Program

The Research Master’s degree program in Clinical and Psychosocial Epidemiology guides the students from basic concepts through advanced issues to the completion of a Master’s thesis. The curriculum moves from providing basic knowledge of clinical and psychosocial epidemiology in mandatory group-oriented modules to individual Master’s theses programs with a tailored selection of specialized modules. In this way the students will acquire general knowledge of the methodology of epidemiology in the area of chronic diseases, with an emphasis on psychosocial factors. The University Medical Center Groningen has an international reputation in these fields. 

 

The Research Master’s degree program in Clinical and Psychosocial Epidemiology is a ‘Top Master’s’ research program; the intention is to attract students who completed their Bachelor’s degree above average. This means that the study program is based on the premise that students have a background in the basic disciplines of clinical or psychological science. To ensure a solid background in both disciplines for all students, the program starts with two parallel modules on the basics of medicine and psychology. After these modules, students have sufficient medical and psychosocial knowledge to understand the concepts of chronic diseases and it’s determinants.

 

Each student has a personal scientific coach, who is a top researcher within one of the participating research groups. The scientific coach will provide guidance and support during the program, and helps the student to make choices relating to the Master’s degree program.

 

The problem-oriented education program has a study load of 120 ECTS credits and takes two years. An overview of the program and the distribution of the ECTS are given in the table.

 

 

In the second semester the students start working on their Master’s thesis in top research groups, based on the student’s preference. The participating research groups are selected on the basis of their proven quality of research, for example external review, and include health sciences, for example clinical and psychiatric epidemiology, public health, drug utilization studies, general practice; social sciences, for example health psychology; and clinical sciences in chronic diseases, for example oncology, psychiatry, pulmonology, cardiology, endocrinology, rehabilitation. The opportunities will change over time due to the research activities of the participating groups. The specialized courses are followed at different times, depending on the courses chosen by the individual student. Because of the individual topic of the Master’s thesis and the related individual selection of specialized modules, each student follows an unique program that will fit into the current developments in Clinical and Psychosocial Epidemiology.

 

The program of Clinical Epidemiology includes the modules:

• Study Design (4 ECTS)
• Public Health Epidemiology 4 ECTS)
• Applied Statistics (3 ECTS)

The program of Psychosocial Epidemiology includes the modules:

• Health Psychology (4 ECTS)
• Psychiatric Epidemiology (4 ECTS)
• Measuring Concepts in Quantitative Research (2 ECTS)

Apart from the specific module, statistical concepts and applications are included in all modules of Clinical Epidemiology and Psychosocial Epidemiology.

 

The program of Research Tools includes the modules:

• Writing a Research Proposal (1 ECTS)
• Conducting Clinical Research, including Good Clinical Practice (2 ECTS)
• Project Management (1 ECTS)
• Scientific Literature: searching and managing, citations & impact factors (1 ECTS)

Master’s Thesis project (54 ECTS)

The master project is devoted to conducting a research project resulting in a Master’s thesis. In this project emphasis is on hands-on experience in undertaking research, so that students gain expertise and experience in the entire research process. The Master’s thesis project includes a review of the relevant literature, the selection of research questions and methodology, data analysis and interpretation of the results, discussion of the results and formal presentations. Preferably, the student will also be involved in data collection. If the Master project is embedded within an ongoing project, a distinct own research question is required. Altogether, this will result in a Master thesis, which reports on all these parts of research. To gain more in-depth knowledge on chronic diseases, students will attend the regular meetings at the clinical department concerning the chronic disease that is topic of their Master thesis, where patients are being discussed by the physicians. In addition to these clinical meetings, research meetings are attended at the department of the Master thesis. Both these meetings are attended during the whole Master thesis project.

 

Specialized modules (17 ECTS)

Knowledge and understanding in the research field of the Master’s thesis can be expanded in individually selected specialized modules. These modules can be followed throughout the year.

 

Couching groups (9 ECTS)

Coaching groups with a maximum of five students will meet weekly for two hours during the entire Master’s program and will be supervised by a scientific coach from the staff. The coaching groups not only discuss progress, but also present more general methodological and ethical issues regarding epidemiology, especially in chronic diseases. Further topics also include general research skills such as literature searches and archiving, critically and efficiently evaluating literature, presenting results, writing articles, scientific reasoning, and evidence-based medicine. The groups have the opportunity to invite specialists to their meetings to discuss specific topics.

 

Seminars (6 ECTS)

During the whole Master’s curriculum, students are required to attend a research seminar program co-ordinated by the Graduate School of Health Sciences but given by the participating departments (one seminar per week). The Graduate School will ensure that a substantial part of the seminars will be given jointly with clinical departments of the UMCG in order to include the clinical aspects of chronic diseases as well. Students are encouraged to attend seminars in other groups at the University of Groningen and elsewhere with the approval of their science coach. In addition to seminars in the field of specialization, attending seminars outside the field of specialization is also recommended. In this way students learn more about research issues and methods in adjoining fields, which contributes to the universal skills that are needed to perform research in clinical and psychosocial epidemiology.