Training programme

QHRN provides face-to-face and on-line workshops on specific qualitative methodologies and their applications in health research.

Our courses are for researchers at all levels of seniority, and in any area of health research who already have some basic understanding of qualitative research and wish to develop, refresh or expand their methodological skills and knowledge in specific areas.

Courses are delivered by workshop leads who are experts in the specific methodological topic of the workshop. Live sessions create friendly, informal settings, with numbers capped at 25-30 so that participants can share their particular concerns and create connections with other qualitative health researchers. These are complemented by non-synchronous content such as pre-recorded videos, preparatory reading or viewing, and follow-up resources. There may be expectations in some workshops for participants to complete specific tasks or preparatory work before attending the live component of the workshop.

We aim to offer a selection of training workshops every six months, with popular courses repeated according to demand.

The courses we currently offer

• Writing and Publishing Qualitative Research (Online)
• Applied Conversation Analysis: A practical workshop (In person)
• Introduction to Ethnography in Healthcare (Online)
• Introduction to Qualitative Process Evaluation in Healthcare (Online)
• Supervising a Qualitative or Mixed-Methods PhD (Online)
• Theory in Qualitative Research (Online)
• Qualitative Evidence Synthesis (Online)

These courses will be run again in the future. 

Our next training courses

Details of our next workshops are provided below. 

Course dates and times

Course details

For more details about each course, please see below:

Writing and Publishing Qualitative Research (Wednesday 22nd October 2025, 10:00-13:00 - online)

Course Overview:

The session will cover how to write a qualitative academic paper, as well as tips for how to get your paper published in a peer-reviewed journal. 

Course content:

The following topics will be discussed during the workshop: 

• What constitutes good writing, and how to convey your ideas clearly in writing,
• How to describe qualitative research for an academic/medical audience, 
• How to write up qualitative research (e.g. a research paper). 

Who this course is for? 

The workshop is aimed at those who: 

• Have collected data using qualitative methods,
• Are planning to write a paper based on qualitative method.

Please note that this course is aimed at those who have a good knowledge of the key principles of qualitative research. 

Teaching and structure 

This is a single workshop lasting 2.5 hours. The final 30 minutes of the session will be for Q&A and further discussion.  

Teaching will be delivered entirely online by experienced researchers via Zoom. You'll learn as part of a group, interacting through activities and questions and learning from others by taking part in the discussions that accompany each step. 

Learning outcomes 

By the end of the course, you will: 

• Know how to write up qualitative research for an academic journal, including the contracts with writing up quantitative research, 
• Know how to increase the chances of a paper being accepted by a journal (tips on each step of the submission process),
• Practise thinking and writing clearly through applying our 'Top Tips for Writing Well'. 

Cost and booking:

The cost of this course is £85 per participant and places are limited to 25. 

A £35 bursary rate is offered for participants from low-income countries or without access to funding sources. Please email us at qhrn@ucl.ac.uk before registering if you feel you would benefit from this course, but cost presents a barrier, providing any details that you would like us to consider.

Certification:

If you would like a certificate of attendance, please contact us after the course.

Facilitators:

Julia Bailey is an Associate Professor at UCL, and a Sexual health Speciality Doctor. Julia has expertise in quantitative and qualitative methodologies including epidemiology, online randomised controlled trials and qualitative methods including discourse analysis. Her research focuses on sexual health, digital  health, and marginalised groups. Julia is passionate about bringing social science perspectives to health research and teaching.

Tom Witney is a Research Fellow at UCL. He is a qualitative health researcher with a particular interest in sexual health and relationship intimacy. Tom’s work focuses on improving access to sexual health for trans and gender diverse people and supporting uptake of chlamydia retesting following a diagnosis. 

 

Supervising a Qualitative or Mixed-methods PhD (Tuesday 4th November 2025, 14:00-17:00 - online)

Course Overview:

A half-day workshop for supervisors of health-related PhDs using qualitative methods.. 

Course content:

This online course will cover the key issues about qualitative research in health within the context of PhD or postgraduate research. These topics are approached from the perspective of supervisors, enabling participants to better support their students in planning, conducting and writing up qualitative elements of their PhD work. Both epistemological and practical issues will be considered. The following topics will be covered:

• Key concepts in qualitative research and common misunderstandings.
• Ethical issues and applications
• Planning and timings
• Student training and skills development
• Supervisory support for analysis and writing processes
• Common supervisor and student anxieties about qualitative research.

Participant numbers are limited to 25 to enable a more personalised experience.

Who this course is for? 

New or established academic supervisors of postgraduate students doing qualitative or mixed methods research projects in any area of health. You may have some prior experience and knowledge qualitative methods, be looking to refresh or build on your knowledge in relation to PhD supervision, or be new to qualitative methods and wishing to incorporate qualitative work within a mixed methods PhD.

Teaching and structure 

This is a single workshop, lasting 3 hours delivered entirely online via Zoom. The session will run mainly in a large group format, with some use of online breakout rooms to enable participant interaction and tailored troubleshooting.  A small amount of optional preparatory material and follow-up resources will be provided.

Cost and booking:

The cost of this course is £60 per participant and places are limited to 25. 

A £35 bursary rate is offered for participants from low-income countries or without access to funding sources. Please email us at qhrn@ucl.ac.uk before registering if you feel you would benefit from this course, but cost presents a barrier, providing any details that you would like us to consider.

Certification:

If you would like a certificate of attendance, please contact us after the course.

Facilitators:

Nicola Morant is Professor of Qualitative Mental Health Research in the UCL Division of Psychiatry and Director of the UCL Qualitative Health Research Network. She leads and advises on qualitative workstreams within large mixed-methods funded projects in a number of areas of mental health. Her own research focuses on shared decision-making for psychiatric medication management. Nicola has been teaching qualitative research methods for many years and has supervised numerous qualitative MSc and PhD research projects. 

Helene Joffe is a Professor of Psychology at UCL (University College London) with research interests in how people conceptualise, respond to and recover from various risks, as well as the liveability of cities. She has devised the Grid Elaboration Method to elicit people’s conceptualisations of social phenomena and has written extensively on systematic thematic analysis, including inter-coder reliability. In addition to having produced mixed methods, cross-cultural, prize winning work, she has led a wide range of multi-disciplinary research projects, supervising over 30 PhDs and researchers. 

Contact us:

Please contact us on: qhrn@ucl.ac.uk if you have any questions about the training courses.