Course description

The MA in Healthcare Ethics and Law will provide you with expert knowledge and understanding of ethical and medico-legal theories, and the skills needed to apply them to real-world scenarios in a diverse range of contexts.

You will study a wide variety of ethical and legal subjects including autonomy, consent, refusal of treatment, confidentiality, the moral status of the foetus, resource allocation, genetic testing, HIV testing, medical malpractice, clinical negligence, organ and tissue transplantation, fertility treatment, genetic manipulation, research ethics, stem cell research and euthanasia.

Aims

The MA in Healthcare Ethics and Law covers a wide variety of ethical and legal subject matter in order to allow you to apply theory to real-world scenarios.

Teaching and learning

Teaching tends to defy the traditional boundaries associated with lectures and seminars.

Generally, each class in a course unit has a duration of 2 or 3 hours per week, and is split roughly between a formal, didactic period and a structured discussion period (most often based on the so-called challenge-response model).

Nevertheless, each class is considered a seminar or lecture, and attendance of all classes of a course unit is compulsory.

For course units of 15 credit value there will be 15 hours of face-to-face teaching throughout the semester, and 30 hours for 30 credit units.

Coursework and assessment

Assessment of all taught course units (to a total of 120 credits) is by assessed coursework in the form of essays of 4,000 words per 15 credit course unit and up to 6,000 words for the two 30 credit core course units.

In addition, students who wish to complete the MA must submit a 10,000-12,000 word dissertation by independent research (60 credits); no dissertation is required for the PGDip or PGCert.

Part-time students undertake a supervised dissertation in the summer months of Year 2. You can extend your registration for an extra 3 months to submit your dissertations in December instead of September in Year 2 (you will be advised of the exact date during Year 2 on the course).

Those who do not successfully complete the MA may be considered for the Postgraduate Diploma.

Those who do not successfully complete the Postgraduate Diploma may be considered for the Postgraduate Certificate.

The awards of the MA or Postgraduate Diploma are classified according to pass, merit or distinction. The Postgraduate Certificate is awarded unclassified.

Career opportunities

You will be able to progress within a wide variety of roles in medical, legal and ethical fields.

Graduates from previous years have, for example, proceeded to specialise in medico-legal practice and academic careers, and the degrees have enhanced the careers of healthcare professionals.

The University has its own dedicated Careers Service that you would have full access to as a student and for two years after you graduate. At Manchester you will have access to a number of opportunities to help boost your employability.

Students can also achieve PGDip award.