Study options
- Starting in
- September 2025
- Location
- Charterhouse Square
- Fees
- Home: £8,600
Overseas: £20,000
EU/EEA/Swiss students
What you'll study
The Postgraduate Diploma in Precision Musculoskeletal Sciences is designed to provide the required knowledge, skills and attributes that will prepare exceptional next generation healthcare professionals, physicians, and scientists who can address the huge unmet needs in the field of musculoskeletal (MSK) health.
Millions in the UK and billions worldwide suffer from MSK disorders which are the leading contributors to disability and the most prevalent conditions affecting middle-aged people. Despite the rise in life expectancy, the proportion of life spent in poor MSK health and uncontrolled pain has remained constant. This poor MSK health represents a major limiting factor to independence, productive social and working life, and healthy mental status.
Proper understanding, application, and advancement of MSK health sciences is fundamental to tackling these needs.
The fast-evolving landscape of MSK sciences and healthcare has a pressing need for clinicians, biomedical scientists and allied health professionals with up-to-date knowledge and skills to contribute to the establishment of productive MSK health.
The Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology (EMR) within William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) and Queen Mary University of London’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, which delivers this programme, is one of the top research centres for rheumatology in Europe. It has been awarded Centre of Excellence status by the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) for its outstanding contributions to rheumatology and improving patient care.
This programme integrates precision medicine to promote your understanding of how advanced technologies and innovative clinical trials help tailor diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to individual subsets of patients. Such solid understanding will encourage you to think beyond the available modalities and synthesize information, hypotheses, and approaches to fill the gap of unmet needs in MSK sciences.
Structure
To complete the Postgraduate Diploma, you will complete all 8 taught modules (120 credits).
The taught element of each taught module is delivered in three-day blocks approximately every four to six weeks. This is designed to enable you to fit your study around your work commitments.
You can also choose the Postgraduate Certificate, which comprises the first 4 taught modules. To graduate with the MSc, you will study 8 taught modules (120 credits) and undertake a supervised dissertation (60 credits).
Assessment
- 100% Modules
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A variety of assessment strategies will be used for the taught modules including written assignments, presentations, case reports, essay questions, modified essay questions and examination papers. These strategies allow precise assessment of your scientific and clinical knowledge during and at the end of the modules.
Teaching
Teaching is delivered through a blended learning approach, which includes in-person teaching blocks approximately every four to six weeks on campus alongside online study. The programme contents will be made available online shortly before lectures and regularly reviewed by the E-learning unit to ensure accessibility and optimise dissemination. To aid revision of the learning material at the students’ convenience, lectures are recorded, and the recordings are released to the students immediately on QMPlus after the lectures.
Self-directed learning is a major component of each module, and you will have access to personal mentors with whom you can discuss issues and plans.
You will also be assigned an Academic Adviser, who will guide you in both academic and pastoral matters.
Where you'll learn
Facilities
- The William Harvey Research Institute offers state-of-the art core facilities, including a Genome Centre, a flow cytometry and cell sorting station, and in vivo imaging facilities
- Medical libraries located at the Royal London and St Bart's hospitals and at the main university campus at Mile End
- Access to the Postgraduate Reading Room
Campus
William Harvey Research Institute is situated in Queen Mary’s beautiful Charterhouse Square campus. This is where you’ll find most of our clinical and research facilities and where most teaching takes place. The Square is minutes from our West Smithfield campus, home to St Bartholomew’s Hospital and where further teaching and research facilities are located.
Rich in history and diversity, Charterhouse Square is a bustling centre of energy and activity. You will get to experience both old and new London.
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About the Institute
William Harvey Research Institute
The William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) places a high value upon training the next generation of researchers. We are part of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University of London, which is ranked joint seventh in the UK for the quality of our research (REF 2021).
Our primary research focus and excellence lies in our cardiovascular, inflammation and endocrine research themes. In addition, we achieve international excellence in critical care and perioperative medicine research. We aim to combine talents from different disciplines such as genomics, cell biology, and pharmacology, with translational bench-to-patient studies and large-scale clinical trials.
We are currently the largest pharmacological research institute in the UK University sector, and one of the largest in Europe. The Centre employs 530 clinicians and scientists from 45 countries.
Career paths
The Precision Musculoskeletal Sciences programme is designed to enhance your employment opportunities and diversify your skill sets to enable you to flourish in your future work environment. We also encourage our graduates to progress onto PhD programmes.
The national and international reputation of Queen Mary University of London, William Harvey Research Institute, and The Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology together with their extensive industrial connections will inform employers about graduates' qualities and skills. Moreover, the programme provides medically qualified and intercalated medical students with substantial evidence that supports their commitment to progress in the specialty which gives advantage when applying for specialist training or promotion. In addition, graduates will have sound theoretical and practical skills in translational medicine, clinical trials, bioinformatics, tissue imaging and analysis which all have expanding markets nationally and internationally.
- 93% of William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) graduates are in employment or further study (2021/22)
- 89% of WHRI graduates in employment or study are in highly skilled work or graduate study (2021/22)
Fees and funding
Full-time study
September 2025 | 9 months
- Home: £8,600
- Overseas: £20,000
EU/EEA/Swiss students
Unconditional deposit
Home: Not applicable
Overseas: £2000
Information about deposits
Part-time study
September 2025 | 21 months
- Home: £4,300
- Overseas: £10,000
EU/EEA/Swiss students
Unconditional deposit
Home: Not applicable
Overseas: £2000
Information about deposits
Funding
There are a number of ways you can fund your postgraduate degree.
- Scholarships and bursaries
- Postgraduate loans (UK students)
- Country-specific scholarships for international students
Our Advice and Counselling service offers specialist support on financial issues, which you can access as soon as you apply for a place at Queen Mary. Before you apply, you can access our funding guides and advice on managing your money:
Entry requirements
UK
Degree requirements
A 2:2 or above at undergraduate level in a Biomedical Sciences subject such as Physiology, Biology, Neurosciences, Pharmacology, Pathology, Biochemical Sciences, Microbiology, or other related allied health professional degrees such as Physiotherapy, Osteopathy, Nursing, Pharmacy or Medicine.
Non-UK medical degrees marked on a grading scale must be equivalent to UK 2:2 degree.
Find out more about how to apply for our postgraduate taught courses.
International
English language requirements
The English language requirements for our programmes are indicated by English bands, and therefore the specific test and score acceptable is based on the band assigned to the academic department within which your chosen course of study is administered. Note that for some academic departments there are programmes with non-standard English language requirements.
The English Language requirements for entry to postgraduate taught and research programmes in the William Harvey Research Institute falls within the following English band:
Band 4: IELTS (Academic) minimum score 6.5 overall with 6.0 in each of Writing, Listening, Reading and Speaking
Please note, there are some postgraduate programmes with non-standard English language requirements in this Institute.
We accept a range of English tests and qualifications categorised in our English bands for you to demonstrate your level of English Language proficiency. See all accepted English tests that we deem equivalent to these IELTS scores.
Visas and immigration
Find out how to apply for a student visa.