Master of Health Care Management
PostgraduateMUR-HCM-MAS2025
Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
Become a champion of change in health care
Designed for health care professionals to dive deep into management, quality, and safety. Gain the knowledge you need to become a leader of excellence in health care. Prepare for management opportunities in community, mental health, primary and aged care.
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Applications close
- 9 Feb 2025,
- 13 July 2025
- Credit available
- Yes
- Duration
- Approx. 1.5 years full time or part time equivalent
- Total subjects
- 11
- Available loans
- Australian Higher Education Loan Program (HELP)
- CSP available
- Yes
Master of Health Care Management
About this degree
Upon the successful completion of this degree students will be able to:
- Articulate a body of current theoretical and practical knowledge in Health Care Management, Quality, Safety, Leadership, and emerging health priorities and trends
- Critically analyse all available information to inform advanced decision making within current professional, ethical and legal frameworks
- Demonstrate effective communication and research skills to evaluate and apply best available evidence to improve outcomes for all stakeholders
- Apply critical thinking, autonomy and accountability to facilitate effective healthcare teams
- Create respectful and collaborative interdisciplinary relationships to facilitate holistic and culturally safe health care
- Identify complex organisational problems and develop solutions using a systems based approach
- Understand and use performance metrics to direct resources for sustainable service delivery.
This course aims to cultivate excellence in quality, leadership and management in health professionals working in Quality, Safety, Risk and Middle Management roles in acute, community, mental health, primary and aged care public and private sectors. Students will, on completion of the course, have the capacity and capability of applying these skills in a range of management positions and become leaders and champions of change. Innovative and creative elective units are designed to allow different disciplines to focus on their areas of speciality. Advanced Standing: Up to 12 credit points of advanced standing is available to students who have completed a Level 8 Graduate Certificate or a Bachelors degree with Honours.
Recommended study pattern
- There are 9 subjects in Semester 1 and 8 subjects in Semester 2. Students can enrol into their preferred subjects except for two, i.e., MUR-SHP603 Applied Health Services Project & MUR-SHP604 Reflective Practice in Health Management.
- SHP632 Applied Health Research Methods is a mandatory pre-requisite for this year-long subject SHP603 Applied Health Services Project. Students are unable to self-enrol in SHP603. Enrolment must be via review by the Academic Chair to ensure successful completion of SHP632 and to discuss the project. Please contact Dr Melanie Murray (melanie.murray@murdoch.edu.au) if you wish to enrol in SHP603.
- MUR-SHP511 Leadership in Health Care is also the pre-requisite for MUR-SHP604 Reflective Practice in Health Management.
Award requirements
To qualify for the award of Master of Health Care Management students must complete the following ten (10) core subjects:
- SHP501 Safety and Quality in Health Care
- SHP612 Managing in a Health Care Environment
- SHP511 Leadership in Health Care
- SHP632 Applied Health Research Methods: From Research to Practice
- SHP603 Applied Health Services Project (double eftsl subject)
- SHP602 Human Factors: The Impact on Patient Safety
- SHP510 Bioethics and Law for Health Care Leadership
- SHP639 Financial Management in Health Care
- SHP541 Health Policy in an Australian Context
- SHP604 Reflective Practice in Health Management
and one (1) of the following specified elective subjects:
- EDU616 Teaching, Learning and Working in Culturally Diverse Environments
- SHP641 Clinical Governance
Exit points
Graduate Certificate in Health Care Management (comprising of 4 core subjects)
Degrees are usually made up of core subjects and electives. Some degrees include a choice of majors, so you can focus your studies on a specialisation.
This list is a general overview. Download the full Degree Guide for more information.
Open Universities Australia is a not-for-profit organisation. You will not pay any fees for using our services.
Indicative first year fee
$8,733
Indicative total fee $13,100
The amounts shown here are indicative for an Australian citizen studying full-time, which is typically 8 subjects per year.
Fees may vary depending on:
- the subjects you choose
- credit from previous work experience
- your eligibility for government funding loans or subsidies such as HECS-HELP or a Commonwealth supported place.
To learn more, go to Fees or contact a student advisor.
This research-based university in Perth has a strong interdisciplinary focus and a reputation for outstanding teaching and ground-breaking research. With more than 25,000 students and 2,400 staff from over 90 countries, and campuses in Dubai and Singapore, Murdoch embraces free thinking, shared ideas and knowledge to make a difference, and Open Universities Australia is certainly part of that.
Learn more about Murdoch University.
Explore Murdoch courses.
- QS Ranking 2024:
- 27
- Times Higher Education Ranking 2024:
- 26
Entry requirements
This is a restricted degree. Subject enrolment is only available to students admitted into this degree.
Completion of a Bachelor degree (AQF Level 7) or equivalent in a health discipline.
Preparation for the degree through previous study or professional experiences will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Equivalent of an Academic IELTS overall score of 6.5 with no band less than 6.5.
Find out if you are eligible and apply at Recognition of Prior Learning.
Study method requirements
Access to adequate library resources and to the Internet is essential for external students.
*** Proof of citizenship is not required for admission; however, it is required for access to Higher Education Loan Programs (HELP). Please upload a scanned copy of your birth certificate or Australian passport or citizenship certificate along with your application.
Career opportunities
Enhanced quality, safety and management skills acquired will position students to meet consumer expectations of the healthcare system and to fulfil industry demand for increased middle management skills, mentoring, supervision and coaching skills in order to enhance the quality of services. Positions such as Accreditation Coordinator, Quality Manager, Quality and Risk Manager are essential within health services, particularly the private and aged care sectors, for their accreditation. Successful completion of this degree will put graduates in a favourable position to fill such roles.
Australian job snapshots
Data sourced from Australian Jobs 2023.
Role | Earnings | Employment change |
|---|---|---|
Health and Welfare Services Managers | Over $120K | Up 56.6% |
Medical Administrators | Over $120K | Up 0.01% |
Nurse Managers | Over $120K | Up 19.9% |
Policy and Planning Managers | Over $120K | Up 53.8% |
Practice Managers | $75K to $93K | Up 18.7% |
Primary Health Organisation Managers | N/A^ | N/A^ |
Tribunal Members | N/A^ | N/A^ |
^ There is no data available
Degree FAQs
How long does it take to finish an online degree?
That's up to you! Because we let you choose when to study online, you can actually pick up and pause study when it suits you. Many universities have a set time you need to complete your degree within. For some this is up to 10 years, and for others there is no limit.
There are some degrees that are stricter about when you can take breaks, and about how many years you can take to complete your degree. Please always check with your uni what the limits are.
As a general guide, Commonwealth supported place students have 10 years to finish their undergraduate degree through OUA, However, if you're studying with Griffith University, there's a limit of 8 years to complete your studies. If you want to take a break that lasts more than two study terms, you'll need to apply for a leave of absence. You can apply for a leave of absence for up to 12 months, as long as you complete your studies within the maximum time allowed for your degree.
If you're studying with Macquarie University, with the exception of certain degrees, there's no limit to how long you can take. But, please check with Macquarie Student Administration to be sure.
If you're studying with the University of Adelaide, you have up to 9 years to complete your undergraduate degree and graduate.
If you're studying with La Trobe University and want to take a break of minimum 1 study term, you must apply for leave of absence to avoid being inadvertently withdrawn from your degree.
Through OUA, you can study all year round, so it's possible to fast-track and finish up sooner than studying at a traditional uni would allow. That said, you need to spend around 12 hours a week on each undergraduate subject you do, so taking on extra work to finish ahead of time can be challenging.
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