MPhil Social Work

University of Essex

Our MPhil in Social Work offers you a unique opportunity to undertake research in a variety of social and health contexts. You may be interested in the experiences of looked after children, the care of older people or the support provided to refugees but whatever your specific research interests we are likely to have a supervisor with the experience to support you in this process. You will be offered opportunities to access our Masters level research methods modules to provide a sound foundation of specific research knowledge and skills. In addition, you will have access to the University's Proficio research training scheme which allows you to choose training programmes that meet the requirements of your own research topics and methodologies. This PhD is offered on a 2 year full-time or 4 year part-time basis. Some people choose to do an MPhil before applying to undertake a PhD in order to develop their research skills and knowledge and to demonstrate their self-discipline and time management skills to potential supervisors or funders. The School of Health and Social Care is proud to work closely with our Service User Reference Group (SURG). SURG is made up of service users, carers, and volunteers who generously share their first-hand experiences of health and social care. We work collaboratively with SURG to design our courses to ensure that we truly are putting the needs of patients and clients at the heart of what we do. SURG are involved as part of our course application processes and often form part of our interview panels. This helps us to be confident that we are selecting the right applicants for the course and their future careers. SURG members also support the delivery of our teaching sessions and research activity, which means you'll benefit from an insight into their lived experiences of living with a diagnosis, health condition, or circumstance. You'll find that not only does your clinical knowledge expand, but your empathy, compassion and ability to advocate develops also.