Doctorate in Health Science (DHSc)
Doctorate
Health Science (DHSc)
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Course Description
The Doctorate in Health Science (DHSc) is an interdisciplinary, research-driven programme designed to prepare experienced professionals for senior leadership, policy, and academic roles in health and social care systems.
The programme integrates critical inquiry, research methodology, and applied scholarship, providing candidates with the capacity to:
- Critically evaluate and shape health policies and governance frameworks at national and global levels.
- Lead strategic workforce planning and develop sustainable, evidence-informed responses to complex demographic and systemic challenges.
- Innovate in the design, delivery, and evaluation of health services, drawing on cutting-edge technologies, models of care, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Contribute to the development of professional knowledge through original doctoral research with demonstrable impact on policy and practice.
Delivery is structured around weekend intensive modules, blending lectures, workshops, and peer-to-peer learning with online engagement to foster a scholarly community of practice. Each module is anchored in real-world case studies and complemented by independent research activities, ensuring both theoretical depth and applied relevance.
Assessments combine formative tasks (seminars, peer review, research roundtables) with summative assignments (mini studies, policy analyses, strategic reports, etc., and ultimately a doctoral thesis), reflecting the dual emphasis on academic rigour and professional impact.
Graduates of the programme will be equipped with the knowledge, skills, and competences to influence health policy, lead organisational transformation, and contribute original, practice-informed research that advances the health sciences both locally and internationally.
Entry Requirements
Candidates who apply for this course will require to be:
- Professionals whose academic studies include 1st cycle (undergraduate and Bachelor’s levels) and 2nd cycle (Graduate and Masters level) qualifications totalling not less than 240 ECTS in areas related to healthcare and management. Any other professional who meets the Level requirements (L7 + L6 to a total of 240 ECTS) coming from a different area, but has 7 years of experience in a managerial position will also be considered.
OR
- A Level 7 Master’s Qualification (90 ECTS) related to healthcare and management, together with a Level 5 Higher Diploma equivalent to 120 ECTS and a minimum of 5 years working experience in Management within a specialised sector/area which is directly related to and relevant to the subject being researched in the Doctoral Programme.
RPL will be considered for applicants with other high-level qualifications (e.g. OTHM L8 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership Practice). The maximum number of credits that may be gained through RPL will not exceed 50%. For more information regarding IDEA College’s RPL Policy and Process, please refer to: https://mt.ideaeducation.com/app/uploads/2024/07/Doc_007_24-Recognition-of-Prior-Learning-Policy-and-Process.pdf
Students whose first language is not English will be required to demonstrate English language capability at IELTS level 6.5 or equivalent by presenting evidence (formal certificate) of an achieved pass at that level.
Target Audience
The target group for this doctorate programme consists of experienced professionals and senior practitioners working in, or aspiring to work in, advanced leadership, policy, and management roles in the health and social care sectors. Participants are expected to be mid-career or senior-level professionals with substantial practical experience, holding a relevant Master’s degree (MQF Level 7 or equivalent), and seeking to progress to doctoral-level study (MQF Level 8).
Specifically, the programme is designed for:
- Health professionals (e.g., physicians, nurses, allied health practitioners) who have moved into leadership, governance, or policy-making roles.
- Senior managers and executives in hospitals, health systems, public health agencies, and NGOs.
- Policy advisors, regulators, and government officials engaged in health strategy, workforce planning, and global health governance.
- Academics, researchers, and consultants seeking to deepen their expertise in health policy or workforce sustainability.
- International learners, including those from low- and middle-income countries, who wish to strengthen their capacity to respond to global health and workforce challenges.
This diverse learner group will bring interdisciplinary and international perspectives, fostering a community of interprofessional practice aligned with IDEA College’s teaching philosophy.
Career Paths
This programme is not designed to prepare students for a specific warranted profession or regulated occupation. Instead, it develops the advanced knowledge, skills, and competences outlined in the curriculum, equipping participants for senior leadership, management, policy, and consultancy roles across the health and social care sectors.
The programme is targeted at:
- Health and social care professionals (including doctors, nurses, allied health practitioners, social workers) who have moved or wish to move into leadership and policy-making positions.
- Managers and executives in hospitals, primary care systems, elderly care organisations, and NGOs.
- Policy advisors and strategists in health ministries, regulatory agencies, and international organisations.
- Consultants and researchers specialising in health policy, global health governance, or workforce planning.
Graduates will be well-prepared for:
- Senior management and leadership positions within hospitals, elderly care organisations, and wider health systems.
- Roles such as policy analysts, health system planners, or workforce strategists in government or international agencies.
- Consultancy and advisory roles within think tanks, NGOs, and intergovernmental organisations.
- Academic or applied research roles in universities, research institutes, and policy bodies.
Modules
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Doctorate in Health Science (DHSc)
How you’ll be assessed
Assessment is designed to test doctoral-level critical thinking, originality, application, and scholarly communication, while supporting different learning styles and professional contexts.
In the taught part of this programme, for the successful completion of a study unit the student is required to achieve a minimum of 50% pass mark weighting. Assessment methods shall include, but are not limited to, essays, mini studies, presentations, literature reviews, reflections, methodological design, designing of research tools, analysis of data.
Progression between phases will be confirmed with a 50% pass mark in all assessments held within the specific component.
The Thesis
The Thesis can take one of two forms:
A monograph in the traditional way which should not exceed 60,000 words and/ or 250 pages. (Refer to Thesis Guidelines)
or
A Compilation Thesis
The VIVA
Candidates who successfully complete their thesis will be required to sit for a viva. Internal and external examiners will be appointed to examine the thesis and participate in and/or chair the viva examination.
In the taught part of this programme, for the successful completion of a study unit the student is required to achieve a minimum of 50% pass mark weighting.
Assessment
Specific Assessment of each module will be specified in the specific units. The General Assessment Methods for each Module shall be as follows:
0-49: Fail
50 – 84: Pass
85 -100: Pass with distinction
Progression between phase will be confirmed with a 50% pass mark in all assessments held within the specific component.
Course Intake Dates
TBC 2026
Learning Outcomes
Competences:
By the end of the programme students will be able to:
- Lead the design and implementation of original, evidence-based policies, governance reforms, and health system interventions at local, national, and global levels, exercising scholarly authority and professional accountability in contexts of complexity and uncertainty.
- Exercise full autonomy in conceiving, designing, and executing doctoral research that generates an original and sustained contribution to knowledge in the health sciences, upholding the highest standards of research integrity, ethical conduct, and scholarly rigour.
- Take critical responsibility for advancing professional and scholarly practice in health and social care, influencing strategic decision-making across interdisciplinary, intercultural, and inter-institutional contexts.
- Demonstrate authoritative originality in analysing and resolving complex, systemic health challenges, synthesising knowledge across clinical, organisational, legal, ethical, and social science domains.
- Critically interrogate the political, ideological, and structural forces shaping global and national health agendas, and defend original, theoretically grounded positions that challenge prevailing paradigms and advance equitable, sustainable health systems.
- Produce and disseminate doctoral-level scholarship that meets the standards of peer scrutiny, contributes new knowledge to the health sciences, and can inform professional practice and public policy.
- Mentor and guide others in advanced research and professional practice, modelling scholarly integrity and contributing to the formation of the next generation of health leaders, researchers, and policy-makers.
Knowledge:
- Synthesise intercultural and/or interdisciplinary perspectives on academic writing to construct and defend original scholarly arguments.
- Critique and apply competing traditions of critical thinking to generate novel analytical frameworks appropriate to complex research problems.
- Interrogate the philosophical and ontological assumptions underpinning management research paradigms, and justify an original epistemological position informing the candidate’s own scholarly contribution.
- Design and justify a rigorous research methodology, critically evaluating the epistemological and practical trade-offs of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches to generate valid and original findings.
- Extend and challenge prevailing theories, models, and frameworks in health policy, governance, workforce sustainability, and health systems innovation through original analysis and evidence-based argument.
- Generate original interdisciplinary insights by synthesising knowledge across health sciences, management, law, ethics, technology, and social sciences to address complex, real-world health system challenges.
- Interrogate the political economy of global health governance and construct original, evidence-informed policy interventions that address structural determinants of inequity across diverse national contexts.
- Design and defend system-level workforce strategies that integrate forecasting models, labour market and migration dynamics, task-shifting, digital health enablers, and ethical stewardship principles to address complex health workforce sustainability challenges at national and international scale.
- Produce a sustained, original contribution to knowledge that advances scholarly understanding, addresses substantive gaps in the literature, and has demonstrable implications for health policy and professional practice.
- Critically analyse the political, cultural, and economic forces shaping global and national health priorities, and apply this analysis to inform evidence-based policy recommendations and professional leadership.
Skills:
- Design and execute original health science research, selecting and justifying qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methodologies, to generate findings of publishable quality that make a verifiable contribution to knowledge in the candidate’s specialisation.
- Construct and defend a systematic, doctoral-level literature review in the health sciences that maps theoretical and empirical gaps, situates the original research contribution within the field, and demonstrates command of primary and secondary scholarly sources.
- Produce and sustain an original, coherent doctoral research in health science that meets the rigour, ethical standards, and scholarly authority expected at MQF Level 8, and that is defensible under expert viva examination.
- Formulate and justify a precise, original research question or hypothesis situated within a substantive gap in health science literature, demonstrating its theoretical significance and practical implications for health policy or professional practice.
- Articulate and defend a coherent epistemological and ontological position, including the researcher’s own positionality.
- Produce extended scholarly writing in health science that meets doctoral publishing standards for rigour, argument, citation integrity, and linguistic authority.
- Design and lead large-scale, evidence-based strategic initiatives in health organisations and systems, integrating equity, sustainability, and innovation principles, and evaluate their implementation against measurable health outcomes.
- Communicate original findings with scholarly authority across academic, policy, clinical, and public audiences, adapting register, genre, and format, including through peer-reviewed publication, conference presentation, and executive-level policy documentation.
- Generate and disseminate new insights in health science that open recognised avenues for further scholarly inquiry, inform professional practice, and are suitable for submission to peer-reviewed journals or health policy forums.
- Apply critical thinking frameworks to interrogate complex health system problems (evaluating assumptions, identifying cognitive biases, and synthesising competing evidence) to generate original, defensible conclusions for scholarly and professional contexts.
- Supervise, mentor, and model scholarly integrity for emerging health researchers and professionals, applying advanced knowledge of research ethics, academic standards, and health science methodology to guide their development.