Course description
The Master of Public Health is designed to build sound skills and expertise in Australian and international public health. More specifically, this course aims to provide graduates with the knowledge and skills necessary to develop, analyse and implement policy, plan and evaluate health services and programs, and understand how research and project work are conducted, within the public health context. The MPH also provides the practical skills needed to design, conduct, analyse and report on research.
Part 1 of this course is offered jointly by the University of Melbourne, and Monash, La Trobe and Deakin universities, which together form the Victorian Consortium of Public Health. The Master of Public Health therefore brings together key expertise from Victoria’s four leading universities. Students are exposed to a breadth of disciplines delivered by academic staff with extensive experience and depth of knowledge, but have the opportunity to specialise in the advanced public health training streams offered through the University of Melbourne.
The Master of Public Health aims to build public health capacity via public health education through:
* the provision of a multi-disciplinary Master of Public Health degree by public health specialisation coursework and minor thesis or project
* ensuring that graduates have a broad-based understanding of the determinants of health in populations
* contributing to the development and vigour of the greater public health community
* equipping students with the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain and improve existing health promoting environments
* the training, retraining and enhancing the skills of health professionals to meet public health workforce needs
* carrying out research to identify public health priorities and generating initiatives for policy and action
* developing strategies to equip graduates to ensure equity in the health system and interventions to promote the health of disadvantaged groups
* developing understanding of health issues and contribute to the improvement of public health research capability worldwide
* instilling in students the rigorous standards required for excellence in research, and
* creating an environment which will attract and retain quality teaching and research staff.
Objectives:
On completion of the Master of Public Health, graduates will be able to:
* Identify the scope, role and functions of public health in relation to the health system, other sectors and to society
* Understand health system structures
* Develop a broad understanding of the determinants of, and influences on, the health status of populations
* Identify the political and institutional context of population health
* Be familiar with the legal and ethical bases for public health and health services
* Understand the drivers of health system change including regulatory systems, public health and other health networks, and other institutional and political influences
* Identify the role of cultural, social, and behavioural factors in determining the delivery of public health services
* Critically reflect on their own social, cultural and professional standpoint and the implications for their own public health practice in relation to other social groups
* Understand statistical inference, precision and the principles of hypothesis testing
* Develop skills in data presentation
* Understand the methods of qualitative inquiry
* Understand the basic principles and concepts of descriptive epidemiology
* Understand the principles of disease causation including the contribution of the biological, environmental, behavioural, social and cultural determinants of health
* Understand methods and theories for the prevention and control of disease
* Understand the principles of health promotion for an individual, community or organisation
* Identify and apply appropriate methods to interpret evidence for policy, programming, evaluation and management.
* Have the capacity to set priorities and develop policy
* Apply the principles and processes of program planning and management
* Apply the principles of health promotion using theory and evidence to develop implement and evaluate health promotion strategies
* Understand the principles of advocacy, lobbying, and capacity building to develop intersectoral public health action
* Be able to develop and adapt approaches to problems that take into account the cultural, physical and socio-economic aspects of gender, social, religious, geographical and ethnic (particularly Aboriginal) health issues
* Have the capacity to develop critical and supportive professional relationships to enable reflexivity in own and others public health practice with diverse social groups.
