Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Health Services Management

Programme Assessment and Credits

Continuous Assessment

Students on the programme are assessed by a combination of:

1. Written assignments submitted throughout the programme (3,000 words in length);
2. Group presentations in class (accompanied by an extended abstract up to 5 A4 pages in length);
3. A dissertation (15,000 to 20,000 words in length).

Written Assignments / Presentations

Assessment of Year 1 will consist of 8 written individual assignments (including the research proposal), whilst Year 2 will consist of 3 group assignments (presented in class and accompanied by an extended abstract), as well as a number of individual dissertation-related assignments.

The candidate must pass all required course work of Year 1 to advance to Year 2; and the research proposal must be deemed acceptable prior to progression to the dissertation. The dissertation should involve research primarily related to the organisation and management of health services in Ireland.

The acceptable citation and referencing system for all written assignments, including the dissertation, is the Harvard system. Students are required to follow the Departmental house style guide for submission of assignments (“HPM Style Guide”), which is available from the Course Administrator and is also published on the Course Intranet. Marks will be deducted for poor formatting and presentation.
Assignment Grading Structure

Completed course assignments should reflect critical analysis of the area under study, giving clear recommendations, outlining resources required and identifying the source of any additional resources required. They must be concise and focused. The ability to convey one's thoughts in a clear, succinct and brief document is a vital management skill to be practised.

All assignments carry equal marks. The pass mark is 40%.

To pass, the student should adequately report the relevant facts or concepts, demonstrate that the relevant material has been read and show some capacity to apply the concepts under study.
To achieve honours, the student should display a high quality of understanding of the material and demonstrate a good ability to apply these concepts to concrete situations.
To achieve a first class honour, the student should write an answer of real originality and display an impressive judgement of the area covered.

The grading scale for the individual assignments is outlined below:

Degree Award

Starting with our graduating class of 2009, the M.Sc. Health Services Management degree will be awarded as either Pass or Pass with Distinction.
In order to achieve a distinction for his/her M.Sc. degree, the student must satisfy all of the following conditions:

1. Achieve a pass in all assessed modules in both Year 1 and Year 2; and
2. Achieve an average of 70% or above from the four highest-scored assignments out of the seven individual assignments in Year 1; and from the two highest-scored assignments out of the three group assignments in Year 2; and
3. Achieve a Pass with Distinction for his/her dissertation.

European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) Credits

Since 2007, the M.Sc. Health Services Management programme is officially designated as carrying 90 ECTS (European credit transfer system) credits.

Each academic year, when successfully completed, will lead to the award of 30 ECTS credits; and the successful submission of the dissertation would lead to the award of an additional 30 ECTS credits.

The whole programme carries 90 ECTS credits (60 ECTS credits for successful completion of course work across both calendar years of the programme, plus 30 ECTS credits for the dissertation work).

All students who successfully completed the programme since 2007 will be given, in addition to the Masters' degree parchment, a Diploma Supplement that outlines the number of credits and the associated grades the student has earned through his/her coursework on the programme.