An executive master's degree for people who run hospitals, clinics, laboratories and care networks — operations, quality, finance and compliance in one program.
The Master of Health Administration is the operational counterpart to the university's law and economics degrees. It trains the person responsible for the department, the site or the network: staffing, patient flow, quality, safety, revenue and the regulator's next visit.
Every course produces an artefact a provider organisation uses — a capacity model, a quality improvement charter, a compliance plan, a payer contract analysis — so coursework can be applied directly in the student's own workplace.
The degree is delivered fully online with no compulsory synchronous attendance, which allows clinicians and administrators to study alongside shift-based work.
Mode of study
Fully online, asynchronous study with scheduled tutorial consultations and operations labs
Admission requirements
Bachelor's degree, or at least three years of clinical, administrative or managerial experience in a health care organisation
Learning outcomes
What graduates are able to do
01Model capacity and patient flow and identify the binding constraint of a service
02Design and lead a quality improvement cycle with measurable outcomes
03Read a payer contract and quantify its financial consequences for a service line
04Build a compliance and patient-safety programme that survives accreditation review
05Lead a clinical workforce through a service change without losing safety performance
Full syllabus
Curriculum, semester by semester
Semester 1 — The provider organisation
Structure, finance and law of care delivery
30 credits
MHA-101
Health Care Delivery Systems
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Provider types, referral and continuity of care, integration models, workforce roles and the structural drivers of cost and access.
Course learning outcomes
Map the patient pathway across a network of providers
Explain how organisational structure drives cost and access outcomes
Compare integrated and fragmented delivery models on defined criteria
Assessment: Pathway analysis (60%) and examination (40%)
MHA-102
Health Care Finance and Revenue Cycle
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Service-line costing, DRG and fee schedules, coding and documentation, denials management, capital budgeting for equipment.
Course learning outcomes
Cost a service line and identify its contribution margin
Diagnose and reduce denial rates in a revenue cycle
Appraise a capital purchase with a payback and NPV analysis
Assessment: Service-line financial review (70%) and examination (30%)
MHA-103
Law and Compliance for Providers
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Provider liability, informed consent, HIPAA and GDPR obligations, fraud and abuse rules, accreditation and licensing requirements.
Course learning outcomes
Build a compliance plan covering the organisation's principal legal risks
Handle a privacy incident from detection to notification
Prepare a department for an accreditation survey
Assessment: Compliance plan (60%) and incident exercise (40%)
Semester 2 — Operations and quality
Running the service
30 credits
MHA-201
Operations, Capacity and Patient Flow
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Queueing and variability, bed and theatre scheduling, bottleneck analysis, lean methods and demand-capacity modelling.
Course learning outcomes
Build a demand-capacity model for a clinical unit
Identify and relieve the binding constraint in a pathway
Design a scheduling rule that reduces waiting without raising cost
Assessment: Capacity model with implementation note (100%)
MHA-202
Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Measurement for improvement, control charts, root cause and FMEA analysis, incident reporting culture and the design of safety systems.
Course learning outcomes
Run a full improvement cycle with control-chart evidence
Conduct a root cause analysis and convert it into system change
Design an incident reporting system people actually use
Assessment: Improvement project charter and results (100%)
MHA-203
Health Information Systems and Digital Care
10 credits
250 hours total workload
EHR workflow design, interoperability, telehealth operations, clinical decision support and the safe introduction of digital tools.
Course learning outcomes
Redesign a documentation workflow to reduce clinician burden
Plan a telehealth service including triage and escalation rules
Assess a digital tool for clinical safety and data protection before adoption
Assessment: Digital implementation plan (100%)
Semester 3 — Leadership and strategy
Leading people and negotiating value
30 credits
MHA-301
Leadership of Clinical Teams
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Professional autonomy and management authority, burnout and retention, performance conversations, conflict and change leadership.
Course learning outcomes
Lead a change affecting clinical practice without losing safety performance
Run a documented performance and development conversation
Build a retention plan grounded in measured drivers of turnover
Assessment: Leadership case portfolio (100%)
MHA-302
Strategy, Contracting and Population Health
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Service portfolio decisions, payer contracting and value-based arrangements, community needs assessment and population health programmes.
Course learning outcomes
Quantify the effect of a proposed payer contract on a service line
Decide, with evidence, whether to expand or close a service
Design a population health intervention with measurable targets
Assessment: Contract analysis (50%) and strategy paper (50%)
MHA-303
Applied Research Methods for Administrators
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Evaluation design in provider settings, routine data, survey and interview methods, and preparation of the capstone protocol.
Course learning outcomes
Design a defensible evaluation of a service change
Use routine operational data without over-claiming
Write an approved capstone protocol
Assessment: Approved capstone protocol (100%)
Semester 4 — Administrative capstone
Improvement in a real organisation
30 credits
MHA-401
Capstone Project and Defence
30 credits
750 hours total workload
An independent 15,000–18,000 word project that diagnoses, implements and evaluates an improvement in a real provider organisation.
Course learning outcomes
Diagnose an operational or quality problem with data
Implement or fully specify an intervention and evaluate it
Defend the project before an examination panel
Assessment: Capstone project (80%) and oral defence (20%)
PDF downloads
Three English documents for this program
PDF document
MHA Program Handbook
4 pages · 71 KB
Full program description, mode of study and admission requirements
Portal, deliverables, workplace application and the capstone timeline.
Statute
Provider Compliance Statutes
Released in the study portal
Curated HIPAA, fraud and abuse, consent and accreditation provisions with commentary.
Slide deck
Reading the Revenue Cycle
47 slides · Annotated deck
From documentation and coding to denial, appeal and cash collection.
Case study
Sentinel Event Case Pack
Released in the study portal
Six anonymised safety incidents with timelines, root cause reports and regulator correspondence.
Slide deck
Surviving an Accreditation Survey
39 slides · Preparation deck
Evidence files, tracer methodology and the findings that recur most often.
Video lecture
When a Privacy Incident Happens
35 min · Faculty of Medical Law
First hour, containment, assessment and notification duties under HIPAA and GDPR.
Slide deck
Where the Queue Really Forms
54 slides · Workshop deck
Variability, utilisation and waiting time, ending in a complete flow diagnosis.
PDF documents are free to download in English. Presentations, recorded lectures, readings, cases, datasets and templates are released inside the study portal at the start of each course window and remain available to enrolled students for the duration of the program.
How students are graded
Assessment structure
50–70%
Applied deliverables
Capacity models, improvement charters, compliance plans and contract analyses.
20–40%
Examinations
Open-book examinations in delivery systems, finance and provider law.
10–30%
Exercises and defences
Privacy incident exercise, accreditation walkthrough and recorded project defences.
30 credits
Capstone
Real-organisation improvement project with evaluation and oral defence.
Final independent work
Administrative capstone project (30 credits)
The MHA capstone is a 15,000–18,000 word improvement project carried out in a real provider organisation. It must contain a data-based diagnosis, an intervention specification, an evaluation plan and a financial impact estimate.
Semester 3: problem selection, sponsor agreement and protocol approval
Weeks 1–4: baseline measurement and process mapping
Weeks 5–10: intervention design and implementation or simulation
Weeks 11–16: evaluation, financial impact and full draft
Weeks 17–18: submission, similarity check and oral defence
Fees
Tuition and payment
Total tuition
USD USD 4,999
Total tuition for the complete Master of Health Administration, including all study materials, tutorial consultations, examinations and the capstone defence.
Deposit on enrolment: USD 999
Four semester instalments of USD 1,000
No separate examination, material or graduation fees
Tuition is quoted in United States dollars. Payment schedules are agreed in writing with the Student Affairs Office before enrolment.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Is clinical experience required?
No. Clinical, administrative or managerial experience in a health care organisation is accepted, as is a bachelor's degree without experience.
How is the MHA different from the MBA?
The MHA is operational and provider-specific; the MBA is a general management degree with a health care law and business specialisation.
Can I do the capstone at my own hospital?
Yes. Most students do, with a short sponsor agreement signed before the protocol is approved.
Do I need statistical software?
No. Spreadsheet tools are sufficient for all operational and quality analysis in the program.
Interested in the MHA?
The Student Affairs Office answers curriculum, admission and enrolment questions in English.