Public health is a crucial issue in every society and the worldwide public health crisis caused by COVID-19 only further reinforces the need for world class trained Public Health professionals. If you are passionate about improving the quality of people's lives, then a career in public health is an opportunity for you to make a real difference to the health and wellbeing of human beings.
Our course qualifies you to work as a public health practitioner, and is designed to give you a solid body of both theoretical and practical knowledge and skills, which will help you make a seamless transition into the workplace.
Our staff have a wide range of specialisms, including mental health, ageing, water and sanitation and public health regulation. The university has a strong research profile and is the ideal place for you to embark on your own ground-breaking research.
If you do not wish to study the full MSc, you can apply to the PGDip where you will not complete the Research Methods and Dissertation module.
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The course provides an excellent, wide-breadth training in public health as both an academic and professional discipline. Its curriculum is clearly nested in the most orthodox understanding of what modern public health does providing a solid foundation for both students who want to drive their careers towards public health and those who want to utilise their training in the current professions.
You will learn how people's health can be affected by their cultural, social and economic circumstances, lifestyle, and environment, as well as covering methods of controlling disease and promoting health. You will also explore the economic, legal and ethical aspects of public health.
It will also explore health inequalities and global public health, including the role of governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their response to emergencies.
On completion of this programme you will be able to:
This module provides a firm foundation of epidemiology, its reasoning, methods and applications.
This module focuses on the evaluation of the main drivers of the global burden of diseases and issues of inequity surrounding these. More specifically, the past, current, and future challenges in the global public health agenda. It will explore some of the societal, political, economic, behavioural and environmental barriers required to succeed in reducing health inequalities and empower stakeholders, communities and individuals. Both the global and local context will be considered.
Time will be spent on responses to emergencies including those derived from natural, economic and political events and examine the necessary short term solutions and the longer term impacts including psychological impacts of those that survive, the potential for disputes, roles of NGOs and their management, and returning the displaced to their homes. Interpretation of levels and trends in global data, spatial analysis, models used for global estimates and the role of data visualisation in global health will be discussed.
The aim of this module is to provide you with a strong foundation, critical knowledge and technical skills used in health protection as a subset of public health and which core is the protection of individuals, groups and populations through the effective collaboration of experts in identifying, preventing and mitigating the impacts of infectious diseases and of environmental, chemical and radiological threats.
To provide you with the knowledge, techniques and tools to understand and apply economic approaches in public health practice to decision making. The module examines demand and supply side economics, micro and macroeconomic issues in health care and the use of economic evidence to inform resource allocation, choice of interventions, priority setting and other decisions in health care.
The module aims to increase your awareness and critical understanding of role and methods utilised in health promotion and health development across a range of local and national settings. Health promotion and social marketing principles will be explored and applied to practice in policy setting, prevention, and interventions. Different stakeholder perspectives will be used to deepen the understanding of the processes at work.
The aim of this module is to take a strategic view of public health and to apply relevant policy and strategy to a range of settings. This module provides the means for you to link academic work with a practice situation in order to conceptualise the meaning of theory in the wider world context. This facilitates the embedding of transferable and graduate skills necessary for future career paths and employment. It will provide you with knowledge, skills and abilities to practice and develop strategies to implement health gain or improvement. This situated learning module will use a variety of case studies, simulations, structured visits and practice learning to embed the theoretical aspects of environmental and public health into a real life setting. It also seeks to provide you with an understanding of where your practice fits into strategic agendas and how your practice adds value to public health improvement.
To provide you with the organisational and management skills to administer an MSc research project. Management skills are supported by knowledge of experimental design, quantitative and qualitative analytical techniques, presentation skills and interactive computing skills. These skills will be applied in the completion of a practitioner based research including the developing of original and independent investigations aimed at integrating theoretical knowledge and technical expertise to solve a practical problem at a relevant postgraduate level.
See the course specification for more information:
Optional modules are usually available at levels 5 and 6, although optional modules are not offered on every course. Where optional modules are available, you will be asked to make your choice during the previous academic year. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.
You will gain knowledge and understanding through attending online lectures and seminars, and through a variety of directed and self-directed learning activities (e.g. group projects, case study analysis).
The use of e-learning strategies is also integrated into the teaching and learning strategies and is used to encourage independent study and formative assessment through the use of interactive exercises, pre-recorded lectures and lecture notes available to the student for downloading.
Your knowledge, understanding and skills are assessed by a combination of coursework, online case studies, fieldwork based technical reports, online presentations and online exam papers. We have some very exciting assignments for you, such as the design, implementation and evaluation of a health promotion campaign and a mock press conference. Your MSc dissertation will represent the pinnacle of your course, where all conceptual and analytical skills will come together in the production of an original research project.
If you have travel restrictions to the UK due to coronavirus, this course can be started fully online with support to learn from your home country for the first term.
We are back on campus for the majority of teaching in Autumn 2021, as long as restrictions allow. Your timetable will be built around on campus sessions using our professional facilities, with online sessions for some activities where we know being virtual will add value. We’ll use technology to enhance all of your learning and give you access to online resources to use in your own time.
In case of any changes to government guidance, we‘ll be ready to move to teaching with more restrictions in place and continue to give you an excellent learning experience. In this scenario, on campus teaching should continue although more of your course will take place online.
The table below gives you an idea of what your learning will look like across a typical week. Some weeks might be different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on campus sessions.
This information may change slightly as we receive further guidance from the government. You’ll receive final arrangements for your teaching and a full course timetable before you start.
Scenario A: Without social distancing | ||
Live in-person on campus learning | Contact hours per week, per level: | 9 hours |
Live online learning | Average hours per week, per level: | 1 hour |
Scenario B: With social distancing and/or with restrictions on travel to campus | ||
Live in-person on campus learning | Contact hours per level: | 2 hours biweekly |
Live online learning | Average hours per week, per level: | 8 hours |
The hours listed do not include supervision hours for dissertation or one-to-one consultations.
Outside of these hours, you’ll be expected to do independent study where you read, listen and reflect on other learning activities. This can include preparation for future classes. In a year, you’ll typically be expected to commit 1800 hours to your course across all styles of learning. If you are taking a placement, you might have some additional hours.
Read more about our scenarios for returning to campus and what they might mean for your teaching and learning experience, and how you’ll be able to access student support.
Future plans for teaching
We’re developing our plans for in-person on campus teaching following government advice to keep you safe. If more restrictions are put in place in the future, or there is another lockdown, we’ll deliver your learning and support fully online for a temporary period. We’ll make alternative arrangements for any required placements if they can’t go ahead as planned. We’ll always give you notice of any changes that we make.
Definitions of terms
Support
You’ll have a strong support network available to you to make sure you develop all the necessary academic skills you need to do well on your course.
Our support services will be delivered online and on campus and you’ll have access to a range of different resources so you can get the help you need, whether you’re studying at home or have the opportunity to come to campus.
You’ll have access to one to one and group sessions for personal learning and academic support from our library and IT teams, and our network of learning experts. Our teams will also be here to offer financial advice, and personal wellbeing, mental health and disability support.
More on teaching for your subject in 2021/22
Read our guide to what you can look forward to when you study your subject with us including more information about your teaching experience this autumn.
Our typical MSc Applied Public Health cohort is formed by a 50% of health professionals (medical doctors, nurses, midwifes and dentists) with the other 50% populated by a varied array of professionals (bio-scientists and biomedical scientists, psychologists, sociologists, graduates in public health and so on).
Our graduates with a health care/medical background tend to use the program for internal promotion. Other graduates access to public health positions in Local Health Authorities, National and International NGOs and their home-countries Departments of Health (and related structures) in different roles of public health intelligence.
Dr Aceijas is a fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health. Her main body of research expertise is in HIV and Addiction but she has also worked in a variety of other public health topics (e.g.: Tuberculosis health literacy, nursing practices, mental health in the workplace, health and lifestyles. Her book "Assessing Evidence to improve Population Health and Wellbeing" is a basic tool for those interested in pursuing a public health career.
Dr Tobi’s background is in medicine, public health and health management. He has many years of experience in public health practice, research, education and knowledge exchange in the UK, Europe and Africa. His research interests are in health systems analysis, the evaluation of complex interventions, and the use of innovations such as asset-based approaches to improve community health and wellbeing.
Dr Di Cesare is Senior Lecturer in Public Health at Middlesex University and Honorary Research Fellow at Imperial College London. Her work focuses on the epidemiology and public health of malnutrition, metabolic risk factors and cardiovascular mortality. Chiara is currently working on the dynamics of social inequalities in malnutrition and on access to treatment for stroke supported by the Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard award and the World Heart Federation.
We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.
Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.
Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.
At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.
Start: October 2022, September 2022 (EU/INT induction)
Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Code: PGB919
Start: October 2022, September 2022 (EU/INT induction)
Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Code: PGB92A
Start: October 2022, EU/INT induction: September 2022
Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Code: PGD110
