Course information
UK fee £10,700
International fee £20,250
Taught by Population Health Sciences
Contact
Stephanie Hubbard
MSc Admissions Tutor
+44 (0)116 229 7264
clspgt@le.ac.uk
Course description
Course description
This postgraduate degree will give you all the expertise you need to become a practising medical statistician. You will cover all relevant theory but with an emphasis on understanding, applying and adapting it to real-life circumstances. Your analysis skills will be developed on real medical data sets, using statistical software such as Stata, R, SAS and WinBUGS.
An important factor in the success of a practising statistician is the ability to communicate with others. To develop these skills, you will work on two mini-projects and will be introduced to consultancy skills throughout the course. The mini-projects involve analysing data arising from real problems and data sets and presenting a report on the findings.
Your choice of option module allows you to specialise in one particular area:
- If you choose to study the 'Genetic Epidemiology' option module, your degree will be an MSc in Medical Statistics with specialisation in Genetic Epidemiology
- If you choose to study the 'Health Technology Assessment' option module, your degree will be an MSc in Medical Statistics with specialisation in Health Technology Assessment
- If you choose to study the 'Further Topics in Medical Statistics' option module, your degree will be an MSc in Medical Statistics
Entry requirements
Entry requirements
The course is intended mainly for students with a good honours degree of which mathematics/statistics is the main subject, and with a working knowledge of basic probability and statistics. However, applicants with other suitable backgrounds will be considered by the course team. If you wish to discuss your background please contact the Admissions Tutor at clspgt@le.ac.uk
English Language Requirements
IELTS 6.5 or equivalent. If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. If you do not yet meet our requirements, our English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) offers a range of courses to help you to improve your English to the necessary standard.
International Qualifications
Find your country in this list to check equivalent qualifications, scholarships and additional requirements.
Countries listFees and funding
Fees and funding
UK Students
Starting in September 2024
- MSc: £10,700
If you are resident outside the UK and the Republic of Ireland, you will need to pay a deposit of £3,000 to secure your place. This will be subtracted from your total tuition fee.
We would be keen to support applicants who wish to apply for an NIHR Pre-doctoral Fellowship which includes the MSc Medical Statistics at Leicester as the training component. Please contact the course team via mscmedstats@le.ac.uk and we will discuss with you the areas of research we are interested in and can support your application.
Find out more about scholarships and funding.
Did you know you can apply for a Government Postgraduate Loan? Find out if you're eligible.
If you are a University of Leicester alumni, you may be eligible for the Centenary Alumni Discount which offers a 20% fee reduction.
Additional costs
You will have the option to purchase Stata software for this programme, currently costing £80 + VAT.
International Students
Starting in September 2024
- MSc: £20,250
You will need to pay a deposit of £3,000 to secure your place. This will be subtracted from your total tuition fee.
From 2022 onwards, EU nationals will pay the International fee. If you are an EU national with settled or pre-settled status under the EU settlement scheme, you may qualify for the UK fee (subject to criteria).
Find out more about scholarships and funding.
If you are a University of Leicester alumni, you may be eligible for the Centenary Alumni Discount which offers a 20% fee reduction.
Additional costs
You will have the option to purchase Stata software for this programme, costing £70 + VAT.
Accreditation
Accreditation
This course is currently accredited by the Royal Statistical Society. On graduation you will be able to apply for the professional award of Graduate Statistician.
Careers and employability
Careers and employability
The demand for medical statisticians is high and many employers contact us with job opportunities and to give careers talks to try to recruit graduates. For further information about a career in medical/pharmaceutical statistics please look at:
- RSS statistics careers for general and medical/pharmaceutical specific careers information
- PSI careers website for pharmaceutical statistician careers advice
Graduate Profiles
Name: Sarwar Mozumder
Undergraduate background: BSc Financial Mathematics, University of Leicester
Current role: Statistical Scientist at Roche
As an MSc student in Leicester, you truly become inaugurated as part of a community that installs a deep connection that you carry with you throughout your career. The summer module options are a great way to really focus your interests, and for me, this was in Survival Analysis. The modules are all taught by experts in their respective fields, and their passion for the subject matter really shines through. Pre-MSc, I’d never have thought I’d have the capacity to undertake a PhD. However, as a testament to the quality of teaching, training and guidance on offer, I was equipped with the skills and confidence to go on to successfully graduate with a PhD in the development of flexible parametric models for competing risks and tools to facilitate in the understanding and communication of cancer survival. Following my PhD, along with my training on the MSc and through the support and advice of senior academic staff, I went on to secure an exciting position in pharma as a Study Statistician.
Name: Laura Kirton
Undergraduate degree: BSc Mathematics, University of Birmingham
Current job title: Senior Biostatistician for the Cancer Research Clinical Trials Unit, University of Birmingham
The MSc Medical Statistics course at the University of Leicester gave me the invaluable foundation needed to pursue the career I love as a Biostatistician. The thing I enjoyed most about the course was the variety of topics taught and examination styles to accompany each topic, enabling me to develop my written, presenting and coding skills. I am also extremely grateful for the lecturers, who are world-leading experts in the field of medical statistics, and made me feel supported and valued throughout. As well as being given the fundamental knowledge and tools to become a statistician and statistical programmer, the course equipped me to become a sound researcher and networker. I have taken these essential qualities with me to exceed in my job and embark on a part-time PhD in the field of prognosis research, the topic on which I wrote my MSc dissertation.
Our Career Development Service is here to support you, with advice on interviews, CVs, work experience, volunteering and more. From Freshers’ Week to Graduation and beyond, they are here to help you reach your professional goals.
Course structure
Full-time
Full-time
Core modules
- Fundamentals of Medical Statistics
- Statistical Modelling (Full-time)
- Statistical Computing and Inference
- Computationally Intensive Methods
- Advanced Statistical Modelling (Full-time)
- Clinical Trials
- Epidemiology
Option modules
Choose one option module from:
Plus your Medical Statistics Project
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Part-time
Part-time
Core modules
- Fundamentals of Medical Statistics
- Statistical Modelling (Part-time)
- Statistical Computing and Inference
- Computationally Intensive Methods
- Advanced Statistical Modelling (Part-time)
- Clinical Trials
- Epidemiology
Option modules
Choose one option module from:
Plus your Medical Statistics Project
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Project
Project
You will undertake a Medical Statistics Project during the summer, usually based on analysis of real medical data or methodology in the area of medical statistics.
Examples of previous projects
- Analysis and modelling of road traffic accident data
- The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of hot water temperature controls for the prevention of scalds in children aged 0-4 years
- Individual patient data meta-analysis in diabetes
- Predictors of GP consultation in older people with joint pain
- Survival of women with endometrial cancer
- Meta-analysis of the toxicological evidence concerning the health effects of fluoride
- Odds ratios vs relative risks in a study of 30 day mortality after myocardial infarction
- Hierarchical modelling of measurement errors in banked biosamples
- Measurement of psychological health among adolescents in south-west England
- Quality of diabetes care in high and low socio-economic groups in a multi-ethnic population
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Why Leicester?
The Department of Population Health Sciences has approximately 140 academic, research, teaching, and support staff meaning that you will get all the support you need. In the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, 96% of our research outputs in Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care were judged to be ‘world-leading’ (4*) or ‘internationally excellent’ (3*), ranking the Department 12th place nationally.
The Department of Population Health Sciences is engaged in internationally competitive research across a wide range of topics, including epidemiology, medical statistics, public health, primary care, health services research, and psychiatry. We are also a strong research force locally, with many of our academic staff are affiliated with NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre to lead novel patient-centred research to improve health and healthcare.
Teaching and learning
Each module is taught in a week-long blocks using a variety of lectures, seminars and computer practicals, including sessions delivered by external practising medical statisticians. In between these teaching weeks you will complete the course work from the previous teaching weeks and start your preliminary reading for the next one.
Assessment is by coursework and exam. Many modules have an assessed coursework element involving the analysis of a real medical data set and the production of a concise written report. There are also mathematical and statistical computing-based courseworks.
On the full-time course, you will study the core modules from September to April and your chosen option module in April and May, then complete your project between June and September.
Alternatively, it is possible to study for this MSc part-time. As a part-time student you would complete the taught modules over two academic years, attending approximately seven one-week blocks per year. You would then complete your project over the next six months.
Key dates
September 2024 start
- Application deadline: 9 September 2024 (Please note if you require a visa to study you will be required to submit your course application by 26 July 2024)
- Deposit payment deadline: 9 August 2024
- CAS request deadline: 6 September 2024
- 70% tuition payment deadline: 6 September 2024
Apply now
| Course | Qualification | Duration | Start Dates | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Course Medical Statistics | Qualification MSc | Duration 1 year full-time | Start Dates September each year | Availability Apply Now |
| Course Medical Statistics | Qualification MSc | Duration 2-3 years part-time | Start Dates September each year | Availability Apply Now |
