Essential: A good undergraduate degree (1st class or 2:1).
Desirable: A master’s degree in a subject area relevant to the proposed research topic.
Source: www.glos.ac.uk. All Rights Reserved. 2025 University of Gloucestershire
The Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care Leadership will support you to shape policy and influence practice in your profession. This unique programme will facilitate personal career development, helping you to become a pioneer and leader in your field of health and care practice. You’ll gain a fresh perspective on service development, exploring the relationships between research, policy and practice in your work settings and wider professional contexts.
Completing the Professional Doctorate offers significant benefits for you including:
Given the current landscape, this will be particularly important to address health and care priorities and inequalities, and support delivery of outstanding and innovative care for our communities.
Collaboration with our partners has been fundamental in the development of the programme. Modelling our identity as a connected university, the Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care Leadership has sought counsel, guidance and opinions from local and national partners in the developmental stages. It will support students to be research-aware, research-active research leaders.
Studying this programme will promote and facilitate the search for new knowledge about, and better understanding of, complex contemporary health and care challenges. This will provide you with the foundations and skills for designing solutions to those challenges and translating research knowledge and skills into practice. Research activity and outputs from your studies will have a positive impact and benefit for your professional practice.
We’re confident this programme will support the development of innovative, confident and ambitious health and care researchers, realising and delivering the benefits of health and care research for our communities now and for the future.
If this sounds like the next step for you and you’re curious to know more, please contact [email protected] or Dr Liz Berragan (Course Lead) [email protected]
We work with you as partners in learning and research which begins at induction to ensure that you are actively engaged and involved in decision making about your learning opportunities throughout the programme, across the University and externally.
Like other professional doctorate programmes, the Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care Leadership at UoG comprises a mix of taught and research elements. Taught elements in phase 1 happen mainly in seminars and workshops with senior academic research staff and professional practitioners and leaders in health and social care research. Research elements are conducted with the guidance of your supervisory team.
The programme design includes:
A distinctive feature of the programme is the peer support and interaction that results from having the taught element transacted within a group. Elements of teaching and supported learning will take place through action learning sets.
Essential: A good undergraduate degree (1st class or 2:1).
Desirable: A master’s degree in a subject area relevant to the proposed research topic.
Our Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care Leadership is designed for all practitioners working in the health and social care field with a minimum practice experience requirement of five years of registered practice.
Submission of a 1000-word research proposal which broadly aligns with and aims to support local, regional or national health and care priority areas.
You're viewing fees for the course option. Choose a different course option to see corresponding course fees.
| Start date | Location | Course code |
Fee (UK) Fee per year |
Fee (international) Fee per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2025 | Oxstalls, Gloucester | — | TBC | TBC |
| Oct 2026 | Oxstalls, Gloucester | — | TBC | TBC |
|
International students can benefit from a range of scholarships and bursaries across many undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. |
Find out more | |||
Graduates are well-positioned for senior roles that shape the future of practice, policy and research. Whether you’re aiming for a clinical academic career, stepping into a consultant practitioner role, or leading strategic change in health and care services, this programme will help you get there.
You’ll develop advanced research skills and leadership expertise to influence decision-making, improve services, and address inequalities across the sector. Many go on to senior positions in Health and Care Leadership or Health and Social Care Research Leadership, working across NHS trusts, integrated care systems, academia, and third-sector organisations.
With a focus on innovation, collaboration, and real-world impact, the doctorate supports your progression into high-impact roles, equipping you to lead with credibility, drive improvement, and deliver meaningful change for communities and colleagues alike.
Liz Berragan is a recipient of the Sigma Theta Tau European Recognition of Nursing Excellence in Education award for her outstanding contributions to nursing and healthcare education and research. In 2023 she was awarded the prestigious Advance HE National Teaching Fellowship.
“We’re thrilled to be delivering the Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care Leadership. Developing the programme has been a truly collaborative and creative process supporting ambitions that offer authentic, work-integrated research and learning and discovery for and beyond the domain of health and social care. “
; ?> "Visit the homepage"){kind=logo}
