Nursing Research / Midwifery Research / Health Studies Research MPhil/PhD, option of joint PhD with HKU at Kings College London

Overview

The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery is regarded as a centre of excellence for nursing and midwifery, achieving high scores in research and teaching quality assessments. The first MPhil/PhD students enroled in the late 1970s and since then the Faculty has expanded steadily its range of high quality graduate education programmes to meet the needs of increasingly well-educated healthcare professionals who wish to continue their education to support and develop their careers. 

The Faculty is an integral partner within King’s Health Partners (KHP) and contributes to the interdisciplinary research centres in supporting and delivering high quality research.  In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (2014) assessment, more than 90% of the Faculty’s research was rated as 4* and 3* (world-class and internationally excellent).  Our research activity is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Research Councils and a range of charities. We host a range of nationally competitive fellowships from PhD studentship to post-doctoral level.

The purpose of our research is to improve the quality of services and outcomes for patients through studies concerned with individual clinical needs, service delivery and organisation and the wider social and policy context of care, nationally and internationally.  Our research work is underpinned by cross cutting principles: engagement with patient and user perspectives, commitment to conceptual and methodological innovation, attention to the policy relevance and practical application of our findings through interventions.

The Faculty is especially interested in receiving applications from students across the globe, who are planning their doctoral research projects in fields that will contribute to the Faculty’s research groups, enhance the research culture and align with the Faculty’s research strategy.

Description

The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery offers research programmes for MPhil and PhD (Nursing Research, Midwifery Research, and Health Studies Research) and a Masters in Research Health and Social Care. The MPhil/PhD programme aims to prepare students to be knowledgeable and competent researchers. To this end, research supervision is provided by faculty with expertise in their research and clinical areas.

Course study environment

The Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery offers a supportive and intellectually stimulating environment. In the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2015, results for the Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery indicated that student experience was positive about all aspects of supervision, skills and development, infrastructure, intellectual climate, and knowledge of roles and responsibilities within the Faculty. Research students are allocated a supervisory team led by an experienced principal supervisor. The team meet regularly with the student for supervision and review of progress. Progress is also reviewed formally by the Faculty Postgraduate Research Students Committee at set points in the academic year. Supervisors provide advice on training needs and career development. Student representatives for full-time and part-time students play an important role in communicating student feedback about learning experiences and the support infrastructure to inform ongoing programme development. Research students have a study suite in the James Clerk Maxwell Building and access to Graduate Lounges on the different campuses.