Programme Overview

This programme prepares students for leadership and equips them to assume an active role in and responsibilities for improving population health in a range of settings. It covers a wide breadth of contemporary issues in international public health and explores approaches to reducing health inequities by enhancing policy and practice based upon sound, evidence-based principles. The programme gives graduates key transferable knowledge and skills in epidemiology, research methods and social science. Following the taught component, students complete a research dissertation project either overseas or locally and could be desk based or field work. The programme is underpinned by LSTM’s mission to reduce the burden of sickness and mortality in disease endemic countries through the delivery of effective interventions which improve human health and are relevant to the poorest communities. The programme has been developed around a series of Public Health competencies derived from the international reference points (see programme spec attached). The Programme has been mapped to these competencies.

This course aims to:

• Equip students with public health (Level 7) knowledge, skills and analytical tools to recognise, evaluate and analyse public health challenges at relevant local, national and global levels.
• Underpin students’ abilities to contribute to developing high quality, effective interventions that address health inequities, strengthen health systems and improve health in resource poor settings.
• Provide students with knowledge and skills that will help to protect populations against contemporary and emerging threats or hazards and enable them to influence the wider social, environmental and structural determinants of health.
• Enhance students’ epidemiological, and other qualitative and quantitative research skills, so they can critically appraise evidence, plan and implement evidence-based interventions, undertake research, and monitor and evaluate public health activities.
• Enable students to develop as resilient, effective public health leaders with excellent communication skills and high professional standards who have the ability and motivation to continue learning and work effectively and efficiently within global health systems.

Careers

There are many career opportunities within the field of Public Health throughout the world. Public Health emergencies have been highlighted recently by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa, influenza and MERS. People with public health skills are highly sought after. Public health careers cover a wide variety of options such as disease outbreak control, disease surveillance, health service re-design, the development and delivery of non-communicable disease strategies, childhood vaccinations, the development of government policies and strategies, reducing infant mortality - to name but a few. Past alumni of this course typically work for health ministries, health departments, national or international disease control agencies, UN Agencies, non-governmental organisations, humanitarian organisations, aid organisations, or universities. Graduates can become global health consultants, educators, researchers, managers, health promoters/protectors, global health specialists/diplomats, advocacy specialists.