Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (Online Learning) MSc, PgDip (ICL), PgCert (ICL), PgCert, PgDip, PgProfDev
This three-year Masters programme will provide you with a detailed knowledge and understanding of infection disciplines.
- Video: BMTO AMAL CMID
- Amal provides her experience of the online Masters in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Programme overview
The programme is designed to develop your understanding of the biology and transmission of pathogens, as well as infectious disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Specific topics include:
- Immune responses to infection
- Science and biology of bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic pathogens
- Modern and emerging diagnostic technologies for infectious diseases
- Infection prevention and control and anti-infective therapy
- Infections in different contexts such as community- acquired infections, emerging infectious diseases, and infectious diseases associated with travel.
Beyond the fundamental knowledge gained, our aim is to enable you to develop and critically assess cutting edge research questions in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases. You will be encouraged to:
- Develop an increased understanding and awareness of the scientific and medical background of infectious diseases.
- Achieve a command of existing knowledge in your field of research, through a critical and (where relevant) comprehensive review of relevant literature.
- Understand the principles of data analysis, dissemination of results and implementation of key findings and thus make informed judgements on new and emerging treatments.
- Demonstrate an understanding of how specialist knowledge in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases is applied to advise treatments and management of infectious diseases.
- Successfully communicate, in writing and verbally, scientific results and information in research.
- Ensure an understanding of infectious diseases to enable the undertaking of independent research.
What will you learn?
Courses are offered as five-week courses, each worth 10 credits.
Year 1: Postgraduate Certificate
The courses currently on offer in Year 1 are compulsory and include:
This course covers the immune response to infection and the role of innate and adaptive immunity.
This course will develop your understanding of the basic biology of bacterial pathogens and how they cause disease in humans.
This course covers the basic biology of viral pathogens and how they cause disease in humans.
This course focuses on major parasitic (protozoan and helminth), fungal and prion diseases of humans.
This course aims to develop your understanding of the clinical laboratory in the investigation, management and prevention of infection.
This course will develop your understanding of antimicrobial agents and their use in clinical settings, how to use antimicrobial agents rationally based on evidence and existing policies, as well as your understanding of the evidence that underpins policy development and stewardship.
Year 2: Postgraduate Diploma
In year 2 you will select six option courses. Year two course offerings and availability are subject to annual academic review and demand. Courses currently on offer during year two include:
This course aims to provide the knowledge around modern and emerging technologies for diagnosing infectious diseases. Focus will be on rapid pathogen detection, antibiotic resistance determination, point of care testing, high throughput and global technologies such as next generation sequencing and mass spectrometry.
You will develop your knowledge in order to achieve an appropriate specific or differential diagnosis and initiate appropriate management in community-associated infection scenarios. You will also demonstrate leadership ability in dealing with outbreak situations, demonstrate the ability to analyse and interpret surveillance data and translate the results into policy and practice.
You will understand the principles of infection prevention and control in order to reduce the risk of acquiring infections and to control their spread.
This course aims to provide you with the ability to understand the causes and risk factors leading to immune deficiency, and the ability to recognise infection in immune-compromised patients. It will also cover management of specific therapies in both HIV-infected and non-HIV immune-compromised patients as well as relevant counselling to patients, carers and relatives.
You will develop your understanding of the pathogenesis, laboratory diagnosis, clinical investigation and treatment of a broad range of complex infection syndromes as well as the relationship between co-morbidities and infection.
This course aims to introduce the challenges of travel medicine, considering the recreational short-term traveller as well as long-term population movement.
This course is designed to develop your competencies for high quality scientific investigation, interpretation, review and reporting of findings.
You will develop an understanding of the emergence of infectious diseases, the risk factors of disease emergence and the implications for disease surveillance and control in public health.
Year 3: Masters
In Year 3 you can opt between a number of proposed reflective elements such as a written dissertation (either current or historical) a casebook or portfolio.
Career Impact
We designed the programme with your training and your professional development aspirations in mind. To do this, we drew on British medical curriculum for combined infection training and relevant speciality training of the Royal College of Pathologists and joint Royal Colleges of Physicians training board. Our programme is ideal for junior doctors who wish to specialise in infectious diseases or clinical microbiology.
This degree will also be attractive to those who have completed their training but wish to fulfill continuing medical education requirements, or those who wish to obtain a formal qualification in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. It is also an excellent opportunity to advance knowledge and skills for many professionals such as biomedical scientists, researchers, educators and health care professionals.
The programme is aligned with JRCPTB and RCPath training in infection disciplines: Combined Infection Training and Higher Specialty Training in Infectious Diseases, Medical Microbiology and Medical Virology. It is designed to support trainees/specialists in preparation for FRCPath Part 1/Diploma in Infection, Infection Specialty end of training assessments and hospital-based practice.
Programme Structure
You can study this programme on a part-time basis. On successful completion of the courses and assessments you can graduate:
- After one year with a postgraduate certificate
- After two years with a postgraduate diploma
- After three years with a Masters.
Intermittent study allows more flexibility in how you choose to study. With this option you will have up to 2 years to complete the certificate, and up to 4 years to complete the diploma.
The standard programme structure is still maintained in terms of the progression requirement. However, you can tailor your education to fit more closely with commitments in both your private and professional life.
Postgraduate Professional Development (PPD) is aimed at working professionals who want to advance their knowledge through a postgraduate-level course, without the time or financial commitment of a Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate.
You may take a maximum of 50 credits worth of courses over two years through our PPD scheme. These lead to a University of Edinburgh postgraduate award of academic credit. Alternatively, after one year of taking courses you can choose to transfer your credits and continue on to studying towards a higher award on a Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate programme
Although PPD courses have various start dates throughout the year you may only start a Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate programme in the month of September. Any time spent studying PPD will be deducted from the amount of time you will have left to complete a Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate programme.
Why Choose Edinburgh?
- Edinburgh is ranked 24th in the world for Life Sciences and Medicine and Biological Sciences and 18th in the world for Anatomy and Physiology (QS World University Rankings by subject, 2022).
- Our graduates are ranked 25th in the world by employers (QS World University Rankings 2022).
- The University of Edinburgh is 4th in the UK based on the quality and breadth of its research - known as research power - and is Scotland’s top ranked institution, according to Times Higher Education's REF 2021 power ratings.
- Our current students come from a diversity of professions such as junior doctors, biomedical scientists, pharmacists, public health professionals, biomedical researchers, scientific officers, medical labaratory scientists and educators. We have a truly global student community, with current students based in the UK, Africa, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and North America.
Entry Requirements
These entry requirements are for the 2023/24 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2024/25 academic year will be published on 2 October 2023.
- A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in a biomedical, medical, public health or relevant bio-science topic.
- We may also consider your application if you have relevant work experience; please contact the programme team to check before you apply. You may be admitted to certificate level only in the first instance.
Information about international qualifications and English language requirements can be found on the University Degree Finder.
Fees
Deposit
You will need to pay this non-refundable deposit before an unconditional offer can be made:
- £500 (this contributes towards your tuition fees)
Full details about fees and deposits are available on the University Degree Finder.
Speak to a current student
Want to speak to a current student about their online experience? You can email an online student through our student portal, Unibuddy.