Preparing you to meet tomorrow’s health and life science challenges today
Our School of Health & Life Sciences offers a variety of innovative courses with hands-on experience and work in virtual and real-life ward situations. Nursing and midwifery courses focus on health education and preventative medicine, from degree to Doctorate level, in line with government objectives. Life sciences courses have been developed in collaboration with industrial and educational partners which positively shape your learning experience, putting you in an enviable position when entering the job market.
About our Health & Life Sciences Courses
The School of Health & Life Sciences offers a wide range of innovative and exciting health, bioscience, social care, nursing and midwifery undergraduate, postgraduate, part time and continuing professional development courses to help you achieve your ambitions.
Accreditation from UNICEF, through its Baby Friendly award, recognises the School's commitment to ensuring students are equipped with the knowledge and skills to advise and support breastfeeding mothers.
Our work in dementia has seen us gain national recognition including best educational initiative at Scotland's Dementia Awards 2016 and a shortlisting in the teaching innovation of the year category in the Student Nursing Times 2014 - for our Dementia Through the Eyes of a Child project.
We were also shortlisted in the contribution to the community category of the Times Higher Education Awards in 2014 for innovative work in dementia policy and practice.
Many of our life science courses are accredited or approved by professional bodies such as the Health and Care Professions Council, Institute of Biomedical Science, Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland and the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
Get the hands-on experience you need. The research we undertake in Biomedical and Environmental Health provides the underpinning science for our taught degrees. We give you extensive access to labs and workshop facilities from the start of your programme.
Health, Nursing and Midwifery graduates in work or further study 6 months after graduating
overall student satisfaction amongst UWS postgraduate Health, Nursing & Midwifery students
Undergraduate (Bachelor) Degrees
Our graduates make an immense contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of communities here in the United Kingdom and across the globe. Through state-of-the-art facilities and hands-on approach to learning or degree courses equip you to become a healthcare, medical, life science or sports professional.
BSc Paramedic Science
The School is delighted to announce that it will be validating a new, full-time, BSc Paramedic Science for entry in September 2020. This BSc will provide the knowledge and skills require by registered paramedics to ensure that they can confidently and compassionately deliver high quality emergency care in a range of settings.
Health, Nursing & Midwifery degrees
We offer pre-registration nursing and midwifery Bachelor degrees (professionally-recognised by the Nursing & Midwifery Council) in:
BSc Adult Nursing, BSc Mental Health Nursing, BSc Midwifery
Our BA (Hons) Integrated Health and Social Care is specifically designed for people who either work (or want to work) in health and social care but aren’t health professionals.
We also offer two top-up degrees for experienced healthcare professionals:
BSc Nursing Studies and BSc Professional Health Studies
Life Sciences degrees
We offer a range of professionally recognised degrees in Life Sciences:
BSc Applied Biomedical Science, BSc Applied Bioscience, BSc Applied Bioscience with Forensic Investigation, BSc Applied Bioscience with Zoology, BSc Biomedical Science, BSc Environmental Health, BSc Occupational Health & Safety, BSc Pharmacy Science & Health
Sports degrees
We offer a range of sporting-related applied degrees across two campuses (Ayr and Lanarkshire) including:
BSc Sports Coaching, BSc Sports Coaching & Development, BSc Sports Development, BSc Sports & Exercise Science
Postgraduate (Masters) Courses
UWS is the largest provider of health education in Scotland. We recognise that as a healthcare professional your time is precious and your drive and commitment to continual professional development is engrained. Our Masters courses have been developed across a wide range of areas and have been designed to align with the needs of the individual and health boards across Scotland. Many have an international dimension and they are delivered on a full-time, part-time with face-to-face sessions on campus, or fully online basis to align to your busy lifestyle.
As well as a wide range of taugh Masters courses, the School offers excellent research opportunities for MRes, MPhil and PhD degrees in health and life science disciplines. In addition, the School also provides opportunities to study for a Professional Doctorate (DProf). The DProf offers an alternative to the traditional PhD research degree and combines taught elements with applied research relevant to your particular professional domain. DProf programmes of study facilitate an investigation into the contemporary issues facing your profession and make a contribution to professional knowledge.
Health, Nursing & Midwifery Masters & Post-experience Courses
Our Health, Nursing & Midwifery Masters include:
MSc Adult Nursing (2 year conversion for graduates),MSc Advanced Clinical Practitioner, MSc Advancing Practice, MSc Forensic Mental Health, MSc Gerontology, MSc Global Primary Care Management, MSc Health Studies, MSc Leading People-Centred Integrated Care, MSc Mental Health Nursing (2 year conversion for graduates), MSc Midwifery (3 year conversion for graduates), MSc Professional Health Studies.
We also offer a number of other postgraduate-level and/or post-experience focused qualifications including:
PgCert Child Protection, PgDip Specialist Practitioner (District Nursing), GradCert Neonatal Nursing, GradCert Personality Disorder, GradCert Sexual & Reproductive Health, GradCert Unscheduled Care
Find out more about our health-related Masters
We also offer three post-experience Bachelor courses:
Our BA (Hons) Integrated Health and Social Care is specifically designed for people who either work (or want to work) in health and social care but aren’t health professionals.
We also offer two top-up degrees for experienced healthcare professionals:
BSc Nursing Studies and BSc Professional Health Studies
Find out more about our health-related bachelor courses
Life Sciences Masters
Our Masters courses in Life Sciences are designed to allow you to develop as a biomedical, bioscience, or biotechnology researcher:
MSc Advanced Biomedical Science (accredited by the Institute of Biomedical Science) and MSc Biotechnology
Sports Masters
We currently offer one Masters degree in Sport to allow you to develop more advanced and applied sports coaching knowledge and skills:
MSc Sport Coaching
Don't take our word for it
Before starting my course I was a community carer. I really enjoyed the job but becoming a student nurse has been one of the best decisions I have ever made and the satisfaction you get from helping people is the best feeling. Dumfries Campus is small enough that you get one to one attention from lecturers. As a mature student I thought it would be hard, but in nursing you work closely with your peers both in the class and on placement. I have made some really good friends.
Rocio Mora-Valverde, BSc Adult Nursing, Dumfries Campus
Research
One of the key areas of research within the School is our pioneering work with Alzheimer Scotland through the creation of the UWS Alzheimer Scotland Centre for Policy and Practice, to provide a high quality environment for applied research, education and social enterprise. The Centre works collaboratively with people with dementia, carers, and the scientific and practice communities to advance evidence-informed dementia policy and practice.
The School has also been involved in collaborative work with NHS colleagues on an award-winning sepsis screening app, being used across the UK and overseas.
Contact Us
If you have any queries relating to our School, please contact us at nursrecep@uws.ac.uk