Professional doctorates are not new qualifications. They have been awarded since medieval times in professions such as law, medicine and theology, but until recently had been overshadowed by the pure research based PhD. With the increased interest in developing doctoral programmes which are linked to professional development, interest in professional doctorates has returned. The School of Health and Bioscience currently runs several well recognised and established, IBMS (Institute of Biomedical Science) accredited degree programmes in biomedical science. These BSc (hons) and MSc programmes attract large numbers of students each year. The professional doctorate is a natural extension to these programmes and offers an alternate pathway to a doctorate qualification. It consists of two parts, an initial taught component followed by a work-based research project.

The programme is flexible and offers working professionals the opportunity use research carried out at their place of work to improve their professional practice. Core modules are intended to help students plan and execute their own research project. The core modules can be completed mainly at their place of work through case studies and other distance based activities and assignments. It is intended that the activities within the programme would also be of benefit to the practitioner’s workplace.