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Dr Flora Cornish

This course is available on the MPhil/PhD in Health Policy and Health Economics, MSc in Applied Social Data Science, MSc in Gender, Policy and Inequalities, MSc in Global Health Policy, MSc in Health and International Development, MSc in Human Geography and Urban Studies (Research), MSc in Marketing and MSc in Social Research Methods. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course is not controlled access. If you register for a place and meet the prerequisites, if any, you are likely to be given a place.

This course aims to equip students with the methodological knowledge and research skills to be able to design and critically appraise evaluation research, in the context of the rise of evidence-based policy. It covers the powerful research designs used in applied fields including international development, health, and public policy, addressing both widely-used and more innovative designs. The course takes a mixed methods approach. It covers the major quantitative designs, including randomized experiments and observational (i.e. non-randomized) research designs such as selection on observables, difference-in-differences, and the regression discontinuity design. It covers qualitative and participatory research designs and their contribution to formative research, process evaluation, realist evaluations, interpreting outcomes, and assessing transferability to other settings. As well as the major design issues, the course addresses practical and ethical issues of evaluation research, how to write a study protocol, and how to draw lessons from a body of evidence through reviewing and synthesis. Examples from the fields of health, international development and public policy will be used throughout the lectures and seminars.

This course is delivered through a combination of seminars and lectures totalling a minimum of 20 hours across Lent Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Lent Term.

An essay plan for the essay-based summative assignment, in the LT.

Angrist, J. D. and Pischke, J-S. (2014) Mastering Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect. Princeton University Press

Bell, S. & Aggleton, P. (2016). Monitoring and Evaluation in Health and Social Development: Interpretive and Ethnographic perspectives. London: Routledge. 

Cartwright, N. & Hardie, J. (2012). Evidence-Based Policy: A practical guide to doing it better. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 

Glennerster, R. and Takaarasha, K. (2013) Running Randomized Evaluations: A Practical Guide, Princeton University Press.

Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. (4th Edition). London: Sage. 

Essay (50%, 2500 words) in the ST.
Research design (50%) in the LT.