Our short courses are designed to meet the needs of busy mid-career professionals, new entrants to the university and the social sciences, or returnees to education. The short courses can also be taken as part of continuing professional development (CPD) programmes.
Gerontology (DL) is a distance learning pathway, facilitating students who wish to combine paid work and family life with postgraduate study. The programme is taught using a wide range of online resources, such as audio-recording and webcasts of lectures available on Blackboard, PowerPoint lecture slides, electronic readings, embedded trigger questions, online practice exercises and quizzes, discussion boards and assessed assignments.
As with the face-to-face taught programme, the DL pathway is divided into six modules, three in semester one and three in semester two for the full-time programme. Each full module is 20 CATS (10 ECTS) points and the dissertation has a value of 60 CATS (30 ECTS), making a total of 180 CATS. Five of the six modules taken on this pathway are compulsory, and there is one option module from a choice of two (GERO6013 or GERO6021). The programme may be studied over one year full-time or usually two years part-time.
Taught sessions take place over two semesters each year and the dissertation (15,000 words excluding footnotes, references and tables) is written up during the summer vacation and is submitted at the end of September.