The University of Cambridge Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Medicine has been designed collaboratively by University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education (PACE) and the School of Clinical Medicine’s Clinical Deanery. The PG Diploma is a continuation of the PG Certificate in Clinical Research, Education and Leadership and provides a progression route to the one year Masters in Clinical Medicine. It is a one-year, part-time Master’s-level course resulting in 60 FHEQ Level-7 credits and the University of Cambridge award.
Please note that application to the PG Diploma in Clinical Medicine is only open to students who have successfully completed the PG Certificate in Clinical Research Education and Leadership at the University of Cambridge.
The course is delivered through blended learning methods using a combination of face-to-face sessions requiring attendance in Cambridge, self-directed learning and supported through a virtual learning environment [VLE].
We plan to offer the following modules for standalone CPPD study (not for credit) in 2025-26:
- Clinical leadership
- Clinical research
- Clinical education
- Advanced clinical leadership
- Healthcare law
- Healthcare informatics
Course Dates
Course details
Tutors
Key Features
Who is the course designed for?
This one-year course is open to all healthcare staff and includes units on healthcare informatics; advanced clinical leadership and quality improvement; and healthcare law. It is suited for doctors, dentists, nurses and allied health professionals.
The course is taught part-time and is designed to be flexible and accessible to working healthcare professionals contributing towards research and professional development through reinforcement of Good Clinical Practice (GCP).
The PG Diploma is part of the Clinical Medicine programme and is only open to those who have successfully completed the PG Certificate in Clinical Research, Education and Leadership (formerly known as the PG Certificate in Clinical Medicine) at PACE. Courses undertaken in other universities will not count as credits towards this PG Diploma. Students who complete their PG Diploma in Clinical Medicine may apply to the MSt in Clinical Medicine. Please note that the MSt may not run every year.
Aims of the programme
- Provide professionally relevant teaching and learning informed by research in an integrated clinical and teaching environment.
- Create an international cohort of consultants, GPs, dentists and other healthcare professionals able to pursue and develop their roles in a rapidly-changing and challenging environment of clinical medicine.
- Develop the confidence within this cohort to lead service improvement for safe and high quality patient care, with the required knowledge, skills and capability to have a positive personal impact on the work of others in their clinical team and wider service.
- Develop clinicians with an understanding of teaching, professional development and assessment in the field of clinical medicine.
- Develop clinicians with an understanding of research methodologies and ethical considerations relevant to clinical medicine.
- Encourage participants to develop as reflective practitioners with the emotional intelligence, resilience and astuteness required to be effective clinical leaders.
- Encourage a commitment to intellectual challenge and evidence-based clinical practice informed by the latest conceptual and theoretical knowledge of medical education, research methods, ethics and clinical leadership and governance.
Student support
Depending upon your needs, a variety of support opportunities are available to you including wellbeing support sessions, short-term counselling, and study skills support sessions. Find out more in our student support webpages.
Applications are invited from healthcare staff including doctors, dentists, nurses and allied health professionals.
The PG Diploma is only open to those who have successfully completed the PG Certificate in Clinical Research, Education and Leadership (formerly known as the PGCert in Clinical Medicine) at PACE.
Courses undertaken in other universities will not count as credits towards this PG Diploma. Students who complete their PG Diploma in Clinical Medicine can apply to the MSt in Clinical Medicine.
Please note: the maximum break in study between awards is five years, provided that you maintain relevant clinical experience. The full MSt in Clinical Medicine must be completed in a maximum of eight years.
Language requirement
If English isn’t your first language, you will be required to submit evidence that you meet the University’s English language requirement before you are admitted.
Please see full details on the University Language Requirement webpage.
Language requirements for this course are below:
- IELTS Academic: Overall band score of 7.5 (with a minimum of 7.0 in each individual component)
- TOEFL Internet: Overall score of 110 (a minimum of 25 in each individual component)
- C1 Advanced: Grade A or B (with at least 193 in each individual element), plus a Language Centre assessment.
- C2 Proficiency: Grade A, B, or C (with at least 200, with no element lower than 185)
There are no exceptions to this requirement and, if you are offered a place on the course, it will be subject to you meeting this requirement.
The PG Diploma in Clinical Medicine, like the the PG Certificate in Clinical Research, Education and Leadership and the MSt in Clinical Medicine to which it leads on, is designed to be flexible and accessible to healthcare professionals and to complement employment within a clinical environment.
Teaching
Please note: the teaching dates may be subject to change
Unit 1 – Healthcare Law (20 credits)
One week: 13-17th October 2025 (5 teaching sessions)
Unit leads:
Dr Aaron D’Sa | Registrar in Anaesthesia, East of England training programme.
Aims
To enable students to explore, and develop their understanding of, the laws that govern and influence medical practice and the way professionals and institutions are regulated and held to account.
Content
- An introduction to Human Rights and Equality legislation.
- Mental Health law.
- The process and importance of complaints, quality assurance and liability.
- Confidentiality and data protection.
- The regulation of healthcare professionals and institutions.
- End of life care and ceiling of care decisions.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students will demonstrate:
- enable students to develop their understanding of the way professionals and institutions are regulated and held to account
- understand the legal framework within which medicine is practiced in England and Wales
- understand the social and philosophical context of healthcare law
- understand how to find and read legal sources
- understand how professionals and healthcare organisations are scrutinised
- enable students to keep up to date with legal developments in their clinical specialties
- enable students to apply their knowledge of the law to common clinical scenarios
Unit 2 – Advanced Clinical Leadership (20 credits)
One week: 12-16th January 2026
Unit Leads:
Dr Nicola Jones | Consultant in Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Critical Care, Clinical Lead Critical Care Area, Chair Regional Transfusion Committee, Clinical Sub-dean and Associate Lecturer University of Cambridge.
Dr Thomas O’Connor | Senior Dentist, Cambridge Community Dental Services, and Honorary Dental Surgeon with Addenbrooke's Cambridge University Teaching Hospitals Trust.
The unit is delivered by an academic and clinical team drawing experience from NHS Improvement, NIHR CLAHRC, The King’s Fund, Cambridge University Teaching Hospitals Trusts, and the Royal Papworth Hospital.
Aims
This unit supports students to take on more significant leadership positions and effectively deliver improvements to clinical services. The curriculum maps to the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management Professional Standards and the NHS Leadership Framework. Subject to accreditation candidates who successfully complete the module may be eligible for membership of other leadership organisations.
Content
- The impact of, and how to, enhance effective leadership within the clinical arena.
- Improving leadership by inspiring shared purpose, leading with care, evaluation and connecting services.
- Developing teams through shared vision, engagement, accountability via an evidence-based approach to people management.
- Developing capability and influencing for results in large organisations.
Themes
The eight themes in the Advanced Clinical Leadership Module will focus on the practical implantation and modification of effective leadership, specific to the workplace role of each candidate. This will culminate in a publishable Quality Improvement Project report.
- Clinical Leadership in the NHS.
- Self-awareness and personal leadership qualities.
- Project/change management theories and practice.
- Impact of effective leadership within the clinical arena, and resilience strategies.
- Teams: Evidence-based approach to people management.
- Rescuing failing teams, managing difficult behaviour.
- Leading for improvement, strategic development, business planning and marketing.
- Presenting projects, change management, organisational theory. Change within large organisations – the NHS, learning from other industries.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students will demonstrate:
- analysis of their leadership standards in the domains of Self, Team Leader, Organisational Responsibility, and System Leadership: with reflective learning demonstrating their development in each domain
- evaluation of their leadership impact and project management methodology skills through the creation and delivery of a sustainable Quality Improvement Project, to a publishable level
- purposeful analysis of a range of leadership theories and concepts, as the basis for justifying their clinical leadership and service development decisions
- creation, justification, and implementation of Change Management Plans, evidencing a critical appreciation of the role of leadership approaches on the success of change
Unit 3: Healthcare Informatics (20 credits)
One week: 27th April-1st May 2026 (5 teaching days)
Unit Leads:
Dr Katharina Kohler
Dr Daniel Stubbs
Aims
To introduce students to the importance of Healthcare Informatics in a modern clinical setting to improve patient care through an understanding of the healthcare data needs of clinicians, health organisations, governments and patients.
Content
- The design, and wider implications, of information systems and data in a modern healthcare environment.
- The relevance of data models and data flows within the NHS.
- The importance of informatics in a modern health system and how this information can improve patient care.
- The impact of healthcare data.
- The structure and organisation of healthcare databases, systems and data storage.
- The governance, regulatory and ethical elements of healthcare data.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module participants should be able to:
- describe the various types / properties / structure / usage of multiple types of patient-level and aggregated data used in the field of healthcare
- describe the framework within which datasets are described, mandated / notified, implemented and reported in the NHS
- describe the UK governance framework relating to the use of personal data in healthcare
- describe the differences between terminologies and classifications and their usage
- describe an approach to data stewardship and proper curation in the management of healthcare data
- describe the elements which underpin meaningful and safe interoperability in the context of personal healthcare data.
Assessment
Each unit uses summative assessment approaches of 3,000-4,000 words or their equivalent. Assessments are designed to ensure experiential learning and work-based real-life relevance. Approaches may include but are not limited to critical analysis of case-studies, assessment of evidence-based portfolios, assessment of work and sector relevant group presentations and projects, short answer questions, essays, the ability to handle, analyse and visualise unseen datasets, and research dissertations.
Progression
Upon successful completion of the PG Diploma in Clinical Medicine, students could apply to progress to the MSt in Clinical Medicine. Please note that the MSt year of the Clinical Medicine programme may not run every year.
Fees
The fee for 2024/25 will be £6,545.00 per annum (home) and £13,090.00 (overseas).
Students will be expected to cover the application fee (£50 online) and any costs of travel, accommodation and subsistence incurred during teaching sessions in Cambridge.
Funding
You are advised to approach your own NHS Foundation Trust or employer organisation for any funding or bursary opportunities.
The application deadline has now been extended to the 30th May 2025 with applications dealt with in two batches; any applications received up to the 30th April 2025 will be considered in batch one, and any applications received between the 1st and 30th May 2025 in batch two. We may carry over applications received in the first batch over to the second batch. Interviews will be held approximately 3-4 weeks after each batch deadline.
Should the course become full, we reserve the right to close for applications early. As a result, we would encourage applicants to apply as soon as possible.
Applicants will be required to either submit or provide details of the following as part of the application process:
- copies of qualification transcripts
- employer letter of support to confirm release of time to study
- evidence of funding
- details of two academic referees
- if applicable, appropriate visa to attend the course
- evidence of competence in English (if appropriate)
All eligible candidates will be invited to interview following the application closing date.
When completing your application, please note the University restrictions and risks of using AI tools.
