University College London (UCL)
Paediatrics and Child Health PG Dip
London, United Kingdom
Postgraduate Diploma
DURATION
5 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
TUITION FEES
GBP 24,400 *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* international students: full time £24,400 - part time £12,200 | UK students: full time £10,700 - part time £5,350. Additional fees may apply
This postgraduate diploma is designed to give students a solid understanding of key issues in paediatrics and child health. It covers topics like child development, common illnesses, and healthcare approaches specific to children. The program emphasizes building practical skills, knowledge, and confidence to work with children and their families in various healthcare settings.
Students explore relevant clinical skills, ethical considerations, and the latest research in paediatric practice. The course is flexible, allowing part-time or full-time study, and is suitable for health professionals or those with a keen interest in child health. It aims to prepare students for further training or roles in paediatric care, emphasizing evidence-based practice and a comprehensive understanding of child health issues. The program fosters critical thinking and provides a strong foundation for those looking to advance their careers in this field.
UCL Scholarships
There are a number of scholarships available to postgraduate students, including our UCL Master's Bursary for UK students and our UCL Global Master's Scholarship for international students. You can click the link below to search via the scholarships finder for awards that you might be eligible for. Your academic department will also be able to provide you with more information about funding.
External Scholarships
Online aggregators like Postgraduate Studentships, Scholarship Search, Postgraduate Funding and International Financial Aid and College Scholarship Search contain information on a variety of external schemes.
If you have specific circumstances or an ethnic or religious background, it is worth searching for scholarships/bursaries/grants that relate to those things. Some schemes are very specific.
Funding for disabled students
Master's students who have a disability may be able to get extra funding for additional costs they incur to study.
Teaching and learning
Throughout this programme, you will be taught subject-specific knowledge via a variety of methods, including but not limited to lectures, discussion groups and external reading.
Most modules (depending on your choices) are delivered as blocks of study, normally over four or five consecutive days. Face-to-face contact for each of these days is normally from 9 am–5 pm. You will assimilate practical and transferable skills via teaching, self-learning and assessments through the various modules provided by this programme.
Meet the academics currently leading this programme on the UCL GOS ICH website.
Your intellectual, academic, and research skills will be assessed through unseen examinations and coursework. Assessment is through a combination of multiple-choice questions and short-answer questions, essays, posters, presentations, reflective portfolios, and critical appraisal of the literature.
Typical contact hours and hours of self-directed study for this programme (per 15-credit module) are: reading hours (50 hours), engagement with online material (20 hours), lectures, seminars and tutorials (30 hours), revision (30 hours) and preparation for the final assessment, e.g. coursework, essay (20 hours). Total 150 hours per module.
Overall, we expect full-time students to study a full 35-hour week, with time outside classes spent in self-directed study. Part-time and flexible students study at a pro-rata rate.
Modules
Full-time
The programme is taught mainly in one-week blocks dispersed throughout the year, and you will need to take eight taught modules (120 credits).
During the PG Dip, you may wish to transfer to the MSc programme. As all five routes for these awards require the completion of a number of compulsory modules, you will need guidance on this requirement when you make your module choices for the PG Dip.
Part-time
This programme can be taken over two academic years part-time.
Flexible
This programme can be taken over five calendar years of flexible study.
Compulsory modules
- Evidence-based Child Health
- Applied Statistics for Health Research I
Optional modules
- Child Public Health
- Epidemiology for Child Health
- Immunisation and Communicable Diseases
- Safeguarding and Children in Society
- Nutrition, Growth and Physical Activity
- Leadership and Professional Development
- Clinical Genomics Genetic and Rare Diseases
- Specialist Paediatrics I
- Specialist Paediatrics II
- Molecular Biology of Normal Development and Birth Defects
- Molecular and Clinical Aspects of Childhood Cancers
- Adolescent Health Medicine
- Paediatric Critical Care (General)
- Stabilisation and Transport of the Critically Ill Child
- Cardiac Critical Care
- Ethics and Law for Paediatrics and Child Health
- Neonatal Intensive Care
- Practising Qualitative Research in Child and Adolescent Health
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 120 credits. Upon successful completion of 120 credits, you will be awarded a PG Dip in Paediatrics and Child Health.
What this course will give you
- Study a well-established and hugely popular paediatrics programme at one of the world’s top universities. UCL is ranked 9th in the world (QS World University Rankings 2025), 6th in the world for public health (ShanghaiRanking’s 2023), and ranked number one for research power and impact in medicine, health and life sciences (REF 2021).
- Learn through lectures, discussion groups and external reading with national and international experts in paediatric research and practice. We continually evolve the programme based on student feedback and changing demands in the health service and academic sectors.
- Gain insight into UCL’s world-leading paediatric research topics ranging across molecular genetics to population health sciences. UCL GOS ICH is a leading multidisciplinary research centre, committed to enhancing the understanding, diagnosis, therapy and prevention of childhood diseases.
- Benefit from our close links with GOSH, with much of our research and teaching carried out on a joint basis.
- Study and network with students from all over the world as part of an inspirational postgraduate learning environment.
- Study at UCL’s Bloomsbury campus, in the heart of a London district famous for its cultural and educational institutions.
- Benefit from first-rate facilities in both laboratory and non-laboratory subjects, including the UCL GOS ICH library.
The foundation of your career
This PG Dip will help you understand the core principles of evidence-based paediatrics and child health.
Many of our graduates have gone on to complete their specialist training, into careers as consultants in paediatrics or senior professionals in other related fields, including with the NHS, government health departments, ministries of health and NGOs all over the world.*
* Graduate Outcomes survey carried out by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), looking at the destinations of UK and EU graduates in the cohorts 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22
Employability
By the end of the programme, you’ll have a valuable understanding of, and academic skills in, evidence-based acute and chronic paediatric practice to take with you into your career.
Networking
UCL GOS ICH offers seven master's programmes as well as an MRes in Child Health, encompassing a wide range of topics. Our students come from diverse academic and professional backgrounds, from the UK and overseas, providing great networking opportunities within and across programmes. We hold social events throughout the year for the whole student cohort to enable networking between students. Students on the Master's programmes have the opportunity to join events such as the Otto Wolff lectures hosted by the research and teaching departments. These cover a variety of topics and provide an opportunity to hear from national and international experts and to network at the social event that usually accompanies these events.