Law course to explore challenges of Covid-19 pandemic

New postgraduate students at Keele University will now be able to learn about the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic for law, ethics and policy in the UK in an innovative new module.

The School of Law is proud to announce the module, led by Dr Mark Eccleston-Turner, which will introduce students to the unique challenges Covid-19 has presented to society and allows them to benefit from the most up-to-date teaching in a rapidly evolving area of law and ethics.

Dr Eccleston-Turner is an expert in pandemic response and management and has served as a Consultant to the World Health Organisation on procurement of pandemic vaccines.

The pandemic has impacted a vast array of issues within pubic life including human rights, criminal justice, the constitution, as well as the clear impact upon health and healthcare ethics. In many ways, the pandemic has challenged much of the traditional thinking and discourse in each of these areas.

Students will develop valuable skills in writing expert reviews and will produce a fictionalised Covid-19 public inquiry, which they will be assessed upon.

The module will launch in April 2021 for students who enrol to study a postgraduate degree at Keele, and in-person teaching will be delivered in an intensive three-day block in order to be accessible to healthcare practitioners in full-time employment. Teaching will also be delivered by interactive lectures, plenary and small group discussion.

The School of Law at Keele runs a suite of postgraduate degree courses which are suitable both for professionals wishing to improve their skills and knowledge base and for recent graduates looking for an edge in the competitive jobs market. In addition to semester-long modules designed for full-time postgraduate students, a number of postgraduate modules are taught in blocks of study, including the new Covid-19 module, enabling those in employment to study on a part time basis.

Dr Eccleston-Turner, Lecturer in Law, said: “We are so pleased to launch this module for postgraduate students, it is an exciting, innovative module, that will not just give students a better understanding of the pandemic, but the wider impact it has had on law and society.”