Health Studies Cardiff University

Overview

The professional doctorate in Health Studies , degree delivered at Cardiff University , is a part-time doctoral research degree. It is fully equivalent to the PhD, but substantially different from it in that it is strongly professionally oriented, focussing on ‘applied’ rather than ‘pure’ research.

While the PhD generally prepares candidates for a research-based career, the professional doctorate is a more in-service orientated degree, addressing the career needs of practising professionals, particularly those in or who aspire to senior positions within their professions. The linkages between research-based knowledge and its application in a wide range of professional settings are central to this doctorate.

They offer an integrated professional doctorate scheme within which education, health, social work and social policy professionals engage together in integrated learning for some of the taught modules. This unique inter-professional learning allows you to reflect on what is shared across professional boundaries and what is distinctive to their own occupational traditions. Above all, a professional doctorate is an opportunity to examine contemporary leading theories and research evidence, and to apply these within the professional context.

Career Prospects 

Typically professional doctorate candidates are employed when they study with us, although current employment is not a condition of entry.

Graduates are able to further their careers within their employment settings or move beyond these into, for example, Higher Education, policy and planning, and/or research development and management.