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All research students within the Faculty are affiliated to the Faculty’s Research Graduate School. The School has responsibility for all aspects of graduate student education and training from first application through to final examination. The stated aim of the School is to: facilitate and professionalise the training of research students within the faculty, formalise monitoring and management of progress, improve the quality of research training provision, promote research excellence and increase research volume by increasing research student numbers, and generally champion graduate education. The School has in place well defined policies and procedures for approval of research project aims and attainable objectives, monitoring of performance (including approval of transfer from Masters to Doctoral programmes), provision of appropriate training programmes (including formal instruction on written and oral communication competence, safety matters and teaching skills) and examination procedures. The success of the Faculty’s current procedures is reflected in the fact that 4-year successful completion rates for full-time PhD students is >85%, which is well above the national average, and the fact that the majority of science graduates continue to post doctoral appointments both within the UK and beyond.
In keeping with its policy to provide postgraduate research opportunities for graduates from the health professions, the Faculty also now offers a vocational doctoral programme, the Doctor of Medical Science (D.Med.Sc.) degree. The primary objectives of the latter programme, which is designed specifically for graduates with at least three years professional experience, are to ’......advance students’ knowledge in their specialist field and to provide advanced training in research methods commensurate with the degree title and of relevance to their professional practice’.
The Faculty also now offers a Master of Research (M.Res.) degree programme which had its first intake in October 1995. This 1 year programme provides advanced level training for research studies and subsequent careers in a variety of industrial, professional and academic fields. It has been designed such that graduates who proceed to doctoral study will be thoroughly prepared for this undertaking and those who proceed to seek employment will have significant advantages in the labour market. To this end students receive training and instruction in research techniques and advances relevant to their areas of specialism, research design, including a substantial research project, oral and written communication skills and policy and practice. It is expected that the M.Res. will, in the future, contribute a significant proportion of students registering for PhD.
Further information can be found at:http://research.ulster.ac.uk/
The faculty introduced a new part-time Master of Clinical Research degree in September 2003. This course provides formalised training in clinical research techniques specifically tailored for healthcare professionals and suitably qualified graduates interested in undertaking research within the field of healthcare.
The Faculty has a highly selective approach to research. Research is concentrated in the following research groups each of which has a national/international reputation: