MA Medical and Health Humanities
Course options
Key Details
- Attendance
- Full Time
- Award
- Degree of Master of Arts
- Course Length
- 1 year
- Course Start Date
- September 2025
Course Overview
How do the arts improve health and wellbeing? How do patients and clinicians use stories to make sense of illness and pain? What is social prescribing, and how can we take creative and inclusive approaches to health and care?
Whether you’re a health practitioner, intercalating medical student, humanities graduate, or creative professional, this versatile interdisciplinary MA is for you.
The MA is embedded in Norwich Medical School and co-taught with the innovative Interdisciplinary Institute for the Humanities. The course also offers exciting opportunities to connect with researchers across the University and Norwich Research Park. You’ll be part of a diverse cohort from around the globe, sharing good practice. You’ll meet experts in inclusive practice as well as arts and health practitioners. You’ll learn about policy developments like place-based healthcare and gain skills for working in the health or cultural sectors.
Taught by specialists in subjects from narrative medicine to disability studies, you'll analyse contemporary and historical aspects of illness and care and consider the power of writing for improving wellbeing.
The programme offers creative and practice-based learning, drawing on UEA’s unique strengths in these areas, including in partnership with the world-famous Sainsbury Centre. You’ll enjoy sessions with external experts, who have previously included leading figures in the local arts and health sector, from social prescribers to art therapists to museum and heritage specialists. You'll develop clinical skills for patient-centred care, deepening your understanding of the psychosocial and cultural dimensions of health.
During this course, you’ll build sound research skills that could lead onto a PhD, into the policy sector, or to research and evaluation roles in the arts and health field.
Study and Modules
Structure
You can take the MA Medical and Health Humanities as either a one-year full-time course, or as a part-time course over two years.
Your learning is anchored in the comprehensive pair of core modules. These modules provide you with a grounding in key debates and issues in the field, equipping you with the skills to think critically about what the Medical and Health Humanities mean to different people, and how they've been used by diverse groups, from clinicians to healthcare educators, humanities scholars and creative practitioners. You’ll also learn a range of research methods and practices of enquiry to apply to your own investigations in the field.
With input from practicing life-writers and academics working in the critical medical humanities, you'll explore what it means to conceptualise health as a ‘narrated’ experience. You'll have seminars led by academics, clinicians and writers on a range of topics including the wounded healer and radical empathy in forensic psychiatry, as well as considering how concepts such as ‘mental illness’ and ‘child development’ shape how we think about personhood, disability and wellbeing.
You'll learn about the role of the creative arts in health and wellbeing. Sessions will be delivered by a range of specialist practitioners, for example, leaders of local Non-Governmental Organisations and arts organisations, policymakers, curators, social prescribers, and artists.
You'll also choose two optional modules to tailor the course to your own interests and goals. These modules offer opportunities for you to deepen your knowledge of a variety of topics relating to the medical humanities, for example: historical and contemporary ideas about embodiment; histories and theories of gender and sexuality; histories of race and resistance; and advancing practice in dementia care; among other themes.
You’ll also undertake your Dissertation, this is your chance to investigate an area of interest more deeply, under expert supervision in your subfield. You may choose to pursue a research project drawing from the humanities fields such as a literary, cultural, media, historical or art historical study, or you may use methods from the health and social sciences to complete an applied project. You also have the option of producing an extended creative piece with a linked critical commentary.
Compulsory Modules
Optional A Modules
(Credits: 40)Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.
Teaching and Learning
You'll be taught by a team of academics, clinicians and writers, all experts in their fields, who bring diverse disciplinary perspectives to the study of medicine, health and the humanities. Between them, they've strengths in critical disability studies, creative writing, including medical memoir, cultural and screen representations of embodiment, histories and cultures of medicine and of mental health, and methodology and knowledge production in medicine and the medical and health humanities. UEA also operates a Medical and Health Humanities network, bringing together researchers and practitioners with many different interests, and an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to teaching and research lies at the heart of our provision.
You’ll mainly be taught through a blend of lectures, interactive seminars and workshops. Typically, each module will comprise around three hours per week of teaching events, with some modules deviating from this structure. The course teaching will incorporate some online elements as well as on-campus learning.
Working independently is an important aspect of study at MA level. You’ll do preparatory reading for teaching events as well as working towards your coursework. UEA has excellent facilities to support your independent study, from comprehensive library materials (including electronic resources and databases), to academic skills support from the Learning Enhancement Team and Royal Literary Fellows, and inspirational repositories of visual arts and archival material are on your doorstep in the form of the Sainsbury Centre and the UEA Archives. Additionally, postgraduate students have the opportunity to attend many exciting programmes of lectures and events run by different departments and groups across the university, allowing you to take full advantage of the vibrant learning environment surrounding your course.
Assessment
Your achievement on the MA course will be assessed via coursework, through methods including essays, reports, and your final dissertation. If your interest in Medical and Health Humanities lies in the potential to develop your skills in creative expression, you'll have opportunities to submit creative or practice-based pieces (such as a film, short story, or poetry collection) for assignments within certain modules. You'll usually be required to submit a linked critical commentary with your creative work.
For your dissertation, you may choose to undertake a research project drawing from the humanities fields such as a literary, cultural, media, historical or art historical study, or you may use methods from the health and social sciences to undertake an applied project. You also have the option of producing an extended creative piece with a linked critical commentary.
Entry Requirements
- This course is open to
UK and International fee-paying students. Choose UK or International above to see relevant information. The entry point is in September each year.
- Typical UK Entry Requirements
Degree classification
Bachelors degree - 2.2
Degree Subject
Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Medicine or Professional Health related subject areas. Degrees in other subjects may be considered if your application can evidence relevant clinical or professional experience (usually at least 1 year) which could include Social Work, work in the Care sector, Clinical Psychology or Psychological Therapies, Health Policy work (e.g. for a governmental or non-governmental organisation), Public Health.
- Admissions Policy
Our Admissions Policy applies to the admissions of all postgraduate applicants.
- This course is open to
UK and International fee-paying students. Choose UK or International above to see relevant information. The entry point is in September each year.
- Typical International Entry Requirements
Degree classification
UK Bachelors degree - 2.2 or equivalent
Degree Subject
Humanities, Social Sciences, Medicine or Professional Health related subject areas. Degrees in other subjects may be considered if your application can evidence relevant clinical or professional experience (usually at least 1 year) which could include Social Work, work in the Care sector, Clinical Psychology or Psychological Therapies, Health Policy work (e.g. for a governmental or non-governmental organisation), Public Health.
- English Foreign Language
English Foreign Language
Applications from students whose first language is not English are welcome. We require evidence of proficiency in English (including writing, speaking, listening and reading):
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IELTS: 6.0 overall (minimum 5.5 in Listening & Reading and minimum 6.0 in Writing & Speaking)
We also accept a number of other English language tests. Review our English Language Equivalencies for a list of example qualifications that we may accept to meet this requirement.
Test dates should be within two years of the course start date.
If you do not meet the English language requirements for this course, INTO UEA offer a variety of English language programmes which are designed to help you develop the required English skills.
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- Admissions Policy
Our Admissions Policy applies to the admissions of all postgraduate applicants.
Fees and Funding
- UK Students: £10,675
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International Students: £22,700
If you choose to study part-time, the fee per annum will be half the annual fee for that year, or a pro-rata fee for the module credit you are taking (only available for Home students).
We estimate living expenses at £1,136 per month.
Further Information on tuition fees can be found here.
Scholarships and Bursaries
The University of East Anglia offers a range of Scholarships; please click the link for eligibility, details of how to apply and closing dates.
Course Related Costs
Please see Additional Course Fees for details of course-related costs.
How to Apply
How to apply
Applications for Postgraduate Taught programmes at the University of East Anglia should be made directly to the University.
To apply please use our online application form.
Further information
If you would like to discuss your individual circumstances prior to applying, please do contact us:
Postgraduate Admissions Office
Tel: +44 (0)1603 591515
Email: admissions@uea.ac.uk
International candidates are also encouraged to access the International Students section of our website.
Employability
After the Course
By the end of your MA, you'll understand more deeply key debates in the medical and health humanities. You'll have developed analytical as well as practical skills, for example advanced listening skills and a deeper understanding of narrative, including your own. You'll have developed skills in research methods that could lead you onto a PhD, into the policy sector, or into research and evaluation roles in the arts and health field. You'll have built a portfolio of work that could lead to a career as a writer or elsewhere in the creative industries. Existing healthcare practitioners will have enhanced their skillset and be ready to apply this to current practice or new roles.
Careers
Examples of careers that you could enter include:
- Policy and research roles
- Public sector roles, eg. social prescribing link worker
- Consultancy roles
- Third sector and NGO roles, including in arts and health
- Careers in writing or other creative industries
Discover more on our Careers webpages.