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Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology MSc

This programme builds on UCL’s research strengths in core epidemiological skills applied to the field of infectious diseases. You will also focus on the use of new technologies (omics) for analysing pathogens and their applications in tackling global public health challenges. You will be equipped for a career at the intersection of epidemiology and biological science, with a strong emphasis on clinical and public health medicine.

Covid-19 programme updates

Due to COVID-19, there may have been updates to this programme for the 2020 academic year. Where there has been an update, these are indicated with a red alert and a link which will provide further information.

Key information

Programme starts

September 2020

Modes and duration

Full time: 1 year
Part time: 2 years
Flexible: up to 5 years

Application dates

All applicants
Open: 1 November 2019
Close: 11 August 2020
Notification
Due to the large number of applications received, this programme is no longer accepting applications for 2020/21 entry. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Applications for 2021/22 entry will open later in the year.

Tuition fees (2020/21)

UK/EU:
£10,750 (FT)
£5,365 (PT)
Overseas:
£21,010 (FT)
£10,450 (PT)


Note on fees: The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Fees for subsequent years may increase or otherwise vary. Further information on fee status, fee increases and the fee schedule can be viewed on the UCL Students website. Fees for flexible, modular study are charged pro-rata to the appropriate full-time Master's fee taken in an academic session.

Location: London, Bloomsbury

Entry requirements

A minimum of an upper second-class Honours in a relevant degree of a UK university, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard, a professional qualification in a health related area such as medicine or nursing of an equivalent standard. Relevant research, work or volunteer experience will be viewed favourably. Students without the minimum academic standards may be considered if they have extensive relevant work or research experience.

English language requirements

If your education has not been conducted in the English language, you will be expected to demonstrate evidence of an adequate level of English proficiency.

The English language level for this programme is: Good

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

International students

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.

Select your country:

About this degree

You will learn principles of basic statistics and epidemiology, transmission dynamics, and infection pathogenesis. You will also study infectious diseases in high-, middle-, and low-income settings, using examples in the classroom drawn from a range of conditions, including STIs, HIV, TB, influenza and other airborne viruses, and emerging, vaccine-preventable, vertically transmitted, and vector-borne diseases.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.

Students will learn key concepts in infection and population health, and synthesise understanding about microbiology, immunology, and epidemiology of pathogens to inform infection control and public health interventions.

The programme consists of five compulsory modules (90 credits), two optional modules (30 credits), and a dissertation (60 credits).

Upon successful completion of 180 credits, you will be awarded a MSc in Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology.

Please note that the list of modules given here is indicative. This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability is subject to change.

Compulsory modules

There is no laboratory component in taught modules of this MSc, given the programme’s focus on developing epidemiological and statistical skills, and a grounding in microbiology and immunology in order to understand the impact and control of infections on a population level

  • Fundamental Principles of Infection and Population Health
  • Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases
  • Basic Statistics for Medical Sciences
  • Molecular Epidemiology for Infectious Diseases
  • Regression Modelling
  • Dissertation in Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Optional modules

Options may include the following:

  • Advanced Statistical Modelling
  • Climate Change and Health
  • Collecting and Using Data: Essentials of Quantitative Survey Research
  • Conflict, Humanitarianism and Health
  • Economic Evaluation in Healthcare
  • Evaluating Interventions
  • Immunisation and Communicable Diseases
  • Key Principles of Health Economics
  • Mobile Health (m-Health) for Infectious Diseases - Diagnostics, Management, Prevention and Surveillance
  • Public Health Data Science
  • Quantitative Analysis of Observational Data: Theory, Design and Execution
  • Research in Action: The Qualitative Approach
  • Sexual Health: Designing sexual and reproductive health programmes in low and middle income countries
  • Urban Health

Other optional modules may include Evolution and Infectious Diseases; Global Eradication of Viruses; HIV Frontiers from Research to Clinic.

Covid-19 module updates
Due to COVID-19, there may be updates to the modules for your chosen programme of study this year. Some modules may not be available or may need to be moved to a later term or year of study. These updates are relevant for 2020-21 academic year only.  The full list of modules will be available in the module catalogue from late August.  From the first week of September, you will be invited to complete module selection from Portico, our student record system. There may need to be additional updates or changes to modules during the academic year to allow for new guidance from the UK Government and Public Health England. Your department shall keep you updated of these changes as they become available.

Dissertation/report

All MSc students undertake a 7,500 words individual research project on a topic relevant to applied infectious disease epidemiology. 

Teaching and learning

The programme will be delivered through a mixture of lectures and tutorials, practical sessions, critical appraisal, interpretation of data, application of evidence to hypothetical and real scenarios, presentations by peers, peer evaluation and marking, debates (classroom and virtual), critique of policy documents, and Moodle discussion forums. In addition to the programme and module leads, this programme is delivered by UCL academics with wide-ranging and international expertise in epidemiology, public health, social science, and basic science research of infectious diseases. 

Classes take place during business hours. Modules are delivered as blocks of study. The duration of modules ranges from one to ten weeks.

Covid-19 contact hours on campus
In Term One, while campus will be open, all the learning activity for the core content of your modules will take place online – including lectures, tutorials, seminars and assessments. By “core content” we mean everything you need to learn to complete the module successfully. In addition to these online contact hours, we will be offering some face-to-face educational activities for students on campus, and we will provide alternative online activities for those students unable to join us on campus. These activities, which will include contact with academic staff, will be relevant to your programme of study may include seminars, academic and employability skills workshops, small-group or individual tutorials, lab and practice-based teaching. UK Government safety guidelines will limit the amount of ‘in person’ activity we can offer and while it will vary from programme to programme, is likely to be no more than 1-2 hours per week. This will vary across departments, particularly if your programme includes laboratory/practical/studio/workshop sessions. You will be updated with more specific details as they are available and your timetable will indicate which sessions will be on campus and which will be available online.
Covid-19 practical component updates
Due to COVID-19, there may be changes to the availability of the practical components for your chosen programme. Any updates relate only to the 20/21 academic year and may not apply to all students across the programme depending on your year of study.  Your department will keep you updated if the practical component of your programme is able to occur and/or any alternative options available.   There may need to be additional updates or changes to the practical component during the academic year to allow for new guidance from the UK Government and/or Public Health England. Your department shall keep you updated of these changes as they become available. 
Covid-19 assessment updates
There may be changes to the format of assessments for modules in this programme due to COVID-19. These will be summarised for each module on the module catalogue from 17 August 2020.   If any changes to assessments need to be made during the academic year due to updates in government guidance, these will be communicated to you as soon as possible from your department.    
Communicating further Covid-19 mitigation plans
We are continuing to follow UK Government guidance, as well as the expertise of our researchers, including specialists in health, education, human behaviour and infection prevention, to make sure UCL is as safe as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. If it becomes necessary to make further changes to your programme as a result of new guidance/regulations, UCL and your department will communicate these as soon as this becomes clear. We will keep you up-to-date with our plans throughout term one, so you have the information you need to be able to take decisions that are right for your circumstances. Please ensure that you keep in touch with your department by regularly checking your UCL emails, Moodle courses, the Coronavirus FAQs for Students page and any UCL online groups or social media you follow.

Additional costs

For more information on additional costs for prospective students please go to our estimated cost of essential expenditure at Accommodation and living costs.

Accessibility

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble. Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support & Wellbeing team.

Funding

Funding opportunties relevant to this programme include:

  • Institute for Global Health Postgraduate Bursary
  • Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) Dissertation Studenship. 

Find out more on the Institute for Global Health website

Scholarships relevant to this department are displayed below.

African Graduate Scholarship

Note:
Deadline: 27th April 2020
Value:
Contribution towards fees, accommodation and some living costs (1 year)
Eligibility:
Overseas
Criteria:
Based on both academic merit and financial need

Commonwealth Shared Scholarship Scheme (CSSS)

Note:
Applications for this scholarship are now closed for 2020/21
Value:
Full fees, flights, stipend, and other allowances (1 year)
Eligibility:
Overseas
Criteria:
Based on both academic merit and financial need

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

Careers

The programme has two pathways of optional modules that map on to the careers market.

Pathway 1 is aimed at students considering a career as an infectious disease epidemiologist requiring strong quantitative and data analysis skills.

Pathway 2 is designed for those intending on a career in international global health and policy-related work where their focus will be on infectious disease control.

Employability

A major focus in this programme will be on the practical application of knowledge and skills to infection and population health problems. We will also encourage students to critically appraise and intellectually challenge the evidence in infection and population health, and to work in multidisciplinary teams to seek solutions to hypothetical and real-world public health problems. These are all vital transferrable skills in the job market.

Why study this degree at UCL?

Infection prevention and control is a major global health priority. Researchers, public health personnel, security analysts, international health professionals, policymakers, and those working in health-related finance all need to understand infectious disease epidemiology at some level, and the barriers that prevent infection control. 

Tomorrow’s infectious disease epidemiologists will need a firm grounding in core principles such as transmission dynamics and study design and analysis. However, radical developments and scientific advances, including sequencing and other molecular technologies, big data opportunities, and the microbiota, have changed the way we can measure host-pathogen relationships. 

This MSc takes an interdisciplinary approach to infectious disease epidemiology, layering basic and clinical science, bioinformatics and molecular epidemiology on top of essential statistical, epidemiological and critical appraisal skills.

Department: Institute for Global Health

What our students and staff say

Staff view

"I am a researcher as well as a teacher and I am excited by the innovative role UCL is taking in placing our ground-breaking research at the heart of our teaching. As a senior clinical lecturer I split my time between working as a consultant in the NHS, teaching postgraduates, and conducting research in the sexual health and HIV field. I love teaching and my work, cross-disciplinary in nature, sits at the intersection between biology, politics, law, economics and health systems."

Dr Maryam Shahmanesh

Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology MSc
UCL Institute for Global Health

Application and next steps

Applications

Students are advised to apply as early as possible due to competition for places. Those applying for scholarship funding (particularly overseas applicants) should take note of application deadlines.

There is an application processing fee for this programme of £80 for online applications and £105 for paper applications. Further information can be found at: www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/taught/application.

Who can apply?

Applications are encouraged from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds including researchers and non-governmental organisation workers, medical and veterinary doctors, nurses, and development practitioners. This diversity increases opportunities to learn from other students' skills and experiences.

Application deadlines

All applicants
11 August 2020

For more information see our Applications page.

Apply now

What are we looking for?

When we assess your application we would like to learn:

  • why you want to study Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology at graduate level
  • why you want to study Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology at UCL
  • what particularly attracts you to the chosen programme
  • how your academic and professional background meets the demands of this challenging programme
  • 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 programme match what the programme will deliver.

UCL is regulated by the Office for Students.

Page last modified on 13 August 2020