Dementia Care
Award
MSc
Duration & study mode
Typically 3 years part time
School
Health & Life Sciences
Location
Fully online
Course starting dates
-
Online: September
Our programme has been designed to cater for a range of professionals with relevant experience and interest in working with people living with dementia. It has been designed to meet the needs of health and social care professionals and also professionals who are working for charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.
It aims to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence of all its participants to lead, plan and deliver person-focussed care to people living with dementia particularly in relation to their changing care priorities as dementia advances.
Bringing together students with a wide range of personal and professional experiences enriches learning and insights from the real world practice provides a deeper understanding of professional and organisational issues.
It has been designed to have particular appeal to health and social care professionals and also those professionals who are working in the third sector (i.e. for charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises) with older people living with dementia.
Successful completion of this programme will present opportunities to access employment as advanced practitioners, researchers, lecturers and practice development professionals. It is intended for an internationally diverse audience of health, allied health, and social care professionals particularly those who have experience in caring for older people living with dementia.
The teaching staff work within the Alzheimer Scotland Centre for Policy and Practice within the University of the West of Scotland. The Centre and its staff have led a number of national and international projects including being responsible for delivery of the NHS Education Scotland / Scottish Social Service Council's National Dementia Champions Programme.
(The Times / The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019)
Overall student satisfaction amongst UWS postgraduate students (iGraduate Student Barometer 2017-18)
of UWS postgraduate students would recommend UWS to a friend (iGraduate Student Barometer 2017-18)
The staff teaching on this course are all part of the Alzheimer Scotland Centre for Policy and Practice (ASCPP). The mission of the Centre is to work collaboratively with people living with dementia, their carers, and the scientific and practice communities to advance evidence informed dementia policy and practice working in three key areas:
For more information on the Alzheimer Scotland Centre for Policy and Practice, click here.
You can follow the work of the Centre on Twitter @AlzScotCPP and Facebook.
The Centre staff in 2020 won an Advanced HE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) for its ground-breaking ‘Class in a Bag’ programme, created by Adult Nursing Lecturers at UWS in collaboration with the ASCPP team and Alzheimer Scotland. Find out more about the CATE programme.
In 2020-21, they also published a series of six linked articles on caring for people living with advanced dementia in the UK journal Nursing Older People, which you can read here.
At UWS you will get the chance to work with staff at the forefront of their profession. One shining example of this is Dr Margaret Brown, Senior Lecturer and Depute Director of the Alzheimer Scotland Centre for Policy and Practice.
Margaret, who was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at Scotland’s Dementia Awards 2016, is on hand to teach and support students studying at UWS across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate nursing programmes.
The award recognised Margaret’s outstanding commitment, over 40 years, to the field of dementia and mental health care for older people. It came shortly after she completed her doctorate at UWS.
Margaret’s doctoral research looked at ways to improve the quality of life for people with severe dementia. “I looked at six case studies to build up a collective picture of care, and ways we could improve it,” says Margaret. “While I found examples of really good care, deeper involvement of family and friends would enhance quality of life in the care home setting. A key finding is that there is a need for all staff to refocus and expand their knowledge about the fundamental aspects of care, such as eating and drinking and personal care. These are absolutely crucial, and become more and more important in the later stages of the disease.”
With caring for older people becoming an ever more essential part of a nurse’s job, and 850,000 people diagnosed with dementia in the UK, there is a great demand for the skills and competencies gained through the programmes we offer. And who better to learn from than Margaret and her colleagues?
We welcome Scottish, UK and international students and consider all applicants on an individual basis.
Don’t worry if your qualifications are not listed here, we take a range of factors into account when assessing your application and are happy to consider other alternative combinations of qualifications and experience
If you are applying with an EU or non-EU qualification, please check our Postgraduate & Post-experience Entry Requirements page which gives more information about country-specific entry requirements.
Normally, you are expected to hold an Ordinary bachelor's degree in a relevant subject.
Applications are welcomed from graduates from all relevant disciplines with experience and/or an interest in older people and their health and social care provision.
Applicants who have completed the UWS Graduate Certificate in Working with Older People will also be considered on an individual basis.
Students who have already gained credit at Level 11 may transfer this in certain circumstances; this will be considered on an individual basis.
Applicants may be considered through assessment of prior learning and prior experiential learning, again, on an individual basis.
For applicants whose first language is not English, the University sets a minimum English Language proficiency level. The qualifications below must have been gained within two years of the start of your course.
General English language requirements at UWS: International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic module (not General Training)
Exceptions to this level of IELTS scoring exist for some accredited or professionally-recognised courses (see section below for more details).
SOCIAL WORK DEGREES
For our BA (Hons) Social Work and MSc Social Work programmes, applicants are required to have an IELTS score as follows:
All stated English tests are acceptable for admission for both home/EU and international students for this programme:
For our research degrees (MRes, MPhil, PhD, DBA, DProf) applicants are required to have an IELTS score as follows:
For Health, Nursing & Midwifery courses that lead to, or require professional registration with the Nursing & Midwifery Council, applicants are required to have an IELTS or Occupational English Test (OET)*.
For such courses, the IELTS score is as follows:
* Note that the Occupational English Test (OET) will now be accepted in addition to IELTS as proof of a Nurse's English Language Competence (Nursing & Midwifery Council, 2019).
For our BSc (Hons) Applied Biomedical Science, BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science and MSc Advanced Biomedical Science programmes, applicants are required to have an IELTS score as follows:
For our Certificate of Higher Education courses, applicants are required to have an IELTS score as follows:
TOEFL IBT*: 78; no sub-test less than:
* Please note that TOEFL is still acceptable for admission to this programme for both home/EU and international students.
For international students, the Home Office has confirmed that the University can choose to use TOEFL to make its own assessment of English language ability for visa applications to degree level courses. We therefore still accept TOEFL tests taken in the last two years for admission to this programme.
West African Senior School Certificate of Education (WASSCE) including acceptance of WAEC Scratchcard*
*UWS will accept a WAEC scratchcard confirming that an applicant has achieved C6 or above as evidence of meeting English language requirement from Nigeria if the student graduated within the last 5 years. After 5 years applicants would be required to provide the WAEC Certificate.
Applicants who do not meet the minimum English language requirements have the option to study one of our preparatory and pre-sessional English courses. The UWS courses available are:
The MSc in Dementia Care comprises of three stages:
The MSc can typically take between three and five years to complete on a part-time basis.
All students will undertake the following core modules:
Plus, a further one optional 20-credit module:
All students will undertake the following three core modules:
Successful completion of the MSc Research & Enquiry Dissertation module is required. In this, you will develop a rigorous research proposal with a high level of critical appraisal which demonstrates knowledge of research and enquiry in an area of relevance to the care of people living with dementia (60 credits).
The University's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) will be used for additional learning, teaching and assessment.
Online learning approaches include:
LEARNING AND TEACHING
ASSESSMENT
Coursework will normally include essays, reflective pieces of work and your dissertation. Practical assessments will normally include presentations. Our assessment strategy ensures there are multiple points to access formative and summative feedback to enable you to improve your academic skills as the module and course progresses.
Find out more about the structure, learning outcomes, compulsory and optional modules in this course.
Our aim is to provide an enjoyable and intellectually stimulating course of study that will prepare you for a successful career as a healthcare specialist committed to working with older people and caring for people with dementia in a variety of health and social care settings.
There are opportunities to become advanced practitioners, work within practice development or quality improvement or go onto become an educator or researcher. Graduates also have the opportunity to continue to doctoral level study.
£1,000 Cost per 20-credit module of study
£1,610 Cost per 20-credit module of study
£1,610 Cost per 20-credit module of study
£2,070 Cost per 20-credit module of study
£1,070 Cost per 20-credit module of study
£1,680 Cost per 20-credit module of study
£1,680 Cost per 20-credit module of study
£2,180 Cost per 20-credit module of study
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An ATAS certificate is not required for overseas students applying for this course.
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