University College London (UCL)

Creative Health MASc

Teaching and learning

The programme will involve a diversity of learning strategies. While there will be an element of traditional lectures and seminars, a significant emphasis of the core modules will be on authentic and experiential approaches to learning. Much of the content of the programme is drawn from the real-world of health and wellbeing and students will therefore be challenged to come up with practical, real-world applications of their learning. This is reflected in the large number of contributors from the health, social care, arts, creative and community sector to the degree core and in particular in the community-based nature of the dissertation module.

The programme is taught with an emphasis on collaborative and co-operative learning to ensure that you enter the workforce capable of joining projects and programmes where working in teams is important. Assessment is through written assignments, projects, oral presentations, group work, and the written dissertation.

For full-time students, typical contact hours are around 12-15 hours per week in the First and Second Terms and around 2-5 hours per week in the Third Term. Outside of lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials, full-time students typically study the equivalent of a full-time job i.e. around 35 hours per week, using their remaining time for self-directed study and completing coursework assignments.

Core modules are taught across the First, Second and Third Terms. Optional modules vary according to the host department, but will run in the First Second or Third Terms. The dissertation also runs across the First, Second and Third terms.

Modules

Full-time

You will take a total of 180 credits across the year, including the following compulsory modules:

• BASC0030 Arts, Nature and Wellbeing: Non-Clinical Interventions in Health (15 credits)
• BASC0050 Dissertation Project (90 credits)
• BASC0051 Lived Experience in Policy, Practice and Research (15 credits)
• BASC0052 Research Methods in Arts and Sciences (15 credits)
• BASC0053 Approaches to Interdisciplinarity (15 credits)
• BASC0083 The Creative Health Lab (15 credits)

For your remaining 15 credits, you will take one optional module from a pre-approved list.

In exceptional cases, we will allow you to take a module not included in the optional module list. The module should be of general relevance to the topic of Creative Health, including fields like health studies, health humanities, allied health, sports science, nutrition and anthropology. However, this will be at the discretion of the MASc Programme Lead and the relevant teaching department.

Part-time

You will take a total of 180 credits across the two years, 60 credits in the First Year and 120 credits in the Second Year. The Second Year carries more credits as the dissertation module is worth 90 credits.

• BASC0030, BASC0052 and BASC0083 must be taken in the First Year. BASC0051 Lived Experience in Policy, Practice and Research and BASC0053 Introduction to Interdisciplinarity are compulsory modules, but you can choose to take them in the First Year or the Second Year.

You will take one of the following module combinations in your First Year:

• BASC0030 Arts, Nature and Wellbeing: Non-Clinical Interventions in Health (video), BASC0051 Lived Experience in Policy, Practice and Research, BASC0052 Research Methods in Arts and Sciences and BASC0083 The Creative Health Lab

or

• BASC0030 Arts, Nature and Wellbeing: Non-Clinical Interventions in Health (video), BASC0052 Research Methods in Arts and Sciences, BASC0053 Approaches to Interdisciplinarity and BASC0083 The Creative Health Lab

or

• BASC0030 Arts, Nature and Wellbeing: Non-Clinical Interventions in Health (video), BASC0052 Research Methods in Arts and Sciences, BASC0083 The Creative Health Lab and one optional 15 credit module.

You will take the following modules in the Second Year:

• BASC0050 Dissertation Project, BASC0051 Lived Experience in Policy, Practice and Research and one optional 15 credit module if you took BASC0053 in the First Year

or

• BASC0050 Dissertation Project, BASC0053 Approaches to Interdisciplinarity and one optional 15 credit module if you took BASC0051 in the First Year.

Your optional module is from a pre-approved list.

In exceptional cases, we will allow you to take a module not included in the optional module list. The module should be of general relevance to the topic of Creative Health, including fields like health and community studies, health humanities, allied health, sports science, nutrition and anthropology. However, this will be at the discretion of the MASc Programme Lead and the relevant teaching department.

Compulsory modules

• Dissertation Project
• Lived Experience in Policy, Practice and Research
• Research Methods in Arts and Sciences
• Approaches to Interdisciplinarity
• The Creative Health Lab
• Arts, Nature and Wellbeing: Non-clinical Interventions in Health

Optional modules

• Art in the Public Sphere
• Health and Wellbeing in Cities: Theory and Practice
• Designing Inclusive Places
• Feminism and the Medical Self
• Urban Health
• Health Inequalities over the Lifecourse
• Legal and Ethical Aspects of Women's Health
• Philosophy, Politics and Economics of Health
• Community Wellbeing, Health Inequalities and the role of Social Prescribing
• Foundations of Citizen Science
• Sustainability and Decision-Making
• Inclusive Design and Environments
• Innovation for a Fairer World
• Find your Future
• Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice
• East London Lab
• Homeless and Inclusion Health
• Ethnicity, Migration and Health
• Exploring Power, Inclusion and Exclusion with Local Communities

Please note that the list of modules given here is indicative. This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability are subject to change.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits. Upon successful completion of 180 credits, you will be awarded an MASc in Creative Health. Upon successful completion of 120 credits, you will be awarded a PG Dip in Creative Health. Upon successful completion of 60 credits, you will be awarded a PG Cert in Creative Health.

Placement

Although not a formal placement, you will work with a community partner as part of the BASC0050 Dissertation Project module.

During the First Term, we will provide you with a list of partner organisations and projects you can work on and you will be asked to select a number of them in order of preference. The allocation will be based on this preference in the first instance.

As most of your teaching will end after the Second Term, it's expected you will spend more time at the community partner organisation during the third Term until you submit your dissertation the following September.

What this course will give you

There is a clearly identified need for more educational opportunities for those interested in working at the interface of culture, nature, arts and health. This need is particularly acute given the very limited opportunities available for healthcare/arts/creative professionals, researchers or people from wider backgrounds interested in creative health to receive specific training.

To meet this need, the MASc in Creative Health offers a range of taught and research-led modules, providing students with a detailed understanding of the depth and breadth of the field, including professional practice (such as social prescribing), policy shift and research innovation, related to all aspects of socially engaged work across the arts, culture, heritage, creativity, nature and the outdoors.

The Creative Health MASc will primarily operate from the new UCL East Campus in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Apart from the fact that this means that students will have access to the most state-of-the-art facilities, spaces and equipment that the new campus brings with it, there are also a number of programme specific benefits to working at UCL East. In particular, being a community engaged programme, that relies to a large extent on collaboration with community partners – not least for the dissertation research – East London is an extremely exciting place to work. We have close knit relationships with leading creative health and wider voluntary and community sector organisations across the East London Olympic boroughs of Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets. Moreover, the UCL East campus will form part of the East Bank development, a new cultural quarter for East London. This will provide an opportunity to collaborate and engage with the other cultural institutions that form part of the East Bank, including the BBC, Sadler’s Wells, UAL’s London College of Fashion and the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A). The programme will also retain a relationship with the Bloomsbury campus in central London, so students will be able to benefit from access to both of these locations.

The foundation of your career

The Creative Health MASc programme, which saw its first cohort of students graduate in late 2022, prepares graduates to be well placed to take up a position within health or social care, the arts, cultural and creative sectors, as well as community and local government, NGOs, and the voluntary and third sectors. Creative Health is also a growing area of research so we anticipate that graduates may enter PhD opportunities in related fields. Discover how our Alumni are shaping the future of Creative Health in the Cultural Health and Wellbeing Alliance Guest blog.

Employability

Students on the Creative Health MASc will develop practical skills in the application of the range of multi- and interdisciplinary concepts, theories and methods involved in creative health, as well as designing, researching and presenting creative health research using a variety of methods and media. They will also develop a deep understanding of the intersections between research, policy and practice in relation to arts, creativity and health, and be able to critically appraise evidence from a variety of sources, along with an ability to work independently and as part of a team, including with external teams such as a community partner organisation.

Networking

The programme grants unique access to experts, practitioners and people with lived experience throughout. In particular two of the core modules BASC0030 Arts, Nature and Wellbeing and BASC0051 Lived Experience in Policy, Practice and Research contain a significant input from leading Creative Health practitioners. Through these connections, students to date have already been able to develop new opportunities for employment and directions of future work (including research).