nurse holding the hand of an elderly patient

Postgraduate research in Health, Wellbeing and Education

Join the academic community at Staffordshire University and be a part of research that can change lives in the field of Health, Wellbeing and Education. Gain access to our expert facilities and develop your research through practice alongside senior researchers in nursing, midwifery, social work, the allied health professions, education, sport and exercise, biomechanics and biomedical science, and psychology.

 

Table showing MPhil/PhD subjects in Health, Wellbeing and Education, with locations and modes of study
SubjectLocationMode of study
Biology On campus Full time, part time
Biomechanics On campus Full time
Biomechanics Distance learning Part time
Biomechanics by Published Work On campus Part time
Ecology On campus Full time
Education On campus Full time, part time
Education Blended learning Part time
Health and Welfare Studies On campus, distance learning Full time, part time
Health and Welfare Studies by Published Work Distance learning Full time
Psychology On campus Full time, part time
Sport and Exercise Psychology On campus, distance learning Full time, part time
Sports Science On campus Full time, part time

 

Ready-to-go research projects

In addition to offering supervision for a project that you propose, we also have a list of ready to go PhD projects designed by our experts, which means that the research proposal is already written.

View all projects

Professional doctoral courses

You may choose to undertake a professional doctoral course, designed to develop research and professional skills related to professional practice.

Speak to the Graduate School about postgraduate research.

Our researchers

World renowned in their fields, our researchers are here to support you through every step of your research career.

Professor Nachiappan Chockalingam

Professor Of Clinical Biomechanics

As Professor of Clinical Biomechanics, I direct the Movement Analysis Laboratory and lead the biomechanics team and research at Staffordshire University. I am also an Affiliate Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta

Nachiappan's profile

Dr Jim Pugh

Director - Inst. Of Ed. - Assoc Prof.

I am proud to be the Director of the Institute of Education leading an innovative group of professionals, educators, researchers and working with our creative and exciting students, partners and community.

Jim's profile

Robert Needham

Senior Lecturer

Robert's research background is in the areas of sport and clinical biomechanics. The focus of his research is on the application of non-linear data analysis techniques to quantify movement coordination and coordination variability. Robert's rese…

Robert's profile

Dr Panagiotis Chatzistergos

Associate Professor

My current role is focused on applied research in the fields of musculoskeletal biomechanics and medical devices and among others involves identifying funding opportunities, preparing grant applications and participating in industry-led research…

Panagiotis's profile

Dr Aoife Healy

Associate Professor

Aoife is a researcher within the Centre for Biomechanics and Rehabilitation Technologies. Her area of research is clinical biomechanics, with a focus on mobility assistive technology, diabetic footwear, gait analysis and plantar pressure measurement.

Aoife's profile

Professor Roozbeh Naemi

Professor In Biomechanics

Roozbeh leads the Professional Doctorate in Healthcare Sciences, an award within the School of Life Sciences and Education. As a Professor in Biomechanics, he has made seminal contributions to generating knowledge in the area of biomechanics sin…

Roozbeh's profile

Professor Gillian Forrester

Professor Of Education Policy

I lead the Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD), which is a vibrant research degree programme for professional educators. I supervise doctoral students (PhD and EdD) and I am involved in several externally funded research projects.

Gillian's profile

Dr Samina Naseeb

Senior Lecturer

Senior Lecturer in Molecular Genetics and Genomics with interests in genetics, biotechnology, synthetic biology, yeast evolution and fungal biodiversity. Public engagement in science educates and involves the community increasing support in research.

Samina's profile

Professor Christopher Gidlow

Professor Of Applied Health Research

Following an undergraduate in Applied Biology (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), I completed an MSc at in Physical Activity, Nutrition and Public Health (University of Bristol).

Christopher's profile

Dr Naomi Ellis

Associate Professor Of Health Research

I've been involved with a number of research projects relating to physical activity and mental health, green space and health; health in mid-life; sport and mental health in prisons.

Naomi's profile

Fiona Mccormack

Research Officer

Dr Victoria Riley

Research Associate

I completed my undergraduate degree at Staffordshire University in 2012 and then went on to complete the MSc in Health Psychology also at Staffordshire University in 2013.

Victoria's profile

Konstantinos Spyropoulos

Research Associate

Professor Jon Fairburn

Professor

Professor Jon Fairburn is active in teaching, research, bid writing and public engagement. He has incorporated credited work experience into geography and tourism degrees as well as the MSc Digital Marketing Management.

Jon's profile

Professor Wilfred Mcsherry

Professor

Wilf is a Professor of Nursing and an active researcher in delivery patient centered care. His main area of interest is how we can prepare nurses, midwives and healthcare professional to be confident and competent in this dimension of care.

Wilfred's profile

Professor Elizabeth Boath

Professor Of Health And Wellbeing

Liz is a Coach and Mentor, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Practitioner and teaches Counselling, Public Health and Communication Skills. Liz's research is focused on perinatal mental health and health and social care.

Elizabeth's profile

Dr Edward Tolhurst

Senior Lecturer

I am a Senior Lecturer, and researcher in the field of dementia, ageing and care. I am based in the Postgraduate team and the course leader for the MSc in Medical Education. I am also Chair of Research Ethics in the School of Health and Social Care.

Edward's profile

Dr Adam Boughey

Lecturer

I have a professional background in nursing and currently registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as a Registered Adult Nurse (RN(A)).

Adam's profile

Dr Sarahjane Jones

Interim Associate Dean - Research&Innov

Sarahjane is a safety researcher with a particular interest in the utilisation of big healthcare data for quality and safety improvement. She also works in research capacity building in non-medical professions and healthcare and data ethics.

Sarahjane's profile

Dr Ruth Hudson

Associate Dean - Recruitment

Ruth's profile

Matthew Slater

Professor Of Sport & Exercise Psychology

Matt is a Professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology and recognised as an internationally leading scholar on the psychology of leadership and group dynamics.

Matthew's profile

Karla Drew

Lecturer

I am a Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology, and Course leader for the MSc Sport and Exercise Psychology programme. I am also a BPS Chartered, and HCPC Registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Stephanie Romano-Smith

Lecturer

I am the course leader of Distance learning Sport and Exercise Psychology BSc (Hons) degree programme. I also have teaching responsibilities across undergraduate and postgraduate awards in the area of sport and exercise psychology.

Stephanie's profile

Fiona Cust

Associate Professor

Fiona is a Registered General and Children’s Nurse and Health Visitor who has had a varied career in children’s nursing within acute and community settings. Fiona is actively engaged in research and regularly contributes to The Nursing Times Journal.

Fiona's profile

Trust Diya

Lecturer

Trust is biomedical scientist whose core discipline is histology and cytology. His main area of interest is lipidomics and nutrition with a focus on the effects of flavonoids on adipogenesis.

Dr Ahmad Haidery

Lecturer

Ahmad's profile

Dr Samina Naseeb

Senior Lecturer

Senior Lecturer in Molecular Genetics and Genomics with interests in genetics, biotechnology, synthetic biology, yeast evolution and fungal biodiversity. Public engagement in science educates and involves the community increasing support in research.

Samina's profile

Dr Chloe Heys

Lecturer

I am a Lecturer in Microbiology for Biological and Biomedical Sciences with an extensive background in Zoology. I am fascinated by the microbiome and how an individual’s collective microbes can work together to influence the host.

Chloe's profile

Dr Claire Barlow

Course Director

Claire's research is primarily focused on children's drawings with further projects focussing on the development of expressive drawing, and more specifically how this compares to the development of representational drawing skill, longitudinal de…

Claire's profile

Dr Emily Buckley

Head Of Department - Psychology

I am Head of the Psychology Department, and am a registered Health Psychologist with a background in health promotion.

Emily's profile

Dr Amy Burton

Senior Lecturer

My research interests focus on improving health care communication in areas including: gerontology, pain management, visual impairment and sensory disability.

Amy's profile

Lisa Cowap

Lecturer

My expertise is within Health Psychology and conducting research employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

Lisa's profile

Dr Sarah Dean

Senior Lecturer

Sarah's research has focussed on children and adolescents. Her PhD explored the effects that writing about stressful experiences has for early adolescents and why written emotional disclosure may not be a suitable intervention for them.

Sarah's profile

Dr Justine Drakeford

Senior Lecturer

I joined Staffordshire University as a senior lecturer in January 2012. My research interests are in the areas of cognitive neuropsychiatry and cognitive neuropsychology.

Justine's profile

Dr Daniel Herron

Senior Lecturer

Daniel's profile

Dr Jo Heyes

Clinical Director

Jo's areas of interest for research are early attachment relationships, parenting programmes and early childhood behaviour difficulties. She also has an interest in perinatal mental health and in the supervisory relationship.

Jo's profile

Sarah Higgins

Lecturer

Sarah is a Lecturer in Psychology, teaching across a range of psychology modules at all levels. Her research interests include eating behaviours and psychological interventions.

Sarah's profile

Dr Louise Humphreys

Senior Lecturer

My interests are broadly in the area of attention and memory. I'm particularly interested in how human emotion influences attention and memory performance.

Louise's profile

Dr Gemma Hurst

Course Director

I am the Course Leader for the MSc Health Psychology. My research focuses on measuring the impact of environment exposures on health and wellbeing and exploring the wider determinants of health in relation to health inequality. I am also experie…

Gemma's profile

Dr Richard Jolley

Associate Professor

My research interests mainly lie in children's use and understanding of representation, particularly in their making and understanding of pictures.

Richard's profile

Dr Erica Holland

Senior Lecturer

Erica's research interests lie in the area of human reasoning. Her PhD work was on relevance and rationalisation processes on the Wason selection task. She is particularly interested in the use of different methodologies that can be utilised t…

Erica's profile

Dr Yvonne Melia

Principal Clinical Lecturer

Yvonne is a Clinical Psychologist and the Academic Director of the Professional Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Her expertise lies in the mental health of looked after and adopted children specifically, which informs her teaching and research.

Yvonne's profile

Dr Alison Owen

Lecturer

I am a lecturer in Health Psychology, as well as being an active researcher, with work published in a wide variety of peer reviewed journals. My main research interests are health promotion and body image.

Alison's profile

Dr Rachel Povey

Associate Professor

I'm the course leader for the Health Psychology Professional Doctorate. My areas of expertise are healthy eating, dietary change and psychological aspects of diabetes.

Rachel's profile

Dr Sarah Rose

Senior Lecturer

Sarah is a developmental psychologist with a particular interest in the influence of education on the development of children's creative abilities.

Sarah's profile

Dr Helen Scott

Research Director

I completed a BSc (Hons) degree in Psychology with German, and in 2004 completed my doctoral training in Clinical Psychology at Birmingham University.

Helen's profile

Nichola Street

Senior Lecturer

Nikki is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology, teaching across a range of psychology modules at all levels and acting as Level 6 tutor as well as research which is housed under the umbrella of psychological interventions.

Nichola's profile

Dr Jennifer Taylor

Senior Lecturer

Jennifer is a senior lecturer in qualitative psychological research methods. Jennifer is a qualitative researcher with research interests in several areas but mainly body image, maternal health, breastfeeding, and mindfulness.

Jennifer's profile

Dr Romina Vivaldi

Senior Lecturer

Romina's research interests are focussed on symbolic development as it relates to pictures and occupational gender stereotypes.

Romina's profile

Facilities

As a postgraduate research student, you'll have access to all of our specialist facilities, and the expertise of our technicians, to help your research succeed.

Support and funding

Study options

Our postgraduate research students work on their research in a range of different modes to fit around their work and life commitments – you might be on campus as a full-time or part-time researcher, or you may be studying as a Distance Learner. Your preferred option will be discussed as you go through your research proposal with your potential supervisory team.

Browse study options

Fees and funding

Before you start your application, it's important to consider how you will fund your studies and cover living costs. There are lots of options available to postgraduate students to help support your work, which is why we have put together a detailed guide explaining the costs involved in postgraduate study, and the help that's available to pay for it.

Explore the funding options

How you will be supported

The Graduate School works centrally to support you as a postgraduate researcher by listening, providing development opportunities, managing your journey, and acting as a gateway to pastoral support as you require. 

Visit the Graduate School 


How to apply

Interested in researching in the field of Health, Wellbeing and Education? You will need to go through our application process. This is to ensure we can meet your specific needs and support your research topic.

For a professional doctorate, please apply directly through our professional doctorate course pages.

Start your postgraduate career by completing our MPhil/PhD enquiry form. We’ll put you in touch with a member of staff to have an informal conversation about your proposed research and qualifications.

 

UK University

StudentCrowd University Awards 2022

for Job Prospects

StudentCrowd University Awards 2022

for Student Satisfaction

Complete University Guide 2022

for Social Inclusion

The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023

for Course Content

StudentCrowd University Awards 2022

of Research Impact is ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Very Considerable’

Research Excellence Framework 2021