Kathrin Wandscher and Adele Grenz are the first graduates of the Master's degree programme in Health Services Research, which started in 2021 with six students. They recently successfully completed their studies and were therefore slightly faster than their fellow students, who are also on the home straight.

Both graduates will remain at the university as research assistants. While Wandscher has been conducting research in the Department of Health Services Research in the Division of Outpatient Care and Pharmacoepidemiology since February, Grenz is working in the Department of Prevention and Rehabilitation.

Two years ago, the University of Oldenburg was only the sixth German university to offer a degree programme in health services research. This still young scientific discipline is an interdisciplinary field of research within health research and focusses on everyday health care, the needs of patients and the framework conditions for good health care.

The diversity of this field is also demonstrated by the different specialisations of the first two graduates in their studies. Kathrin Wandscher, for example, focused in particular on digitalisation in healthcare, while Adele Grenz delved deeper into the topics of quality and risk management in the healthcare sector.

Another important pillar of the degree programme is learning about and applying the wide range of scientific methods used in the field of healthcare research.

Both graduates had already started their studies with the aim of working in science afterwards. They gained their first insights into this activity during their studies when they were involved in various studies and took part in scientific conferences such as the German Congress for Health Services Research.

Six students from different disciplines make up the first year of the newly designed Master's degree programme in Health Services Research. Over a total of two years, the programme trains young people to become broad-based health services researchers for quality assurance, management and coordination as well as evaluation, implementation and consulting of health policy measures in practice and health policy.

The future health services researchers began their studies in the winter semester 2021/22 with a mixture of face-to-face and online courses. Due to the small cohort size, the face-to-face sessions could be implemented smoothly in accordance with the university's hygiene regulations. The summer semester 2022 is planned as a purely face-to-face semester. In addition to the courses, a professional internship lasting several weeks is also planned for this semester.

Comments on the degree programme:

"I particularly like the interdisciplinary nature of the degree programme. Both lecturers and students come from different disciplines and so you get different perspectives on the problems in healthcare."

"I really like the proximity to the lecturers and the Department of Health Services Research, which gives you an insight into the world of research and you always have someone to talk to. As a student, you are met where you are and the different prior knowledge is taken into account and built upon."