York offers flexible study programmes for health care professionals
Posted on 12 June 2001
Increasing pressure on health care budgets worldwide focuses attention on how best to organise health care systems and the spending within them. York's programmes, which include Certificate and Diploma level qualifications, aim to provide managers with the skills and confidence to apply the principles of health economics in their jobs.
York has an international reputation for its work in health services research and public policy. It has the largest group of health economists in the world and numerous specialist departments and centres which undertake teaching and research in this area. Three of them - the Department of Economics, the Centre for Health Economics, and the York Health Economics Consortium - contribute to these courses.
The courses include economic concepts, the evaluation of health care, and the economics of health care systems. Diploma students choose extra options, including advanced economic evaluation and the economics of the NHS in more depth.
"The efficient use of resources in health care is an important economic and ethical issue," said course director Martin Forster. "We have designed a course for those who want to gain an accredited qualification in health economics, but who are unable to study full-time. Its modular structure and web-based learning materials, mean that it is accessible - and appropriate - for health care professionals throughout the UK."
Prospective students can visit the programme web site for more details and an application pack at www.york.ac.uk/res/herc/distance
Notes to editors:
- Students are allocated a tutor responsible for day to day student support from one of the contributing centres. There are also residential workshops for each of the modules. Learning materials are provided in workbooks authored by York health economists. Bulletin boards, chat rooms and access to a wide range of specialist web sites are available to students online.
- The Department of Economics has an official teaching assessment score of 24/24 and a research rating of 5 in a scale which ranges from 1 to 5*.