Blog - First cohort joins the innovative ACRC Academy
Kate Morris, Project Manager for the Academy, tells us about the first cohort of PhD students and what the Academy expects to deliver. Posted by Kate Morris, 2nd September 2021.
The Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC) Academy for Leadership and Training was created to develop the next generation of leaders in advanced care who are both excellent in their core disciplines and skilled in working widely across disciplines and sectors.
Another purpose of the Academy is to deliver significant aspects of the research agenda of the ACRC. The core degree is a thematic, structured, cohort‐based four‐year PhD with Integrated Study. More than 35 PhD students will be enrolled over the next three years, with ten starting on 20 September 2021.
We are excited to have the first group joining. The members of the first cohort come from a range of backgrounds including policy, computer science, medicine, social work and occupational therapy. We anticipate that while some of them will remain in academia, others will go into the third sector, government, NHS, industry and elsewhere, where they will work to transform care in later life.
We have an exciting programme arranged for them, and with restrictions easing, but not quite to pre-COVID pandemic levels, a lot of work has gone into ensuring that in-person teaching and working is likely to be possible alongside the remote mode of the academic year just ending.
We are committed to ensuring substantial external, cross-sectoral input into the design and delivery of the training as it is vital that the cohort are exposed to a breadth of perspectives and motivations as they prepare for the complexity of the sector and their future leadership roles. The teaching programme includes sessions on ageing populations, multimorbidity/frailty, healthcare and social care systems and integration, the third sector, new models/technologies and site visits. There will also be a focus on bringing the cohort together to better understand and deliver multidisciplinary research. Person-centred care and health inequalities will be themes running throughout.
A list of the research projects the PhD students will work on illustrates the breadth of research they will deliver, and the contribution to our understanding and delivery of advanced care they will make.
We believe the Academy is a truly innovative programme and we are looking forward to the first cohort getting started. If you would like more information about The Academy and future recruitment and programme content, please contact us.