Overview

The Masters year is structured to take into account a number of factors affecting education and professional role development for pharmacists to embody an emphasis on the researching professional as a reflective practitioner.

It is categorised by the University as a Professional MSc that is grounded in an individual’s professional practice.

It will enable you to focus on an area of interest to you so that you can develop a comprehensive understanding and critical awareness of this at an advanced level and apply your learning to develop your professional practice/services through scholarship, research and enquiry that will, in parallel, enable you to achieve the standards for a Masters degree.

The programme is designed around three compulsory modules:

Introduction to Research Methods
Research in Practice
Researching Professional Practice

You will required to attend an Induction Session at the beginning of the programme. This will be held ‘virtually’ so there is no requirement to attend Keele.

Module aims

The module will enable learners to apply their prior knowledge of a range of research methods to make an informed choice about research design in the context of their practice. Students should be able to apply their learning to develop a justified research proposal focusing on an area of their practice and in doing so develop their interest and expertise in research.

Entry requirements

The Masters programme is taken over one year and is common to both of School of Pharmacy’s postgraduate programmes, i.e. Clinical Pharmacy Practice and Advanced Practice. It is structured to be suitable for pharmacists from all areas of professional practice and is flexible to your own learning needs and the needs of your employer.

Entry to the Masters year requires satisfactory completion of a postgraduate Diploma award that is associated with one of the relevant Keele programmes, or an ‘equivalent’ postgraduate Diploma award from another university. Candidates who wish to gain direct entry after having completed a Diploma at another university will have to provide full details of the syllabus covered/assessment strategy for consideration with their application to Keele. Decisions on the equivalence of other diplomas to allow entry to the Keele Professional MSc are at the Programme Manager’s discretion.

English language proficiency requirement

If English is not your first language, you must either:

Hold a degree from a school where English was the language of instruction
OR
Take the IELTS (average of 7.0 with a minimum of 6.5 in all categories)

Please note that IETLS exams must be no more than two years old at the start of the programme for which you have applied.

Module content

The module will cover the following areas:
The application of research methods to practice research using existing literature to illustrate appropriate use
In depth understanding of selected research methods
The principles of designing data collection tools for your research and the use of appropriate technology
The principles of research governance and ethics
How to write a research proposal
Methods and approaches for disseminating research findings

Teaching and assessment

The Professional MSc is designed principally for distance-learning. We provide mainly online distance-learning materials so that you can study where and when it is most convenient for you.

The Professional MSc is fully supported by a team of experienced, friendly, and approachable academic, administrative and technical staff based at Keele. The Programme is also supported by our network of experienced, practising tutors. You’re not on your own! And, don’t forget the network of other pharmacists on the programme whom you can contact. You will require the equivalent of 1-2 days (approximately 10-15 hours) each week to complete your programme. Remember that the online nature of our programme materials, and the fact the MSc focuses on your professional practice, means that you can integrate study and work.

You will be assigned a tutor at the beginning of the programme who will support you throughout the programme. You will meet with your tutor on a regular basis either on the telephone, virtually or face to face as agreed between you and your tutor.

Assessment is entirely by coursework. For this module you will develop your research proposal.

The assessment is supported by clear criteria for marking; these are explained in the relevant Programme Handbooks. The minimum pass mark is 50%.