Faculty of Health and Wellbeing

The Faculty encompasses the disciplines of nursing, midwifery, allied health professions (operating department practice, occupational therapy, physiotherapy), education, social work and social care, childhood studies, sport, and psychology.

• School of Nursing and Healthcare Sciences
• School of Communities and Education
• School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
• School of Psychology
  
  

Home to approximately 6,208 students and 388 staff, It will comprise our existing Department of Nursing, Midwifery and Health which will be renamed the School of Nursing and Healthcare Sciences and our Department of Social Work, Community and Education Studies which will be renamed the School of Community Studies and Education ,and our departments of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation and Psychology, which will become schools but retain their current structures (. We anticipate that these Schools will grow over the coming years.

Location

The Faculty’s activity is  across two sites - the University’s Newcastle City Campus and our Coach Lane Campus on the outskirts of the city centre. Most of our  programmes that lead directly to professional practice (nursing, midwifery, allied health professions and education) are delivered at Coach Lane which features a clinical skills centre and ward spaces which are used in simulated learning; primary school classroom environments and  sports facilities that support physiotherapy teaching.

City Campus is home to the University’s £30 million Sport Central which features a host of laboratories used in sport, exercise and nutrition research and teaching. Some programmes are also delivered via transnational education partnerships in Sri Lanka, SIngapore, Hong Kong and Malta .  

The University intends to move much of the existing provision from Coach Lane to the City Campus by the end of this decade. Demolition and groundworks have already begun on site to create a new c.£100 million building which will be a base for our Centre for Health and Social Equity (CHASE). 

Key partnerships

The Faculty of Health and Wellbeing works closely with the NHS, local authorities, voluntary, private and third sectors. These partnerships provide  extensive range of practice-based placements, practice learning, continuing professional development and workforce development programmes to ensure our student and regional healthcare, social care and education professionals are at the forefront of practice. 

The University has a well-established partnership with the Life science centre. Through collaborations on research and learning in STEM subjects, both organisations work together to bring science to life for the public.

Research, education and knowledge exchange

Through our new Centre for Health and Social Equity (CHASE), we are transforming the way we develop and deliver interdisciplinary research. CHASE brings together researchers from across all academic disciplines who are working on world-leading health, wellbeing, education and social equity issues. Our aim is for CHASE to lead the creation of innovative, evidence-based policies and data-driven solutions that bring impactful change across the region, the UK and globally. 

The Faculty will be home to an extensive range of research groups, covering aspects of health and wellbeing as diverse as childhood development, end of life care, astronaut health, sleep and elite athlete performance. Multiple hubs of collaborating researchers span the different schools.  For example, NUTRAN brings together teams from sports, psychology, sleep and nutrition to improve human health and wellbeing through commercially-focused and funded research that requires human nutritional trials.  

Other groups include the Northern Hub for Veterans and Military Families, researching the many issues affecting the armed forces community; the Healthy Living Lab, investigating issues relating to public health and food insecurity and the Common Sense Policy Group, working to address inequality and exclusion in Britain. A multidisciplinary team lead work on how we can support people to live better in later life, while a team of health economists and implementation scientists   lead work to embed new, evidence-based practice across health and social care and to identify and evaluate efficiency and cost effectiveness.. 

In the last academic year the departments that will make-up the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing brought in a total of £3.2 million in research grants and contract income from organisations including Leverhulme Trust, UEFA, NIHR, MRC, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Parkinsons UK, Coca Cola, The United Nations, European Space Agency. 

Colleagues in the existing departments were all returned in units highly ranked for research power in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework. Northumbria is ranked 3rd in the UK for Social Work and Social Policy (UoA 20) and 8th for research in UoA 3 which examined research in the areas of Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy. 

Sport & Exercise Sciences (UoA 24) saw Northumbria ranked 5th for research power in the UK, with 90% of publications rated as being world-leading or internationally excellent, and in Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience (UoA 4) Northumbria is now ranked 15th for research power, rising an impressive 28 places since 2014.

 

For further information, including details of how to apply, please visit: odgers.com/92842