Advanced and Specialist Healthcare (Applied Dental Professional Practice) - MSc

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Advanced and Specialist Healthcare (Applied Dental Professional Practice) MSc is a flexible, part-time, work-related programme designed specifically for registered dental care professionals including dentists, therapists, hygienists and nurses who wish to develop their academic skills alongside their professional role.

Overview

This part-time, flexible, multi-professional Master's-level qualification is suitable for all dental care professionals and offers opportunities for Accreditation of Prior Experiential and /or Certificated Learning or Credit Transfer.

Who is the programme for?

  • Dental care professionals including dentists, therapist, hygienists and nurses, who wish to develop their academic skills alongside their professional role.
  • It has been specifically designed to meet the needs of qualified, registered dental professionals allowing them to study part-time while working and managing other personal responsibilities.

The programme offers:

  • An innovative, flexible, work-related approach to studies.
  • Accreditation of Prior Experiential and/or Certificated Learning or Credit Transfer may be available.
  • The opportunity to develop the academic, leadership and professional skills necessary to meet the evolving patient-care needs of contemporary practice.
  • A multi-disciplinary learning environment.
  • A module structure, providing the opportunity to gain credit for individual modules.
  • Access to University resources and specialist academic and professional services.

Requests for APECL (Accreditation of Prior Experiential and/or Certificated Learning) or Credit Transfer

You are encouraged to convert prior learning achievements into University of Kent academic credit via Accreditation of Prior Experiential and/or Certificated Learning. To be eligible for accreditation, prior learning must be at the appropriate and relevant to the programme's learning outcomes. For further information,visit: https://www.kent.ac.uk/professional-practice/programmes/apecl

Study structure

Taught by expert academics and clinicians, you broaden your expertise, deepen your knowledge and hone your research skills while gaining a recognised qualification to help progress your career. The programme is delivered through a variety of teaching methods, including taught sessions and work-based learning, self-study, case-study analysis, individual and group tutorials, projects and presentations. Online learning recourses are available on our virtual learning environment.

Teaching is structured around a series of extended taught weekends (on average four weekends a year at our Medway campus), Friday - Sunday, 9.00-17.00.

Alternative exit awards

The programme has the following alternative exit awards, subject to credit numbers:

  • Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced and Specialist Healthcare (Applied Dental Professional Practice), 60 credits.
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced and Specialist Healthcare (Applied Dental Professional Practice), 60 credits - 120 credits in total.

Global and Lifelong Learning 

Studying within Kent's Global and Lifelong Learning provision, you will benefit from a work-related, multi-professional learning environment, access to University resources and specialist academic and clinical staff. The programmes are designed to enhance career progression and foster intellectual and professional development and practice.

Global and Lifelong Learning is founded on the belief that employers can benefit from the University of Kent’s academic and research excellence, quality teaching, design and development activities to create positive change and to forge new knowledge within their organisation.

We work with a wide range of external partners and employers to create distinct and original work-based and work-related developmental and educational solutions, which respond to the unique workforce challenges experienced by employees and organisations across the region and beyond.

What's it like to study Advanced and Specialist Healthcare (Applied Dental Professional Practice)?

Find out more about what it's like to study Advanced and Specialist Healthcare (Applied Dental Professional Practice) from the people who know.

Entry requirements

Applicants should hold one of the following:

  • An existing professional qualification with registration to General Dental Council

OR

  • A professional qualification in a related field, for example; dental practice management, dental public health or dental health promotion studies.

All applicants are considered on an individual basis and additional qualifications, professional qualifications and relevant experience may also be taken into account when considering applications. 

International students

Please see our International Student website for entry requirements by country and other relevant information. Due to visa restrictions, students who require a student visa to study cannot study part-time unless undertaking a distance or blended-learning programme with no on-campus provision.

English language entry requirements

The University requires all non-native speakers of English to reach a minimum standard of proficiency in written and spoken English before beginning a postgraduate degree. Certain subjects require a higher level.

For detailed information see our English language requirements web pages. 

Need help with English?

Please note that if you are required to meet an English language condition, we offer a number of pre-sessional courses in English for Academic Purposes through Kent International Pathways.

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Course structure

Duration: 3 years part-time

This part-time, work-based programme has been designed to encourage you to think more deeply about the challenges associated with your professional practice while enabling you to tailor your degree to your particular interests and career aspirations.

Teaching is structured around a series of extended taught weekends (on average four weekends a year at our Medway campus), 9.00-17.00.

Modules

The following modules are indicative of those offered on this programme. This list is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year.

In Stage 1 - Year 1 (PG Certificate) you take the following core modules:

In Stage 2 - Year 2 (PG Diploma) you take the following core modules:

Optional modules (subject to student numbers):  

In Stage 3 - Year 3 (MSc) you take the following core module:

Taught sessions are delivered in a welcoming, supportive and flexible academic environment, by an academic team with extensive professional practitioner experience. They are experienced in delivering work-related programmes and understand the constraints of balancing a career with the demands of higher education.

Teaching

Teaching and assessment

You will be asked to undertake preparatory reading and tasks, carry out work-based investigations and participant-led presentations. All assessment tasks are designed to allow you to develop expertise in the application of dental professional practice within the context of your work and subject interest.

Assessment is through:

  • oral presentations
  • written assignments
  • portfolio assessments
  • action learning sets

In addition, in Stage 3 you complete a dissertation of 10,000-12,000 words.

Programme aims

This programme aims to:

  • foster the intellectual and professional development of experienced healthcare practitioners to expand the analytical and critical reasoning powers that underpin practice (eg in organisational leadership and change, health and welfare systems, organisations and services and advanced technical procedures and practices)
  • enhance the skills of experienced practitioners in multidisciplinary decision making as well as team leadership, and deepen your understanding of the dynamics of multidisciplinary working
  • provide supervision for advanced practitioner-centred research that builds a culture of evaluation and enquiry into the practice environment
  • equip experienced practitioners for their role in challenging, questioning and realigning strategies for specialist practice
  • develop confident senior practitioners who are able to participate in the development of practice, work effectively with organisational interests, evidence-based processes, and within complex multidisciplinary teams
  • enable you to critically evaluate your own area of practice, informed by evidence-based research and grounded in self-reflection
  • provide a culture of lifelong learning that values and respects practice as the context for building and testing theory, to enhance services for patients, clients and consumers
  • enable experienced practitioners from a diverse range of educational backgrounds to access and participate in a multidisciplinary working environment
  • support a programme of personal development that underpins practice development and personal planning.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

You gain knowledge and understanding of:

  • theories of reflective practice that will equip you to deliver quality services in health and social care settings
  • leadership styles to develop theory and skills appropriate to your specialist areas of practice
  • strategic decision-making in healthcare services and other health and social care and organisational settings
  • a specialist area of practice, with emphasis on developing clinical skills and your ability to evaluate quality and assess clinical or general practice
  • critical analysis of models of care of patients, clients, service users and consumers through evidence-based practice
  • collaborative working in an area of specialist practice
  • practice-based research and enquiry underpinned by concepts of patient/client assessment, such as the critical analysis of medical, health and social care factors
  • theory-building and theory-testing in professional practice, including holistic factors such as health or disease, treatment and sociologic economic factors
  • data management and the main statistical principles and methods used in your area of practice
  • key ethical and legal principles governing your area of practice
  • a critical understanding of the principles and models of dental care provision and an ability to connect these to individual workplace practice
  • a critical understanding of the professional aspects of the dental practice and the importance of continuous education, training and development.

Intellectual skills

You develop intellectual skills to:

  • demonstrate critical and analytical reasoning to review and analyse contemporary practice
  • prepare and present clearly reasoned and justified argument in securing practice change and development
  • apply work-based learning to demonstrably enhance services
  • develop a comprehensive professional portfolio that identifies the utility of intellectual skills in practice
  • design and implement a programme of practice-based enquiry
  • collect and analyse data from your practice to inform evidence-based enquiry including the statistical analysis of data
  • undertake and report the ethical analysis of practice research project plans
  • understand the importance to professionalism of positive critique, response to feedback and reflective practice.

Subject-specific skills

You gain subject-specific skills to:

  • demonstrate effective engagement in team working appropriate to your workplace
  • show an in-depth understanding of change management in healthcare services/practice
  • develop new roles that support the interface between the strategic aims of service and practice
  • present and argue an evidence-based case for service change and development
  • carry out ethical professional practice within a dental workplace setting
  • maintain professional practice and support the development of those who are less experienced.

Transferable skills

You gain transferable skills to:

  • evaluate and enquire, to support you in making a contribution to professional knowledge in your subject field
  • design and implement a research programme with a clear analysis of the outcomes and recommendations for future action
  • provide clear and detailed reporting and accounting for the implementation and outcomes of an applied development project
  • use action-learning set approaches to solve problems and identify solutions
  • use work-based learning effectively to establish a future personal plan within the context of lifelong professional development
  • use supervision to inform and enhance your learning approaches in the workplace
  • communicate effectively in academic and professional/workplace settings
  • show evidence of critical self-reflection and the ability to enhance professional competence on the basis of feedback.

Fees

The 2023/24 annual tuition fees for this course are:

  • Home part-time £3200
  • EU part-time TBC
  • International part-time TBC

For details of when and how to pay fees and charges, please see our Student Finance Guide.

For students continuing on this programme fees will increase year on year by no more than RPI + 3% in each academic year of study except where regulated.* If you are uncertain about your fee status please contact information@kent.ac.uk.

Your fee status

The University will assess your fee status as part of the application process. If you are uncertain about your fee status you may wish to seek advice from UKCISA before applying.

Additional costs

General additional costs

Find out more about general additional costs that you may pay when studying at Kent. 

Funding

Search our scholarships finder for possible funding opportunities. You may find it helpful to look at both:

We have a range of subject-specific awards and scholarships for academic, sporting and musical achievement.

Search scholarships

Research

Research areas

Kent’s excellent performance in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) confirmed our position as one of the UK’s leading universities: our 19 academic schools were found to be engaged in research of international and world-class standing. With programmes of study that are informed by research, our students are able to develop skills and knowledge relevant to contemporary issues.

Current research areas include:

  • experiential learning
  • reflective practice
  • communities of practice
  • dental education
  • professionalisation
  • primary dental care.

Careers

A postgraduate degree in Applied Dental Professional Practice is a particularly valuable and flexible qualification that can open the door to exciting careers in many professions. Students are successfully using this programme to develop clinical, educational and policy making career pathways in the dental sector at local, regional and national levels.

Building on Kent's success as the region's leading institution for student employability, we offer many opportunities for you to develop the specific skills and aptitudes that employers will value.

Career profile quotes

Dr Alfred Kolozsvari

I felt very supported from the registration process to my graduation.

Jacqui Elsden

My classmates kept me on track and I really enjoyed their company.

Study support

Flexible programmes

We recognise and understand the individual needs of working professionals, who participate as non-traditional part-time learners, and the balance required between study and the specific areas within which they operate. Our flexible programmes of study provide inclusive and coherent educational and work-related opportunities, which provide you with the opportunity to study either individual modules or to work towards a postgraduate certificate, diploma or Master’s degree. Taught sessions are delivered in a welcoming, supportive and flexible academic environment, by an academic team with extensive professional practitioner experience.

Professional links

Our staff have a wealth of experience and knowledge working in public, private, health and third sectors, providing valuable contributions to the design, development and delivery of current professional practice programmes. With strong links to local and national employers, we are able to ensure that its programmes are contemporary.

We are also responsible for developing and accrediting postgraduate training courses delivered by Health Education England Kent, Surrey and Sussex, Kent Community Health NHS Trust and the New Horizons Teaching School Alliance, with whom the University of Kent has close working relationships.

Continuing professional development (CPD) courses

We offer a number of CPD courses in evidence-based practice, research skills, collaborative and interprofessional working. You can obtain further information about these programmes from us.

Dynamic publishing culture

Staff publish regularly and widely in journals, conference proceedings and books, both nationally and internationally. Among others, they have recently contributed to: Primary Dental Care; Dental Nursing; British Dental Journal; Journal of Public Health and publications produced by the General Dental Council.

Global Skills Award

All students registered for a taught Master's programme are eligible to apply for a place on our Global Skills Award Programme. The programme is designed to broaden your understanding of global issues and current affairs as well as to develop personal skills which will enhance your employability.

Apply now

Learn more about the application process or begin your application by clicking on a link below.

You will be able to choose your preferred year of entry once you have started your application. You can also save and return to your application at any time.

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United Kingdom/EU enquiries

MSc at Medway

Admissions enquiries

T: +44 (0)1227 768896

E: information@kent.ac.uk

Subject enquiries

T: +44 (0)1634 888929

E: llpgadmin@kent.ac.uk

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International student enquiries

Enquire online

T: +44 (0)1227 823254
E: internationalstudent@kent.ac.uk

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