About the course

The Masters programme is taken over one year and 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.

Our MSc is grounded in an individual’s professional practice. It enables you to advance your practice and develop research skills and it maximises the experiential learning opportunities that being in practice offers, and this means that the findings are directly applicable to your work.

The MSc gives you the opportunity to evaluate an area of your professional practice, of interest to you, for the benefit of both yourself and your workplace.

The learning materials are delivered on-line. Induction and student progress sessions occur ‘virtually’ so there is no requirement for you to attend Keele. You will undertake a 6 month service evaluation or research project and we strongly encourage you to publish the results of their work and will provide support to enable you to do this.

The course team have a proven track record of success in developing Masters level researcher-practitioner leaders in professional pharmacy practice and we can offer high quality supervision in a wide range of research methodologies.

You may be able to obtain funding towards our Professional MSc programme. Two current funding streams that we are aware of are:

NPA Health Education Foundation Bursary for Community Pharmacists http://www.npa.co.uk/About-the-NPA/Who-we-are/Health-Education-Foundation/

Pharmacy Research UK awards http://www.pharmacyresearchuk.org/pharmacy-research-funding/personal-awards-2/

Course structure

The programme is designed around three compulsory modules:

• Introduction to Research Methods (15 credits)
• Research in Practice (15 credits)
• Researching Professional Practice (30 credits)

The delivery media used, outline content and activities for each module are described in the postgraduate module section of the website.

How the course is taught

The Professional MSc is fully supported by a team of experienced, friendly, and approachable academic, administrative and technical staff based at Keele. Students may also be supervised by one of our experienced, practising tutors. You are not on your own!

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 supervisor at the beginning of the Research in Practice module who will support you in planning and undertaking your research. You will meet with your supervisor on a regular basis either on the telephone, virtually or face to face as agreed between you and your tutor.

How you'll be assessed

Assessment is entirely by coursework. For the Introduction to Research Methods, you will undertake an evaluation of two research methods that you might use in your research, develop your research proposal in Research in Practice and write a dissertation on your  research project for Researching Professional Practice that will assess ‘thinking’ and practical skills, and your ability to plan, conduct and report on an investigation. All the modules also assess your ability to critically appraise the literature and relate published theory to everyday practice.

Each method of assessment is supported by clear criteria for marking; these are explained in the relevant Programme Handbooks. The minimum pass mark is 50%. The summative assessment is supported by a variety of formative assessment activities that include online discussions and formative feedback on elements of the reflective portfolio.

Entry Requirements

Academic entry requirements

The Masters programme 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 ENTRY REQUIREMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

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.

Funding

It's important to plan carefully for your funding before you start your course. Please be aware that not all postgraduate courses are eligible for the UK government postgraduate loans and, in this case, you would be expected to source alternative funding yourself. If you need support researching your funding options, please contact our Financial Support Team.

Facilities

You will study the Programme at a distance, in your own home or your workplace through self-study materials, which comprise of a range of electronic resources that can be accessed through Keele’s Learning Environment (KLE). Our high-quality learning materials are developed and updated to reflect current professional and research practice and you will be provided with full support by our dedicated postgraduate team.

The KLE is also used to enhance student support during the course and provide a forum for exchange of ideas and discussion of issues that arise.

Keele University Library has many resources for your subject, both on campus and on-line. Further information can be found at: http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/li/

In the Master’s year, you will study the on-line modules and conduct your project, at a distance, with the support of a Keele-based supervisor. You will need to attend up to three online workshops during the year and meet virtually with your supervisor as necessary.  As a team, we are able to provide high-quality research supervision with expertise in a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies that can be used in all areas of pharmacy practice and health services research.