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Location
Southwark

Duration
12 to 18 months (full-time)
2–3 years (part-time)

Start date
September

Number of places
Full-time: 5
Part-time: 20

Simple timetable info
Part-time Year 1: Monday 9.30am–4.30pm
Part-time Year 2: Wednesday 9.30am–4.30pm
Full-time: Monday and Wednesday 9.30am–4.30pm

How to apply
Direct to LSBU

Course contact
Russell Caplan – 020 7815 7861

Non-standard entry requirements

You will normally require a degree in a relevant subject and have experience in the field of public health/health promotion/community health in a paid or voluntary capacity. If you have extensive experience in the field of public health and health promotion but do not hold a first degree you can make an application. Please contact the course director to discuss this further.

Course units

Year 1

– Foundations of Public Health and Health Promotion

– Health Education

– Political Processes and Policy Making

– Research Methodology and Strategy

Year 2

– Building Healthy Communities

– Population Health and Epidemiology

– Evidence Informed Decision Making

– Leading Public Health and Health Promotion

Year 3

– Planning and Conducting Research and Dissertation

Course description

The course will develop your public health ‘mindset’ and give you the confidence and skills to engage with the new public health agenda. The vocational focus of the course aims to produce practitioners who ask questions and know how to set about answering them through critical thinking and reflective practice.

The course has been mapped against the Public Health Skills and Career Framework and meets competences at levels 5-7 and in some elements at advanced levels 7-9.

Central to this course is our commitment to the process of enabling people and communities to increase control over their health and well-being. This approach provides practitioners with the tools and knowledge to tackle inequalities in health and work towards combating social exclusion. Teaching public health from this perspective means that the curriculum is based on a social model of health. It draws upon the multidisciplinary, multi professional context of public health and engages with the interface between theory and practice. The course provides an opportunity to examine concepts of health, illness and disease in a social context, the social construction of health, social patterning of health illness and disease, and the effectiveness of interventions. It is informed by a wide range of academic disciplines, some of which include: sociology, health policy, health psychology, health promotion, demography, epidemiology, statistics, management, ethics and philosophy.

Career opportunities

The course develops confident, effective and highly skilled practitioners within a range of disciplinary backgrounds. Previous students have had a range of opportunities made available to them on completion of the course, and have extended and developed their public health roles and/or their strategic functions.

Typical background of applicant

Typical applicants for this course will be working within the field of health, local authorities, and in charitable and voluntary organisations.

Most students are in co-ordinating, strategic and/or managerial positions within their workplace setting.

Professional contacts/industry links

The course has a longstanding reputation and links to the field of health promotion and health improvement. The University has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Royal Society of Public Health and the course team are closely involved with the UK Health Promotion Academics Forum, and informal links with the Faculty of Public Health. HSC has close partnerships with local health and social care providers.

Recent guest lecturers

– Local directors of Public Health

– Medical statistician

– Community project workers