Master of Public Health

The first purpose of this qualification is to enable learners already working in fields related to public health or health care delivery, to advance their skills and effectiveness in their current jobs, to broaden their vision of possibilities within the sphere of public health and to provide opportunities for continued personal and career development.

The second purpose of the qualification is to enable learners who have previous preparation in fields outside the health professions or health sciences to enter public health training at a learner level, and to build on this to pursue careers in public health, health care management or related fields.

The third purpose of the qualification is to provide the country with learners in public health capable of contributing to the improvement of the health of the population and the reduction in health disparities, as researchers, managers, teachers, clinicians and health advocates.

Entry requirements

The minimum entry requirement for this qualification is

• Bachelor of Public Health Honours, Level 8.

Or

• Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health, Level 8.

Or

• Cognate Bachelor's, Level 8.

1. Is able to appraise critically information from various sources, and is able to make judgements and offer advice based on evidence and sound reasoning.
2. Have communication skills: in concise writing and verbal presentation, computer and internet literacy.
3. Shows numeracy skills, and is able to apply quantitative logic to problems.
4. Contributes to the promotion of the highest possible state of health of the population.
5. Contributes to the development of effective and equitable health care services and resources.
6. Promotes the highest ethical practice in health care and research.

• Shows competence in those curses requiring literature review, critical appraisal, policy and practice development and critique, as well as in the mini-dissertation;
• Is able to produce work reflecting a multi-disciplinary perspective;
• Shows competence in assignments requiring group work, written work, computer use, and electronic literature search, as well as in class presentations of prepared work;
• Shows competence in those qualifications with a quantitative basis, particularly Epidemiology, Bio statistics, Research Methods and Health Economics, but shows effective numeracy in all qualifications;
• Shows understanding of the causes of ill-health and disability, and of the mission of public health in applying critical analysis, evidence and advocacy to ameliorating health problems of social and individual importance;
• Shows understanding of the organisation of health care and of the mission of public health in applying critical analysis, evidence and advocacy to improving effectiveness and equity in health care service delivery;
• Shows competence in ethical review of research problems and health care scenarios posing ethical problems, and in preparing an ethics protocol for self-directed research.

Integrated Assessment

Integrated assessment is based on a combination of summative and formative assessment: over 10 qualifications and a mini-dissertation:

1. Classroom participation - attendance of 350 classroom hours. Of this, approximately 175 hours are didactic and 175 hours group work or discussion.
2. Assignments - 3 assignments per qualification, for a total of 30 assignments. These include exercises, critical appraisal of studies or policy, literature reviews, and short projects (e.g. writing a research protocol), carried out either individually or in groups.
3. Self-directed learning- Reading of prepared notes or assigned texts for each qualification. This is assessed in an end of qualification examination.
4. One three hour written paper in each qualification, i.e. a minimum of 10 written papers for the qualification. These may be open or closed book, invigilated or take-home.
5. A mini-dissertation in one or more of the public health disciplines in which the learner has completed qualifications, consisting of a substantial critical review of the literature and the presentation, analysis and interpretation of new information collected by the learner, using an accepted research methods; alternatively a formal systematic review of the literature using accepted methods.

Overall achievement mark is 50%, with a 40% sub-minimum for both formative and summative assessment components.