Postgraduate MSc
Healthcare Management
This programme starts in September, we also provide a January start so you can study at the time that is right for you.
Contemporary Healthcare Management faces enormous challenges and requires leaders that provide effective management and oversight of healthcare organisations. The healthcare managers of tomorrow not only need to provide strong leadership, they need to consider healthcare globally, with a focus on a holistic approach, inclusivity, sustainability and communication. Through a focus on these key issues, and a strong data-driven approach, our MSc Healthcare Management students are ready to step into the sector and effect change in the places they want to see it.
Our CMI-accredited MSc Healthcare Management course is taught by international experts and enables you to get to grips with strategy and leadership alongside the study of healthcare. You’ll learn about corporate strategy and performance measurement, finance and accounting, marketing management and leadership. You will also gain a detailed insight into key topics such as global sustainability in healthcare, managing integrated healthcare systems and providing an inclusive service. You will end your Master's with a detailed report with the support of a dedicated expert supervisor, a strong basis to kickstart your career.
Our Healthcare Management programme is designed to work for both current healthcare professionals looking to get ahead in their career, or those wanting to switch lanes and jump into a new field. Graduates typically find work across many realms of the NHS and private healthcare institutions. They also go on to work in general management and consultancy both overseas and in the UK in a wide range of companies and organisations. Our global approach and CMI accreditation means you can take your expertise into any area of the world you want, effect change, and embrace a successful, global career.
Reasons to study MSc Healthcare Management at Kent
Kent Business School is among the top 1% of ‘triple crown’ business schools worldwide following its European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) accreditation from the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).
The ‘Triple Crown’ involves awards by the three leading business school accreditation organisations – EQUIS, The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and The Association of MBAs (AMBA).
A minimum of a second-class UK degree, or an equivalent internationally recognised qualification in a variety of subject areas is accepted for entry into this course.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 response to new curriculum developments and innovation.
This module examines recent developments in marketing thinking and market strategy development. Students will acquire a theoretical foundation through the lectures and discussions on marketing management and communications concepts and frameworks. The use of case studies will allow the student to explore the process of marketing decision-making and strategy development as well as enhancing the ability to apply marketing theory to a wide range of problems.
Indicative topics are:
• Marketing planning
• The market: understanding and analysing the marketing environment
• Segmentation, targeting and positioning
• Marketing research
• Understanding customers and buyer behaviour
• The organisation: marketing strategy and ethics
• The marketing mix (goods and services)
• New product development
• Marketing communications
• Pricing
• Marketing channels
• Contemporary issues in marketing
This module will utilise domestic and international companies to shed light on change management issues, and models of change and therefore allows students to gain understanding of leadership and change in organisations and subjects covered will typically include:
• Understanding change management.
• The role of change agents including management consultants.
• Examine the core issues involved in leading change.
• Organisations and key stakeholders to deliver change and organisational success.
• Contemporary issues in change management.
The module aims to cover key accounting and financial management aspects of a business. The module begins by learning about the use of accounting principles in measuring and reporting financial position of a business for external stakeholders. It then moves on to analysing and interpreting financial reports for decision making. Under the financial management aspect, the module covers key capital investment decision making techniques such as NPV and IRR. Finally, the major aspects related to long term financing decisions such as sources of long term finance, capital structure, and costs of debt, equity and capital are covered.
The module content includes business consultancy skills that are transferable into the business consulting profession, internal consultancy positions within organisations, and senior management roles.
Indicative topics are:
• Approaches to management consulting.
• Negotiating a scope of work.
• Developing a client proposal.
• Data collection and analysis.
• Preparing and presenting a consulting report.
• Working as an effective team member in a consulting team.
• Managing client relationships and expectations.
• Consulting project management.
This module aims to provide an advanced understanding of the role of strategic management in organisations, relating to the strategic analysis, decision-making and processes within and between organisations in different business contexts. Through studying this module students develop critical awareness of current developments and new insights in strategic management and performance measurement.
Indicative topics may include:
Defining corporate strategy; the strategy context; strategy formulation; resource-based strategy; corporate and business strategy; performance measurement (tools and techniques).
Employers are in search for individuals who possess logical thinking, analytical capability, leadership, communication and the ability to work under pressure. This module develops the necessary research knowledge and skills for students to be able to successfully complete a piece of research in industry or consultancy contexts or academia.
Indicative topics are:
• Choosing the topic of interest and literature review
• Research process and Ethics in in business research
• Choosing your research design
• Preparing the research proposal
• Communicating the Research
Managing uncertainty in the organisation of healthcare draws upon key managerial insights into the management of risk and uncertainty in contemporary systems of healthcare, with a specific emphasis on management of healthcare service delivery and organisation. The module begins with an introduction to general management principles of risk and uncertainty. Subsequently the module explores the nature of risk and uncertainty in the context of healthcare, in which notions of safety are paramount and the costs and visibility of organisational failures are high. The module further explores the impact upon decision making of increasingly complex systems of healthcare through different organisational forms (bureaucracy, market, network) and at different levels (policy, organisation, profession). The module considers values such as efficiency and effectiveness, and the role of knowledge and domain (e.g. health economics and implementation science in attempting to rationalise professional and managerial decision-making). The module concludes with an examination of new technologies and their impact upon risk, safety and uncertainty in healthcare.
The module will commence by considering two questions 'How can patients be part of an interdisciplinary team?' and ‘How can an interdisciplinary team be managed?’ thereby enabling students to think in terms of inclusion of the patient and reflecting upon the possible advantages and disadvantages of this approach. Students will then be introduced to the main history, challenges, and factors influencing collaboration and partnership between patients and professionals, and various practices of interpersonal collaboration practices. Subsequent weeks will cover topics on role clarification, negotiation and conflict resolution.
The module will focus on exploring how health systems need to adapt to changing health needs and maintain financial sustainability. Students will be introduced to a range of concepts relevant to developing sustainable health systems. This will encompass the way health systems are funded, how care delivery is organised to meet the needs of patients and how managers will need to respond to changing systems and organisational demands.
The aim of this module is to explore system changes, integrated care models, and system architecture as they relate to health care. The focus will be primarily on health systems in high income countries. In many high income countries, including the UK and Canada, health systems are facing the challenge of adapting to new approaches to healthcare that focus on the organisation and management of health services in primary and community settings to meet changing health needs. These organisations tend to be smaller, often networked or federated groups, have flatter organisational structures and are developing new ways of working, coping with more complex delivery settings and the need to adopt more collaborative and integrated ways of working between organisations.
This module will build on the module: Research Methods and Consultancy Skills and supervise health care students during their Management Report/ Dissertation Project.
Individual support will be provided regarding the following subjects:
• Formulating and clarifying the management consultancy/dissertation topic.
• Theoretical approaches and literature review.
• Philosophy of social science research.
• Research design.
• Research ethics.
• Secondary and primary research methods.
• Quantitative method and data analysis.
• Qualitative method and data analysis.
• Library resources: online sources and searching journal databases.
• Writing and presenting a research project/ management consultancy report/dissertation.
Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
This course consists of 10 compulsory modules in Stage 1 with Stage 2 consisting of a piece of healthcare management-related research.
The MSc Healthcare Management programme is available with an optional industrial placement, which will require you to complete the Industrial Placement Report.
We use a variety of teaching methods, including:
Classroom-based learning is supported by the latest online technologies and learning platforms.
Your progress on this course is assessed through a variety of means, including:
Industrial placements are the perfect way for you to enhance your career prospects and deepen your understanding of a specific area of expertise. You can opt to take an in-company or self-employed industrial placement of up to 12 months (visa dependent), allowing you to gain work experience in the UK or overseas.
Our lively and active postgraduate community is brought about in part by our strong research culture and by the close community between our staff and students. Staff publish regularly and widely in journals, conference proceedings and books and embed their research in their teaching.
Students have regular contact with their course and module conveners with staff on hand to answer any questions and to provide helpful and constructive feedback on submitted work.
You can also get involved with extra-curricular academic and social activities with guest lectures, talks and workshops organised by our academic staff, research centres and the ASPIRE team. You can catch up with our most recent Open for Business Seminar Series.
Our Medway campus is full of history and offers a unique experience to our students. We have recently moved to the Pembroke site, our new Medway home. This move puts Kent Business School at the heart of the Medway Campus, a former Royal Naval base combining historic and new buildings. You can find the Drill Hall Library, the Deep End where Kent Union at Medway are based and the Oasis lounge right on campus.
Off campus, there is lots to do in the historic town of Rochester and nearby Chatham, with cinemas, theatres and good shopping. London is just 40 minutes away by fast train.
Kent Business School has close links with: ifs (Institute of Financial Services); dunnhumby, who partners the Consumer Insight Service in the Centre for Value Chain Research; Hong Kong Baptist University, with whom we offer a joint Master’s programme in Operational Research and Finance Business Statistics; University of Castellanza (Italy); Audencia Nantes Business School (France); Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences (Denmark); Universiti Teknologi Malaysia; University of Ingolstadt, Bayern (Germany); City University of Hong Kong; Renmin University of China, School of Business.
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.
Kent Business School is a research-led business school. Our research strategy is developed around the core theme of sustainable innovation which cuts across the entire School. This theme can be seen as being divided into two sub-strands of research aimed at answering these main questions:
Kent Business School advances knowledge through constant promotion and support of innovative research. We have an impact on wider society through extensive collaborations with external partners which range from other academic institutions to a variety of local, national and international businesses as well as the NHS. Within this wider context, our main strategic aim has been geared towards establishing ourselves as a leading institution for research in sustainable innovation.
Kent Business School is a global leader in research and develops a wide portfolio of research related activities including workshops, conferences and research seminar series. This has led to a large number of international collaborations and to over 200 co-authored papers with international partners.
Our MSc Healthcare Management programme is part of the department of leadership and management. When studying with us you'll be joining a cross-disciplinary community dedicated to tackling complex business and societal challenges. Our teaching and innovative research encompasses the economic, psychological, social, political, and technological contexts in which organisations operate worldwide.
Everything we do is based on evidence-based insights into today’s most pressing business and management issues. As such, our Healthcare Management programme is informed by rational, data-driven ideas that consider sustainability, inclusivity and a global outreach as an intrinsic part of our core values.
Staff publish regularly and widely in journals, conference proceedings and books. Among others, they have recently contributed to: Critical Perspectives on Accounting; Quantitative Finance; Human Resource Management Journal; Journal of Product Innovation Management; European Journal of .Operational Research; and Psychology & Marketing.
Dr Epameinondas Katsikas is the director of studies for our MSc Healthcare Management. With an esteemed background in business and academia, he brings real world expertise to the course, ensuring that our graduates are ready to go out into the world and make a difference. You can find out more and his research interests and get in touch with him through his staff profile.
Our Healthcare Management graduates find work across many realms of the NHS and private healthcare institutions. They also go on to work in general management and consultancy both overseas and in the UK in a wide range of companies and organisations.
You gain much more than an academic qualification when you graduate. We enhance your student experience and accelerate your career prospects to help you achieve your ambition.
From the moment you start with us, our efforts are focused on helping you gain the knowledge, skills and experience you need to thrive in an increasingly competitive workplace. As part of the course, undertake an Industrial Placement (September start only) or opt for an In-Company Scheme to work on a real business case study. Go on our Business Start-up Journey and transform your idea into a business through ASPIRE. Our qualified careers practitioners provide support for up to three years after graduation.
Our careers and employability support at Kent Business School is designed to make sure you are ready to hit the ground running when you graduate, when you study with us you can expect:
Additionally, the Postgraduate Employability Edge programme, available to PGT students at Kent Business School takes place from Welcome Week through to the end of the academic year and is designed to enhance your career prospects further.
This course is accredited by The Chartered Management Institute (CMI), the Chartered Body for Management and Leadership. The CMI is the only organisation that can award Chartered Manager status, the highest accolade for managers and leaders.
The annual tuition fees for students starting this course in January 2024 can be found on the Student Finance page.
The 2024/25 annual tuition fees for this course are:
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.
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.
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.*
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.
Find out more about general additional costs that you may pay when studying at Kent.
We have a range of subject-specific awards and scholarships for academic, sporting and musical achievement.
Next steps
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.
Supporting your success
Kent ranked top 50 in The Complete University Guide 2024.
Fees and funding
Kent has risen 11 places in THE’s REF 2021 ranking, confirming us as a leading research university.
Accommodation