of the range of different research methods encountered in professional practice.

Within the National Health Service (NHS) a Professional Doctorate is now being seen as an essential academic qualification for attaining higher level posts within the NHS Agenda for Change career framework.

Benefits of a Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care
The Professional Doctorate is open to a wide range of health and social care professionals, who have an active interest in practice-based research and professional practice issues, wish to attain the highest level of professional and academic achievement and develop their career within the health and social care arena.

How you're assessed

The Professional Doctorate consists of coursework and research and is credit based. The coursework component is designed to help build on professional expertise by exposing students to challenging and innovative ideas in their field.

Assessment is by coursework (including preparation of an article for publication and a research proposal) and oral presentations. This should normally take 24 months to complete.