PhD in public health UK | PhD in healthcare

Public health and healthcare, alongside the health sciences, form a core strength of the 国产吧精品福利 of Brighton. Our professional and academic networks foster multidisciplinary and collaborative research and knowledge exchange that has a direct impact on the wider public. Doctoral students are a major part of that world.

You will be joining a vital hub of healthcare research and knowledge exchange. 国产吧精品福利-led innovations are building co-designed community-clinical services and providing cutting-edge training and education. We are working with schools to promote health and wellness and we collaborate with local communities to address pressing health challenges such as inequalities, workforce shortages and emerging health issues.

Our research in public health and healthcare at the 国产吧精品福利 of Brighton embraces wide-ranging, applied perspectives: from age-related conditions and long-term conditions, through to social, psychological, political and economic determinants of health, with health inequalities a key focus for PhD public health students and supervisors.

We draw on clinical, professional and sociological perspectives, working across practice and theory in a range of health, public health, community-based and social care-related settings, and across statutory, NHS and/or third sector services.

We offer PhD public health and healthcare study in both full and part-time modes and welcome students with significant professional experience, who are able to use and share the career skills they have developed, as well as those who have recently completed first degrees and wish to take advantage of their academic momentum.

Recent and PhD students have been successful in obtaining studentships covering both fees and living costs through the 国产吧精品福利 of Brighton’s involvement in the .

Contact an expert in this field

Successful applicants have invariably had support with their application from one of our academics. We suggest you approach a suitable academic staff member with relevant research interests before progressing with your application.

Details of your doctorate in healthcare and public health

You will be contributing throughout your studies to a research portfolio that has major impact on understanding the experiences of health, wellbeing and care and the provision and the systems that support it.

Our research into healthcare, public health, health and wellbeing examines interactions between lived experience, policy and practice. We understand that people, policies, protocols, norm and values, as well as different forms of knowledge and technical devices, are all necessary to the achievement of good health, wellbeing and care.

We recognise care as central to people’s well-being and significant to both personal relationships and political decisions. We collaborate with users, providers and academics to ensure that our research informs current health and social care practice. Our research utilises creative, community-engaged, participatory and inclusive methodologies such as co-production, as well as theory-informed qualitative health related research.

Expert supervision is offered all aspects of professional healthcare and civil society work related to health and wellbeing, for example, across:

public health and health care policy
inequalities in health
illness and care related to gender, age and sexuality including LGBTQ+
disability and living well with long term conditions
digital health use, access and innovation
hospital, community and population-based interventions
new theoretical perspectives on public health, healthcare and wellbeing
ethical concerns in public health and individual healthcare
sexual health and care
mental health and care
gendered perspectives on health and healthcare provision
diabetes treatments and care
rehabilitation
healthy aging and lifelong health
social justice and healthy resilience
resilience among disadvantaged communities including children and young people.

Your research as a student for a PhD in public health, healthcare and wellbeing will combine a range of theoretical and critical perspectives as well as bringing the skills and satisfactions that come with managing a major project and contributing to knowledge that will make a difference to individuals, families, communities and society.

Research supervisors for your PhD research programme

You will benefit from research supervision comprising two or maximum three members of academic staff. To ensure the right mix of expertise alongside specialists in occupational therapy and occupational science, one of the supervisors might come from the wider School of Education, Sport and Health Sciences or from an external partner for example with specialism in sports physiotherapy or occupational science.

You will identify your primary potential supervisor for your doctorate in physiotherapy from the early stages of application and they will usually then support you throughout your programme of study, helping you find any additional support to carry out your research, guiding your learning of rigorous research methods and preparing you for the next stage of your career.

You should consider the staff listed at the foot of the page and create a short draft research proposal identifying your suitability for supervision from that person's research specialism.

Research training and support across PhD in public health and healthcare

PhD students are provided with expert supervisors in public health and/or healthcare and offered a range of developmental opportunities to help challenge and broaden their academic and professional thinking. You will have the opportunity to network with other doctoral students and staff across the university to share ideas and expertise. You will be supported with conference presentation preparation, with research planning and publication activities as well as grant applications and network-building, for example by joining our Public Health and Health Conditions Research Excellence Group. Whatever the focus of your PhD project, you will be able to draw on research approaches from a variety of related fields.

As a member of the Brighton Doctoral College, you will benefit from regular opportunities on a training programme designed to support postgraduate researchers at all stages of the PhD and help them achieve their career goals. Attendance at appropriate workshops within this programme is encouraged, as is contribution to the various seminar series hosted by the school and the annual Postgraduate Research Festival. Academic and technical staff also provide more subject-specific training.

Resources for PhD in public health and healthcare students

We pride ourselves on conducting research within the context of professional practice and our students join us from various stages in their careers or at the point of a career change.

As well as academic staff experienced in the profession, you will benefit from access to internationally-linked research resources, including a contemporary range of electronic resources via the university’s Online Library, as well as the physical book and journal collections housed within campus libraries. The library services are connected to national and international collections and students also have the option of inter-library loans.

The Public Health and Health Conditions Research Excellence Group

Doctoral students have a base on the 国产吧精品福利 of Brighton's Falmer Campus within the wider School of Education, Sport and Health Sciences, where PhD students from a range of health disciplines can meet and exchange ideas. This is where our disciplinary facilities and our supervisory staff can normally be found.

When studying for a doctorate in public health and health conditions, you will be welcomed into Public Health and Health Conditions Research Excellence Group. this will allow you an active role in a range of intellectual and social activities. Our students are encouraged to meet for informal discussions and supportive activities and on an annual basis for research conference/celebrations. We value all personal input from researchers and those interested in becoming researchers, and those who are interested to find out more about research and share ideas and knowledge.

The academic profile of this part of the university includes midwives, nurses, physiotherapists, podiatrists, occupational therapists, sports scientists and osteopaths. We also collaborate closely with staff from other parts of the university, for example, Brighton and Sussex Medical School. We have professional networks and collaborate with departments in other universities together with clinicians and managers locally.

You and your fellow postgraduate researchers will have the opportunity to attend and present at research seminar sessions, and to integrate with researchers over a range of relevant specialisms. You may also find closely aligned researchers in one of the university's other Centres of Research and Knowledge Exchange Excellence (COREs) or Research Excellence Groups (REGs). Among these, PhD health students with particular specialisms have become members of our specialist university-wide research centres:

The School of Education, Sport and Health Sciences itself is proud of a long-standing strength in professional practice and education, with accreditation of our taught courses by regulatory and professional bodies including the Chartered Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences, the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity, the Health and Care Professions Council, and the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Aerial picture of Falmer campus

Paddock Field 1 2023

Our leafy Falmer Campus brings researchers together from across all aspects of health science and healthcare.

Supervisors for doctoral study in health

We strongly recommend that you apply with the support of one of our academics. By establishing your supervisor from the early stages of application, you will be supported through the application process and can make the best start to your programme of study.

You should consider the staff listed below and create a short draft research proposal identifying your suitability for supervision from that person's research specialism and your place in the wider context of the department's research ambitions. Their contact details are available on their full profile.

Our primary staff supervising in the discipline are listed. For further information on university supervisory staff, including cross-disciplinary options, please visit

Paul values public involvement in research and is interested to support rights-based research in: living with disability; user experiences of health, social care and education services; adolescent development and working with the family; disability, human rights and rehabilitation; understanding physical disability and mental health. He supervises Masters and doctoral students undertaking qualitative research and is particularly keen to support phenomenological research.

Channine is an experienced research supervisor at both Masters and聽 Doctoral level. She has a particular interest in practice education. She is known internationally for her research and publications on role-emerging placements and diverse practice and is interested in further research in these areas.聽

As an occupational therapist, Channine is also interested in understanding the influence of occupations on health聽and well-being.

Channine is a qualitative researcher, with expertise in Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.聽

I am interested in supervising people with an interest in social psychology, crowd behaviour, or collective action. For example I am currently researching the protests calling for a ceasefire in the Middle East conflict & would welcome PG research projects into these and other topical collective action protests.聽I am also interested in public intervention in emergencies/mass casualty incidents (a concept known as 'zero-responders') and public behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its implications for emergency planning and response. Therefore, I would be especially interested in supervising emergency responders and other public health professionals who wish to do PG research.聽

I am also interested in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and the broader area of collective resilience in response to general adversity. I would be keen to work with health professionals interested in postgraduate research in any of these areas.聽聽

I am happy to supervise projects within my range of expertise which includes health psychology and applied health, medical and health care research in the widest sense. Given my background I tend to focus on quantitative and experimental or interventionist methods. Increasingly i am involved in mixed methods projects with a strong qualitative method. In the past i have supervised projects in the field of diabetes and also forensic mental health.聽

My current interests are very much about applying a relationship approach to e.g. long term conditions and the way people live with and adjust to long term conditions or other health challenges. Resilience and stigma in long term conditions is of interest to me, extending my current work on diabetes and HIV/AIDS. Exploring links around adjustment, stigma and the additional challenges due to social and health inequalities is a priority to me. Finally, development of interventions in these fields would be of considerable interest to me.聽

I am keen to supervise PhD, MSc and MRes students researching home based care for older people, the coproduction of care, and care ethics. As a qualitative researcher I am interested in social constructionism and post humanism. I have experience in focussed ethnographic research, specifically in community nursing.

My research and supervisory interests cover Sport and Exercise Psychology, with particular focus on cultural sport psychology (immigrated athletes and coaches, culturally diverse sport teams, acculturation and adaptation in a new environment), as well as athletes' well-being (safeguarding, coach-athlete relationship). I currently lead an international research project on behalf of FEPSAC, which investigates career trajectories of sport psychology graduates in Europe.

Current PhD students

Arthur Gaillard聽- Production of knowledge in Sport for Development
Diroshi聽Neththikumara Haththellage -聽Being a woman in Sri Lanka; a phenomenological approach

I am interested in supervising Masters and PhD students in all areas of health psychology, health promotion, and public health. Particular interests include:

preterm birth and its impact on families;
parents' experiences of participating in neonatal trials;
sexual and reproductove health;
maternal mental health.

I am interested in supervising PhD candidates in a number of public health and health promotion areas. My current research (see profile) includes a global project on health services during CV-19, European research on syphilis, substance (mis)use, and LGBTI inequalities taking an international perspective. PhD candidates are welcome to contact me to develop PhD projects around these areas, but also any of the below:

Sexual health (including HIV and other STIs) and sexual orientation
Access to health and social care services for 鈥榲ulnerable鈥� populations
Healthy public policy and health inequalities
Mental health
Parenthood (including fathers supporting breastfeeding)
Young people
LGBT lives
Tackling stigma and discrimination
Gender identities (masculinities and femininities)
Peer group cultures
Sexual assault/gender based violence/intimate partner violence

I also supervise candidates for PhD by publication and welcome applications/enquiries

I am interested in supervising PhDs in social policy, health policy and public health. A possible PhD project concerns community empowerment for health using novel methods. Further areas I am interested in supervising include: inequalities in health, local government public health policy, public access to information, public health leadership, policy on climate change and workplace health.

Jane is supervising PhD researchers, including:

practitioners' conceptions of 'holism' and midwifes' attitudes and practice concerning contraceptive advice.聽

I supervise PhD students on a variety of topics that focus on the psychological side of migration. I welcome proposals from students who want to investigate well-being or mental health of migrants, refugees, or international students. Within that topic, I am particularly interested in the role of social relationships and/or the role of digital technology in wellbeing and mental health. I also accept projects looking into British people's attitudes towards migration: i.e., what are predictors of negative and positive attitudes and behaviours towards migration, and what can we do to improve these attitudes and/or support for migrants?

Examples of PhD projects under my supervision:

Exploring resilience of international students from a social policy perspective (Isaac Thornton).
Exploring the role of digital and print resources in English language and literacy acquisition in relation to wellbeing of refugee children (Liliane Broschart).
The impact of digitalisation on public and third sector services supporting people for whom English is an additional language (Sidney Lupupa Mushinge).

Supervision support can be provided to PhD students who are interested in queer theory, poststructuralism, the application of critical social theory, new materialism, intersectionality and feminist theory in health-related research. Focus areas include LGBTQ+ health and healthcare, health inequalities, resilience, trans health and mental health promotion with the aim to achieve greater health equity. PhD students she has supervised to completion have worked on studies employing critical social theories, new materialism and qualitative creative methods. She has examined PhD/Professional Doctorate studies at universities in the UK and further afield. 聽

Current PhD students聽

Sacha Mead, Aile Trumm; Sebastian Beaumont, Elisavet Anastasiadi and Mike Phillips.聽

Former PhD students (PhD completions)

Esther Omotola Ayoola, Amy Middleton, H Howitt, Kim Brown, Tracey Harding, Adam Kincel, Jens Schneider.

Making an application

Once you have prepared a first-rate application you can apply to the 国产吧精品福利 of Brighton through our . When you do, you will require a research proposal, references, a personal statement and a record of your education.

You will be asked whether you have discussed your research proposal and your suitability for doctoral study with a member of the 国产吧精品福利 of Brighton staff. We strongly recommend that all applications are made with the collaboration of at least one potential supervisor. Approaches to potential supervisors can be made directly through the details available online. If you are unsure, please do contact the Doctoral College for advice.

Please visit our How to apply for a PhD page for detailed information.

Fees and funding

Funding

Undertaking research study will require university fees as well as support for your research activities and plans for subsistence during full or part-time study.

Funding sources include self-funding, funding by an employer or industrial partners; there are competitive funding opportunities available in most disciplines through, for example, our own university studentships or national (UK) research councils. International students may have options from either their home-based research funding organisations or may be eligible for some UK funds.

Learn more about the funding opportunities available to you.

Tuition fees academic year 2025–26

Standard fees are listed below, but may vary depending on subject area. Some subject areas may charge bench fees/consumables; this will be decided as part of any offer made. Fees for UK and international/EU students on full-time and part-time courses are likely to incur a small inflation rise each year of a research programme.

MPhil/PhD
Student	Full-time fees	Part-time fees
UK	£5,006	£2,503
International (including EU)	£16,390	N/A
International students registered in the School of Humanities and Social Science or in the School of Business and Law	£14,950	N/A

PhD by Publication
Study method	Fees
Full-time	N/A
Part-time	£2,503

Contact Brighton Doctoral College

To contact the Doctoral College at the 国产吧精品福利 of Brighton we request an email in the first instance. Please visit our contact the Brighton Doctoral College page.

For supervisory contact, please see individual profile pages.