The course

Health Leadership and Education (PG Cert)

This is a one year part-time course in the Department of Health Studies in partnership with Ashford and St Peter's NHS Foundation Trust designed for doctors and other health practitioners who are registered and employed in the UK.

If you are an international practitioner you can apply if your visa is sponsored by your trust and allows time for study.

The Postgraduate Certificate in Health Leadership and Education is run in partnership with Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust and offers an ideal opportunity to develop health leadership skills that are highly relevant to doctors and other health practitioners working in the NHS. Following the progressive curriculum, you’ll be empowered to lead and manage healthcare services with confidence, contributing to an evolving and patient-centred healthcare system in the UK.

Your teaching and learning will be closely informed by the active research of staff in the Department of Health Studies, at Royal Holloway, University of London. You’ll gain knowledge and skills in effective healthcare leadership, applying evidence-based practice, mentoring students and junior staff, and communicating and collaborating within multidisciplinary teams. You’ll have the opportunity to carry out a Quality Improvement Project at your place of work to put your learning into practice towards enhancing quality of healthcare services and outcomes.

This course will promote your ability to work at an advanced level in your Trust, impacting on your service and developing students and junior staff in healthcare. Successful completion of the course can be used for continuous professional development (CPD) points for registration. Throughout your studies you will;

Learn to lead and use evidence to promote your clinical decisions
Learn to teach, mentor and supervise students and junior staff
Complete a Quality Improvement project at your place of work
Build a teaching portfolio.

We sometimes make changes to our courses to improve your experience. If this happens, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.

Course structure

Core Modules

This module aims to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and understanding necessary to assume leadership roles within healthcare organizations. The module delves into the core competencies, personal skills, and responsibilities required for effective healthcare leadership. Students explore the various executive roles in healthcare leadership and critically examine how successful leaders cultivate a vision for the future through strategic resource management. Tailored to the unique demands of the healthcare industry, the module focuses on developing leadership skills critical to the industry's future success. Additionally, the module analyses common strategies employed by healthcare leaders to foster a knowledge-sharing culture within the UK healthcare system. Students delve into ethical decision-making frameworks and demonstrate ethical responsibilities of healthcare leaders in practice. Furthermore, the module examines the multifaceted influences of culture, economics, law, policy, and technology on healthcare leadership practices.
This module aims to empower healthcare professionals with the comprehensive knowledge, skills, and understanding required to make informed decisions based on evidence, ensuring that healthcare delivery is responsible, collaborative, effective, and sustainable. The module is designed to guide and support healthcare professionals in developing the expertise to make evidence-informed decisions. The key contents include formulating and refining clinical questions, searching for and evaluating research evidence, incorporating evidence into practice, communicating evidence to patients and colleagues and how implementing evidence-based practice at an individual and organisational level.
Clinical education is an essential component of a clinician’s work load. This can include supervision, mentoring and training of students and more junior staff, contributing to the training of other healthcare professionals. This is also essential the for clinician’s own professional development. This module aims to equip students on exploring education theory and how it can be applied to teaching in the clinical environment. And develop their knowledge and skills in teaching, learning, and assessment. The module will also help students build their confidence as a clinical educator. At the end of the module, students will be able to apply education theory to teaching in the clinical environment, use a variety of teaching and learning methods effectively, develop and implement assessment strategies that are fair, reliable, and valid, create a supportive learning environment for students, develop their teaching skills and improve their confidence as a clinical educator.
This module aims to equip students with the essential skills and knowledge to effectively plan, manage, and execute complex projects from conception to completion. Through a combination of theoretical frameworks, practical exercises, and real-world case studies, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the project management lifecycle, encompassing project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and control, and project closure. The module will enable students to articulate clear and measurable project objectives aligned with organizational goals and stakeholder expectations and demonstrate flexibility and adaptability in managing project changes, risks, and issues to ensure project success.
This module will describe the key principles of academic integrity, focusing on university assignments. Plagiarism, collusion and commissioning will be described as activities that undermine academic integrity, and the possible consequences of engaging in such activities will be described. Activities, with feedback, will provide you with opportunities to reflect and develop your understanding of academic integrity principles.

All modules are core

Teaching & assessment

Teaching and learning may be through a mix of formal lectures, seminar discussions and oral presentations, guided independent research, guided independent study, coursework essays or assignments. The course aims to nurture students’ interest and enthusiasm for the field, to develop their critical and communication skills and to develop critical, research and creative skills.

Assessments will be authentic and directly related to your work experience which will promote your development in your field. Assessment of knowledge and understanding is typically through written work. Formative feedback will be provided continuously through informal oral feedback in seminars and more formally through written feedback on summative assessment. Full details of the assessments for individual modules can be obtained from the Department. On successful completion of the module students will gain the credits listed.

This course is designed in accordance with the FHEQ to ensure the qualification is awarded on the basis of nationally established standards of achievement, for both outcomes and attainment.

Entry requirements

Please note applicants for this course are required to provide evidence of Registered Practitioner Status ie that they’re doctors or health practitioners who are registered and employed in the UK.

As part of the application form, you will be asked to provide a personal statement. There is an opportunity to upload your Evidence of Practitioner Status and Bachelor degree in Medicine transcript or transcript from other health practitioner degrees, available in the Supplemental Items and Documents tab after you have submitted the application form.

If you cannot confirm your Registered Practitioner Status, you are not eligible for this course and should not proceed with the application.

International & EU requirements

Your future career

This course is designed in accordance with the FHEQ to ensure your qualification is awarded on the basis of nationally established standards of achievement, for career progression in health leadership and education.

You’ll develop your knowledge and skills in the following areas:

The role of doctors in managing and leading health services and delivering healthcare across the UK
The importance of working effectively within multidisciplinary teams to provide patient-centered care
Ability to evaluate and synthesise approaches to address patient safety concerns, maintaining vigilance for potential risks and implementing appropriate interventions
Identify the importance of lifelong learning and continuous professional development, and maintaining a critical awareness of advancements in medical practice and healthcare management to provide the highest quality care
Develop effective communication and collaboration skills to engage with colleagues and contribute to discussions about improving the quality of services and outcomes
Understand ethical and responsible resource utilisation, optimising the allocation of healthcare resources for the benefit of patients and the public
Applying critical leadership qualities by motivating, inspiring, and guiding others to achieve shared goals while maintaining a respectful and inclusive work environment
Skills to design and synthesise an independent research project and contribute to the training and development of doctors and other healthcare professionals, sharing knowledge and expertise to enhance their skills and competencies
Develop critical analysis strategies and apply evidence-based approaches and practical plans for service innovation to enhance healthcare delivery and improve patient outcomes.

Fees, funding & scholarships

Home (UK) students tuition fee per year*: £4,000

EU and international students tuition fee per year**: £7,170

Other essential costs***: There are no single associated costs greater than £50 per item on this course.

* and ** These tuition fees apply to students starting their course on a part-time basis in the academic year 2026/27.

Royal Holloway reserves the right to increase all postgraduate tuition fees annually.

*** These estimated costs relate to studying this particular degree at Royal Holloway during the 2026/27 academic year, and are included as a guide. Costs, such as accommodation, food, books and other learning materials and printing, have not been included.