MPhil/PhD programme

When you begin your studies, you will be assigned a Supervisory Team, with a Primary and one or two Secondary Supervisors to consult and discuss your academic performance, research, and paths of progression. It is a requirement that at least one of the Supervisory Team is a member of the Department’s teaching faculty.

Our faculty are engaged in impactful health and social care research, addressing contemporary challenges across diverse areas of the health sector.

Prospective supervisors include:

Emilie Courtin is willing to supervise students interested in:

• Social Determinants of Health
• Policy Evaluation
• Ageing

Rocco Friebel will be on sabbatical during 2025/26

Bo Hu is willing to supervise students interested in:

• Long-term Care Financing, Unpaid Care for Old People
• Social Determinants of Health Ageing from a Life Course Perspective

Mylene Lagarde is willing to supervise students interested in:

• The economics of poor quality of care in LMICs (causes and consequences)
• The drivers of under-use and overuse of care in LMICs
• Mental health of healthcare providers
• Patient discrimination and inequalities

Juliette Malley is willing to supervise students interested in:

• Adult social care (long-term care) policy PhDs, within that innovations in the delivery and organisation of adult social care
• Evaluation of complex interventions, including issues relating to the measurement of user experience, quality and outcomes
• The governance, performance and reform of long-term care systems

Alistair McGuire is willing to supervise students interested in:

• International comparisons of health care systems, delivery and expenditure
• Economics of the hospital
• Econometric analysis of interventions

Huseyin Naci is willing to supervise students interested in:

• Pharmaceutical policy and economics, pharmaceutical regulation

Justin Parkhurst will be on sabbatical during 2025/26

Andrew Street is willing to supervise students interested in:

• Evaluation of health care policy involving econometric analyses and quasi-experimental designs
• Payment design and performance assessment of health care organisations
• Economic issues associated with aging, multi-morbidity, frailty and integrated care

Ranjeeta Thomas is willing to supervise students interested in:

• Field experiments and applied economics studies in low-and-middle income countries
• Understanding drivers of health and health behaviours
• Demand for preventative health care

Clare Wenham is willing to supervise students interested in:

• Global Health Policy

Joan Costa-Font is willing to supervise students interested in:

• Healthy ageing and the later-life effects of economic policies
• Global financing and organisation of long-term care
• Political and behavioural drivers of health inequality
• Incentives for healthy habits and time use

Admission is conditional upon having appropriate supervisory expertise and support available in the Department.

With a world-class faculty, distinguished visitors, and a diverse postgraduate student body, the Department of Health Policy cultivates a stimulating environment for research and learning. As a PhD student here you will attend informal seminars, guest lectures by leaders of national and foreign health services, alumni roundtables, and overseas institutional visits.

The Department is committed to remain among the highest-ranking social policy units of assessment (2014 Research Excellence Framework) and is rated among the top Departments by our students as well.

The long-established and highly regarded research centres affiliated with the Department are: LSE Health, (CPEC, formerly PSSRU), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School of Social Care Research (SSCR), the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, and the Global Health Initiative (GHI), with a total of over 70 academic staff based across these centres.

Meet our PhD students

For more information and to apply, please visit the LSE website.

You are welcome to submit an informal inquiry to the PhD Programme team, via HealthPolicy.PhD@lse.ac.uk