Course summary

Gain a deeper understanding of the major public health threats faced by humanity. You’ll learn how to design, test and implement interventions to tackle them. During this specialist master's course, you’ll study urgent and important public health challenges facing societies across the globe. By focusing on the root causes of disease, ill health and injury, you’ll explore how impactful policy can improve lives at community and population level. You’ll develop your understanding of how geopolitical, social and natural factors may combine to result in situations that cause short and long-term threats to people’s health and wellbeing. These may include global climate change; war and conflict; health inequities; poverty, lifestyle, and access to amenities and services. Address the big public health challenges Once you've gained the core knowledge needed, you'll critically assess the intersection of policymaking and epidemiology. You’ll evaluate how major policies can counteract the effects of key public health challenges, and how to improve and adapt policies and interventions to mitigate future risks. You’ll do this in the context of real-world case studies across topics like:

• managing infectious diseases and vaccine uptake

• contemporary and historic pandemics, including COVID-19

• obesity and nutrition

• tobacco and alcohol use and abuse

• Consultancy project numbers are limited each year. You'll receive support from us throughout your application. If you cannot secure a suitable project, you can instead complete a dissertation.