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 The Institute for
Postgraduate Medicine and Primary
Care at the University of Ulster was
officially launched in April 1999 by
Sir Dennis Pereira Gray –
President of the Royal College of
General Practitioners. Its expressed
aims are:
To ensure that the University and its
partners continue to meet the evolving
continuing professional development needs
of health and social care
practitioners.
To ensure that the University reflects
its commitment to continue to be a
leading centre in the UK in pioneering
research based initiatives central to the
delivery of the highest standards of
community based health care.
Establishment of the Institute was a
natural development for the University
which has a long and successful history
of providing undergraduate and
postgraduate provision in health and
social sciences. This includes
undergraduate degrees in the professional
specialisms of Nursing, Occupational
Therapy, Physiotherapy, Speech and
Language Therapy, Optometry, Radiography,
Dietetics, Clinical Science, Social Work,
Community Youth Work and the academic
disciplines of Social Policy, Sociology,
Psychology, Communication, Biomedical
Sciences, and Human Nutrition. It also
provides both taught and research
programmes leading to Masters and
Doctoral qualifications in most of these
areas. The University also has many years
of experience in providing undergraduate
and postgraduate programmes in related
areas including, for example, those
provided mainly through the Faculties of
Informatics, Business and Management and
Engineering. Further, relevant research
work is undertaken through a number of
Research Units of Assessment within the
University, namely Nursing, Biomedical
Sciences, Health Sciences, Social Work,
Social Policy and Administration,
Psychology, Communication, Computer
Science, Sociology, Business and
Management Studies, General Engineering
and Sports Related Subjects.
The rationale behind the formation of the
Institute was therefore to provide a
University-wide umbrella organisation
which would facilitate the bringing
together of these multi-disciplinary
skills to provide appropriate CPD
opportunities for all of the Health and
Social Sciences professions and to
provide a focus for high quality
multi-disciplinary research programmes.
In pursuit of its aims the University,
through the Institute, provides the
following degrees and courses which are
multi-disciplinary unless stated
otherwise:
The Institute intends to draw upon the
existing expertise within the University
to provide additional CPD opportunities
for the health and social care
professions. Such programmes will be
designed to meet the needs of the health
and social care professions and delivered
in a flexible manner through, for
example, short course intensive delivery,
part-time day release, distance learning
initiatives, etc. Programmes will carry
University accreditation and professional
body accreditation, where appropriate.
Courses and, where appropriate, other
forms of delivery, for example, one-day
conference/seminar programmes will be
designed to meet the needs of the
evolving primary care agenda.
The primary focus for research within the
Institute is primary health care. In this
regard the Institute aims to:
- Co-ordinate research and research
training programmes
- Encourage and foster research
alliances within the University and with
relevant external partners, e.g., Health
Boards, Trusts, other universities
- Promote and facilitate grant
applications to major charities,
government and Research Councils
- Act in an advisory capacity on major
grant proposals drawn up by group members
- Provide and manage central resources
for project teams
Facilitate the dissemination of research
findings. The Institute proposes three key
areas of research focus within the
Primary Care agenda. These are:
- Promoting health and social wellbeing
(including issues of inequality and
targeting)
- Improving care in the community
(including issues of social welfare and
medicines management)
- Interface with acute care (including
admissions and care management)
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