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Global Healthcare Leadership and Management MPhil/PhD

London, Stratford (UCL East)

This is the programme information for 2026/27 entry

If you require details of the previous year's programme, Global Healthcare Leadership and Management MPhil/PhD (2025/26), click here

UK students International students

Study mode

UK tuition fees (2026/27)

£6,400

£3,200

Overseas tuition fees (2026/27)

£34,700

£17,350

Duration

3 calendar years

5 calendar years

Programme starts

October 2026

February 2027

May 2027

Applications accepted

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis but should be submitted at least three months prior to your preferred start date.

Apply for this course

Entry requirements

A minimum of an upper second-class Bachelor’s degree and a Master's degree (including integrated Masters) in a relevant discipline from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard is required. Applicants who do not hold a Master's degree but who have extensive relevant work experience should contact the department: admissionsgbsh@ucl.ac.uk

The English language level for this course is: Level 2

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website.

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree

Healthcare needs to be sustainable and affordable for all, but it is also under strain across the globe. To address this challenge, the UCL Global Business School for Health, the world's first business school for health, offers an innovative interdisciplinary environment, covering relevant topics including management, health economics, policy, health systems, and AI, to train exceptional students to tackle the most pressing issues healthcare is facing.

As a postgraduate research student, you enrol for a three-year PhD with the presentation of a thesis at the end of Year 3. Students are initially registered for an MPhil, upgrading to a PhD subject to satisfactory academic progress.

During the course, you will meet regularly with your supervisory team and needs for further training and support will be closely monitored, identified, and provided.

All postgraduate research students are expected to undertake 10 pro-rata days of skills training of their choosing each year with the UCL Doctoral School. This will include courses on research design and statistics, presentation skills and career planning.

This course is delivered from UCL’s state-of-the-art bespoke facilities on our UCL East campus, on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London. The UCL Global Business School for Health is situated in the Marshgate building with access to hi-tech teaching areas and collaboration spaces, a library, and a refectory.

Who this course is for

The UCL Global Business School for Health is looking for exceptional, motivated students that want to work in a world-class environment at the cutting edge of healthcare research. Enthusiasm for healthcare problematics, intellectual curiosity and being able to work efficiently in a team are fundamental qualities we are looking for in our PhD students.

Read about what it takes to become a UCL graduate research student

What this course will give you

The UCL Global Business School for Health offers a range of research routes from quantitative to qualitative and everything in between. This will prepare you to successfully pursue careers in research, healthcare management, consultancy and policy influencing or creating organisations with a focus on improving health outcomes.

Find out how your research could have an impact

The foundation of your career

The range of expertise at the Global Business School for Health means our PhD course can prepare you for a range of careers, including academia, policy development, and industry.

Employability

You will gain experience and cutting-edge knowledge in at least one area relevant to the provision and improvement of healthcare delivery, depending on the direction of your research. You will develop evidence-based problem-solving capacities drawing upon the most innovative methods, be comfortable working with a range of professionals and be exposed to both quantitative and qualitative aspects of research. You will develop a clear view of the most pressing challenges facing healthcare.

Networking

As a PhD student, you will be an integral part of the department research force and you will be invited to staff events and staff lead activities and socials, including regular research seminar series. GBSH also offers a DBA Health course that includes modules which PhD students can audit.

You will be encouraged to participate in faculty and UCL-wide events as collaboration between departments is strongly encouraged and PGR events are regularly organised at the faculty level.

Financial support is offered for the organisation of academic-related student-led initiatives.

Teaching and learning

During the course of your PhD, you will have ample opportunities to develop your research and transferable skills:

Research and transferable skills development course through the UCL Doctoral School that offers courses specifically aimed at PGR students.
Audit the DBA health modules, our other PGR degree that includes a taught component. These cover material from management to statistics.
Audit modules across the whole of UCL to acquire new knowledge beneficial to your research.
Attend conferences and workshops using a dedicated budget.

At the end of the three years, you will submit a PhD thesis that is examined by two experts, one internal to UCL and one external, during a viva voce examination. They then assess whether the submitted work and the defence you provide fulfil the criteria for a PhD.

The PhD is a personal project, and it is expected that it will be led by the student and completed independently or within a collaboration group.

Full-time postgraduate research students are expected to work on average a minimum of 36.5 hours per week on their PhD project. They will also be regularly meeting with the supervisory team. The frequency and length of the one-to-one interactions with the supervisory team is to be decided between the student and the supervisors but can be expected to be at least one hour every week or every two weeks. The mode (in person or online) and frequency will be regularly reviewed by the student and their supervisors depending on the advancement and stage of the PhD.

Students are part of the life of the department and are expected to interact and learn not only from their supervisors, but from all academics and other research students, as well as attending departmental seminars and events deemed relevant by their supervisors.

Research areas and structure

Our UCL GBSH research clusters:

Health Systems and Policy
Health Economics, Finance and Operations
People and Organisation Management in Healthcare
Technology Innovation and Data-Informed Healthcare

Find out more on the UCL GBSH website.

Research environment

The UCL Global Business School for Health's Deputy Director for Research runs a bi-weekly research seminar series for staff and students.

We envision our postgraduate research (PGR) projects to be interdisciplinary and run collaboratively with other departments at UCL. Supervision will be provided from UCL GBSH academics and possibly various Institutes from the UCL Faculty of Population Health Sciences, as well as academics and departments in other UCL faculties.

Similarly to UCL GBSH, the UCL Faculty of Population Health Sciences strongly encourages collaboration between the departments and integrating UCL GBSH students into the wider faculty. As such, the faculty also organises events for all PGR students, including induction events.

Financial support is offered for academic-related student-led initiatives that promote PGR integration in UCL GBSH and across the institution. Events linking the Bloomsbury and UCL East campuses are encouraged including multi-day retreats for staff and students.

PhD students are integral members of UCL GBSH’s research force and as such, you will be invited to staff events and staff-led activities and socials.

UCL GBSH also offers a DBA Health course, which includes a taught component. The modules from the DBA will be open to all UCL GBSH MPhil/PhD students to audit as part of their knowledge and skills development.

The list of modules includes, but is not limited to:

Understanding Applied Research in Healthcare Management,
Research Methods and Design,
Data Analysis,
Digital Health Research Methods and Tools,
Health Systems Thinking,
Research and Co-Production with Patients,
Communication for Healthcare Management.

UCL GBSH provides a dedicated budget to support PGR students with conference attendance and research-related activities, and assigns a Graduate Tutor specifically for research student support.

: The full PhD course normally lasts 36 months. You will initially register as a MPhil candidate and should have your first upgrade to PhD attempt between months 9 and 18 from your start date. You will need to submit a literature review, first draft of your upgrade report and a final draft of your upgrade report before the upgrade viva.

You will be required to complete at least 20 training points, equivalent to approximately 10 days pro-rata worth of training per year.
: The normal duration of the studies for part-time students is five years, with the upgrade viva from MPhil to PhD normally taking place between months 15 and 30.

Accessibility

The department will endeavour to make reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities, including those with long-term health conditions, neurodivergence, learning differences and mental health conditions. This list is not exhaustive. If you're unsure of your eligibility for reasonable adjustments at UCL, please contact Student Support and Wellbeing Services.

Reasonable adjustments are implemented on a case-by-case basis. With the student's consent, reasonable adjustments are considered by UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services, and where required, in collaboration with the respective department.

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble. Further information about support available can be obtained from UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services.

For more information about the department and accessibility arrangements for your course, please contact the department.

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students

Fee description	Full-time	Part-time
Tuition fees (2026/27)	£6,400	£3,200
Tuition fees (2026/27)	£34,700	£17,350

Additional costs

Additional fees can be requested to cover for fieldwork, equipment or anything else that may be needed for the PhD work to be completed. Generally, these costs will not be in excess of £10,000 and are agreed, as well as their mode of funding, with the student prior to their enrolment in the course.

For in-person teaching, UCL’s main teaching locations are in zones 1 (Bloomsbury) and zones 2/3 (UCL East). The cost of a monthly 18+ Oyster travel card for zones 1-2 is £119.90. This price was published by TfL in 2025. For more information on additional costs for prospective students and the cost of living in London, please view our estimated cost of essential expenditure at UCL's cost of living guide.

Funding your studies

Prospective students are encouraged to contact members of staff, who can provide help and guidance to apply for scholarships and fellowships.

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.

See all the ways you can fund your studies

Next steps

When we assess your application, we would like to learn:

Why you want to study towards a PhD degree.
Why you want to study Global Business for Health MPhil/PhD at UCL.
What particularly attracts you to this course.
How your academic and professional background meets the demands of this challenging course.
Where you would like to go professionally with your degree.

Together with essential academic requirements, the personal statement is your opportunity to illustrate whether your reasons for applying to this course match what the course will deliver.

For spontaneous application, you are expected to also submit a research proposal that will have been developed with and/or be sponsored by a member of staff that has agree in principle to be part of your supervisory team. For more details: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/population-health-sciences/global-business-school-health/study/research-degrees/mphil-phd

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate courses (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

This course requires two references. Further information regarding references can be found on this Selecting your references page.

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.