Master’s Programme in Health Sciences – Interdisciplinary Specialisation in Mental Health and Addiction, part-time Programme description

For your information:The name of the specialisation is Mental Health Care to and including the class of 2022.

The programme was established under the Act relating to Universities and University Colleges and the Regulations relating to Studies and Examinations at OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University.

Candidates who pass the programme will be awarded the degree Master of Health Sciences (Norwegian: Master i helsevitenskap) in accordance with Section 3 of the Regulations concerning Requirements for the Master's Degrees. A specialisation in one of the following 15 specialisations forms part of the master’s degree programme:

Specialisations for applicants with backgrounds in health or social care:

• Health Sciences
• Empowerment and Health Promotion
• Mental Health Care
• Rehabilitation and Habilitation

Specialisations for applicants who are authorised health personnel in the specified professional fields:

• Nutrition for Health Personnel
• Occupational Therapy
• Physiotherapy for Children and Adolescents
• Physiotherapy for the Older Adult
• Physiotherapy for Musculoskeletal Health
• Psychomotor Physiotherapy
• Advanced Nursing Practice
• Public Health Nursing
• Cancer Nursing
• Nursing – Clinical Research and Professional Development

Specialisations for applicants from the professional field of nutrition:

• Public Health Nutrition

The specialisation will also be stated on the diploma alongside the name of the degree: Master of Health Sciences.

The master’s degree programme has a scope of 120 ECTS credits. Some of the specialisations are taken full-time over two years, while others are taken part-time over three or four years.

The programme comprises compulsory common courses, compulsory specialisation courses and elective courses, in addition to the master’s thesis. A more detailed overview of the programme’s structure for each specialisation is given under the section Content and structure.

According to the UN Agenda 2030, a prerequisite for achieving sustainable development is that everyone is able to live healthy lives. The Master’s Degree Programme in Health Sciences is primarily aimed at the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, Good Health and Well-being, while SDGs 4, 5 and 10 on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all, and achieving gender equality and reducing inequality, are also relevant. The 17 SDGs must be seen as a whole, however, where each goal is seen in conjunction with the others. The purpose of the programme is therefore to educate candidates who are qualified to help to ensure good health and promote quality of life for everyone, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, education, sexuality and functional ability, while also attempting to address considerations relating to sustainability, including life-long learning.

The students taking the programme can choose a specialisation in health promotion, illness prevention, treatment, palliative care and (re)habilitation work. The programme teaches the students to handle professional problems at the individual, group and system level in close cooperation with other professions, patients, users, next of kin and other services. The candidates should also be able to contribute to safe, effective, holistic and integrated services with good use of resources, and to innovation, improvement work and systematic user involvement.

Relevance to working life

Possible fields of work and careers after completing the programme include:

• research and development in the health sciences
• teaching, development and advisory functions in the guidance, administration and dissemination of knowledge in the health professions
• clinical work that is based on specialised expertise
• health and social care management positions

Relevance to further education

Students taking the Master's Degree Programme in Health Sciences who choose to write a master’s thesis worth 50 ECTS credits can apply for admission to the research programme for health sciences while taking the master’s programme. This is taken in parallel to and as an extension of the master’s programme. The research programme develops researcher expertise over and above that provided during the master’s programme and results in a research work that can later form part of a PhD-level work.

Candidates with a Master's Degree in Health Sciences are qualified to apply for admission to PhD programmes, including the PhD Programme in Health Sciences at OsloMet.

Specialisations

The Master's Degree Programme in Health Sciences has a number of specialisations that candidates can choose. Applicants must choose and apply directly for the specialisation they wish to take when applying for the master’s programme. The specialisations are subject to different admission requirements. However, the students will take a significant part of the programme together with students from the other specialisations, partly through compulsory common courses and partly through elective courses across the specialisations. More information about this is found in the section Content and structure.

MAPSY: Mental Health Care

The Specialisation in Mental Health Care is multi-scientific and interdisciplinary. As a field of work, the purpose of mental health care is to benefit patients/users, next of kin, the local community and society as a whole. The first 60 ECTS credits meet the requirements of the national curriculum for further education in mental health care (the Ministry of Education and Research, 2005). The main focus of the specialisation is to promote mental health care, prevent mental health issues and ease the suffering of individuals, families and groups. The specialisation will enable the student to understand and contribute to changing circumstances that underlie mental health issues, including processes of stigmatisation and social exclusion. The aim is to provide professionals with an opportunity to integrate their professional and personal experience from their education and practice into a theoretical and practical understanding. Theory is therefore combined with a practice-based approach in this specialisation, with critical and ethical reflection at the core. Practical training forms part of the specialisation.

The master’s programme is designed to be comprehensive, and the academic content and educational tools are interlinked, showing a clear context between learning outcome descriptions, learning activities and forms of assessment.

The Master’s Degree Programme in Health Sciences has three or four compulsory common courses, depending on the chosen specialisation. In addition to these, there are at least two compulsory specialisation courses for each specific specialisation, and a master’s thesis worth either 30 or 50 ECTS credits, depending on the specialisation. The students can also choose one or more elective courses depending on their chosen specialisation. This does not apply to the two specialisations cancer nursing, public health nursing and mental health care as they only have compulsory courses in their programme structures.

The courses in the programme description build to some extent on each other to ensure progress, with increasing requirements for knowledge and understanding within each specialisation. The courses are mainly taken over the course of the semester, with start-up at the start of the semester and examinations towards the end. The exceptions are certain compulsory specialisation courses that include external supervised practical training. For a full overview, see the tables below showing the normal structure of the programme for each specialisation.

The academic year is 40 weeks long, and the expected workload for a full-time student is 40 hours per week. This includes scheduled activities, students’ own study activity and examinations. The course descriptions provide more details about learning outcomes, work methods, coursework requirements and examinations. Tables 1 and 2 below show the course organisation for normal study progress for full-time students writing a master’s thesis worth 50 and 30 ECTS credits, respectively. The tables are read from left to right.

Content of compulsory common courses

The programme includes a compulsory common course MAVIT4100 Quality Improvement and Implementation of Evidence-based Practice, 10 ECTS credits. The purpose of this course is to enable students to actively contribute to promoting safe and high-quality health and care services. By health and care services is meant both public and approved private services, as well as health promoting work in the public and private sectors. The course introduces students to the organisation and management of health and care services. It also gives students experience of interprofessional quality improvement cooperation. Through the course, the students will learn about different quality improvement models and the interaction between user knowledge, experience-based knowledge and research-based knowledge in clinical decision-making processes.

There are also three common courses in the theory of science and research methods: MAVIT4050 Theory of Science and Research Methods, 10 ECTS credits, MAVIT4060 Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods, 10 ECTS credits and MAVIT4070 Research Design and Project Description, 10 ECTS credits. These courses aim to help the student to read, understand and critically assess research literature, to critically assess various sources of knowledge that form part of clinical decision-making processes, to acquire in-depth knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methods, and lead up to the development of a project description for their master’s thesis.

In the first course, MAVIT4050, the students are introduced to theory of science and research methods and research ethics.

The second course, MAVIT4060, provides students with a deeper understanding of qualitative and quantitative research methods.

The third course, MAVIT4070, the students will work more thoroughly with their chosen method and develop a project description for their master’s thesis. This is to ensure that the students get to grips with work on their master’s thesis at an early stage.

Master’s thesis – 30 and 50 ECTS credits

The master’s thesis in the programme is worth 50 ECTS credits (MAVIT5900/MAVITD5900) or 30 ECTS credits (MAVIT5910/MAVITD5910), respectively. Whether the students are able to choose the scope of their master’s thesis depends on the specialisation they have been admitted to. Students will develop a project description as part of the course MAVIT4070 Research Design and Project Description, 10 ECTS credits. The project description is developed with the support of the lecturer, who quality assures the project with respect to scope and degree of difficulty.

The same requirements apply to scientific and research-related work regardless of the length of the thesis. Students can choose to write the master’s thesis individually or in pairs. Students can also apply to write the master’s thesis with students from other specialisations, provided that the scope of the master’s thesis is the same. On application, interdisciplinary innovation projects can be written in groups of up to four students. Students are encouraged to contact potential supervisors about possible project ideas.

Study progress

The following progress requirements apply to the programme:

• All courses in the programme must be passed before the student can submit their master's thesis for assessment.
• Some courses may have separate progress requirements; see the individual course descriptions.

See the course descriptions for MAPSY4100, MAPSY4200 and MAPSYPRA10 for a more detailed description of the content of the specialisation courses.

The increasing globalisation of the labour market makes international experience and knowledge of languages and cultures increasingly important. Internationalisation contributes to raising the quality of education and strengthens the academic community relating to the master’s programme, at the same time as it strengthens the students as global citizens.

The programme has a focus on multicultural and global problems. This approach contributes to an increased understanding and improves the students' ability to work in a professional capacity in a multicultural society. The students gain access to specialist terminology in English through the syllabus, which comprises both textbooks and international research literature.

The staff’s network, research collaboration and cooperation with colleagues in other countries contribute to internationalisation. The programme is represented in international networks.

OsloMet has exchange agreements with educational institutions in Europe and worldwide.

Courses adapted to incoming exchange students

The following courses have been adapted for incoming exchange students:

• MAVIT4050 Theory of Science and Research Methods, 10 ECTS credits
• MAVIT4060 Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods, 10 ECTS credits
• MAVIT4100 Quality Improvement and Implementation of Evidence-based Practice, 10 ECTS credits
• MAPHN4100 National and Global Nutrition Challenges, 10 ECTS credits
• MAPHN4200 Public Health Nutrition Policies and Interventions, 10 ECTS credits
• MAMUS4100 Physical Therapy for Musculoskeletal Conditions – Part 1, 10 ECTS credits
• MAFAR4100 Innovation within Healthcare, 10 ECTS credits
• MAVIT4700 Food, Health and Sustainability, 10 ECTS credits
• MAVIT4900 Quality of Life, 10 ECTS credits
• MAVIT5100 Health Communication, 10 ECTS credits
• MAVIT5200 The Health and Welfare of Migrant Populations, 10 ECTS credits
• MAVIT5400 Alliance and Shared Decision Making, 10 ECTS credits
• MAVIT5600 Physical Activity and Exercise in a Life Course Perspective and with a Special Focus on Aging, 10 ECTS credits
• MAVIT5700 Pain – Multidimensional Assessment and Health Professional Interventions, 10 ECTS credits

The course MAVIT4100 Quality Improvement and Implementation of Evidence-based Practice will always be taught in English. The other courses listed above will be taught in English if international students have registered for them. Otherwise, courses will generally be taught in Norwegian.

Semesters adapted to outbound exchange students

Students who wish to take courses at an educational institution abroad as part of their master’s degree normally go on an exchange in the third semester. Students admitted to a specialisation that as a norm has a master’s thesis worth 50 ECTS credits can apply to instead write a master’s thesis worth 30 ECTS credits to realize this. The students are responsible for finding relevant courses at partner institutions and must apply to have them approved in advance. An international coordinator can provide guidance in relation to selecting a course. 

Reference is otherwise made to the criteria that apply to student exchanges and the information about stays abroad.