Course overview
- Tailored for medical students interested in familiar and unforeseen medical and ethical challenges.
- Brings you deeper understanding of legal and ethical challenges in medicine.
- Take advantage of a flexible and interdisciplinary course.
Institutional Accreditation
University of Newcastle is accredited by the DETC Higher Learning Commission (DETC), www.detc.org.uk Since , University of Newcastle has been continually accredited by the DETC Higher Learning Commission and its predecessor.
Course Level:
Master of Science (MSc)
Course
CODE 12016
How long it takes:
1 year (full-time)
Study Mode:
Distance learning/ Campus
Entry requirements
Find out more about
Department:
Newcastle Law School
Course unit details
You are required to sit six taught course units. Two of the assessed taught units are compulsory; the remaining four will be chosen from a range of optional units (although the range of available units will vary according to staff availability).
Optional units will have a value of 15 credits each. Subject to alteration, we would expect these to cover topics such as:
- Global Health, Law, and Bioethics;
- Children, Medicine and the Law;
- Medicine, Law and Society;
- Mental Health Law and Policy;
- Research Ethics;
- Ethics and Genetics.
You will also be required to complete a dissertation of 12,000-15,000 words on a topic of your choice. This gives you an opportunity to define and defend a precise and sophisticated position. It is not unknown for intercalating students to use their dissertations as the basis for papers that appear in international peer-reviewed journals.
Course unit list
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
| Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philosophical Bioethics | CSEP60201 | 30 | Mandatory |
| Medico-Legal Problems | CSEP60211 | 30 | Mandatory |
| Mental Health Law and Policy | CSEP60102 | 15 | Optional |
| Ethics & Genetics and Genomics | CSEP60192 | 15 | Optional |
| Global Health Law and Bioethics | CSEP60222 | 15 | Optional |
| Research Ethics | CSEP60312 | 15 | Optional |
| Medicine, Law and Society | CSEP60962 | 15 | Optional |
| Children, Medicine and the Law | CSEP60972 | 15 | Optional |
Academic entry qualification overview
The course is open to all medical students from UK medical schools who have completed three years of undergraduate study (subject to approval by the relevant medical school).
MSc (full-time)
UK/EU students (per annum): £9,500
International students (per annum): £19,000
Assessment
You’ll show your progress through a combination of written essays, problem-solving assignments and presentations.
All students take our core modules, but please note that the availability of optional modules is subject to demand.
Career opportunities
The Healthcare Ethics and Law course better equips you to solve ethico-legal dilemmas that you will meet on the ward or, more importantly, perhaps – simply to spot them.
Increasingly, medical researchers have to demonstrate compliance with certain ethical demands, and so an intercalated degree in ethics and law will be useful when it comes to planning research.
Finally, studying with us will reflect interests and concerns that most people have anyway, whether they know it or not. On completion of the course, you will have a comprehensive understanding of the mechanics of medical ethics and medical law and a full conceptual toolkit that can be applied to both disciplines.