Core and optional courses

Core Courses (semester one)

Principles of Public Health
Aims: The course aims to provide a foundation in public health for students.  It will introduce the fundamental concepts of health and illness and the factors that influence health in different settings.

Introduction to Statistical Methods 
Aims:
1. To introduce fundamental concepts in biostatistics, especially uncertainty, variation, estimation and comparison.
2. To examine statistical issues in study design.
3. To introduce the most commonly used methods of analysis of data.
4. To give students a framework for critically reading published papers.
5. To give students experience of carrying out standard statistical analysis of small data sets using a computer.

Introduction to Epidemiology
Aims: To introduce students to the epidemiological approaches that are used to understand the health of populations.

Research methods
(for MPH students there are no credits or fee attached to this course as it is part of the Project; for PGDip. PGCert and CPD students it is a 20 credit course) 
Aims: To introduce students to a range of data gathering techniques, methodologies and principles, and to explore the strengths and weakness of different approaches.

Research Project (semesters one, two and three)
Aims: On successful completion of the MPH project students will be able to apply knowledge of research methods to design, develop and autonomously carry out a research project relevant to public health.

Optional Courses (choose three)

Communicable Diseases 
Aims: To review the threats to Public Health from communicable disease and appraise the tools available to respond to these.

Environmental Health
Aims: To evaluate the role of the physical environment in determining health status and perpetuating inequalities in human health.

Further Epidemiology and Statistics  
Aims:
To build on the concepts and methods introduced in the Introduction to Statistical Methods course and the Introduction to Epidemiology course.
To introduce students to the application of more advanced but commonly used methods of analysis of data; to give students practical experience of the application of these methods to the analysis of data using a suitable statistical computing package (currently STATA).
To demonstrate the application of epidemiological principles and interpret the rationale for and results of statistical analyses applied to specific areas, including: cardiovascular disease, cancer, psychiatric disorder. 

Globalisation and Public Health 
Aims: The course aims to provide an overall view of globalisation and its impact on public health. It will examine major themes within the globalisation debate, looking at a number of global challenges and their overall impact on health and the burden of disease. 

Health Economics (online course) 
Aims: This course aims to provide students with a basic understanding of health economics, its value and limitations.  The course presents the principles of health economics and the techniques of economic appraisal.

Health Promotion: Principles and Practice
Aims: To introduce students to the theoretical approaches and practice of health promotion. This includes the planning and evaluation of health promotion programmes at local, regional and national levels.

Oral health
Aims: This course aims to equip students to critically analyse the principles and current practice of dental public health and to examine the distribution of oral disease and related inequalities in considering oral health need and planning to address inequalities.

Globalisation and Public Health 
Aims: The course aims to provide an overall view of globalisation and its impact on public health. It will examine major themes within the globalisation debate, looking at a number of global challenges and their overall impact on health and the burden of disease. 

Qualitative Research Methods
Aims: To enable students' developed understanding and acquisition of principal skills in relation to qualitative research methods relevant to public health practice.