Bioethics and Medical Jurisprudence

Entry requirements

A good (UK First class or Upper Second class honours) Bachelor's degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline;

and

Either a Master's degree in ethics, law, or a cognate discipline, at merit level (or overseas equivalent), with overall average of 65%, dissertation mark of 65% and no mark below 55%;

or

A suitable period (normally at least three years) of validated professional experience in a relevant field.

Months of entry

September

Course content

National, regional, and local governments, organisations, and authorities are beginning to realise that they need highly trained people in healthcare ethics and law. This means now is a good time to aim for the highest academic qualifications in the field.

Traditional graduate studies for a research degree do not offer the ethical and legal knowledge or the comprehensive training needed for cutting-edge research into bioethics and medical jurisprudence. A more structured approach is called for.

This programme is designed to provide a solid skills basis for independent research, and to guide you steadily towards the completion of a structured doctoral thesis, which is based on publishable journal articles and book chapters. The programme itself is unique in its combination of group sessions in research methods and presentation events which are designed to ensure a genuine sense of community among researchers, and friendly but consistent supervision by world-class scholars in the field.

The topics and themes which are covered during the group sessions in Year 1 address the diverse challenges of doctoral research in health law and ethics, for example:

• refining your research question;
• scoping the literature;
• doing interdisciplinary research;
• exploring methodologies in bioethics and law;
• getting published.

Our entire community of doctoral scholar's meet four times during the year to present their ideas and research papers. We encourage staff and PGRs at all stages of their learning to attend our BMJ presentation events so that doctoral scholars can become accustomed to presenting their research to a diverse audience. Our doctoral scholars are a vital element in the research culture of our centre and our School.