Course summary

Climate change is the greatest threat to human health of the 21st century, according to the World Health Organisation. The MSc Health and Climate Change is a course for current or future health leaders who are prepared to meet that challenge head-on. Local, regional, national and international authorities and organisations need to research, produce and implement strategies and policies that account for the impact of changing climates on public health, and the private sector needs to adapt to these policies. However, there are very few workers in the UK and worldwide with the specialist knowledge that these jobs require. This MSc Health and Climate Change focuses on the impact of climate change on human health and explores strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change from a public health perspective. We study what climate change is and investigate the predicted consequences of climate change on, for example, cardiorespiratory disease, vector-borne diseases, infections and immunity, nutrition and health inequalities. Taking a “think globally, act locally” stand, we cover both impacts of environmental change on public health and local, place-based mitigation and adaptation strategies. We have established collaborations with local authorities and organisations and we have paired up with existing and successful MSc programmes at the University to ensure that we help our graduates acquire the skills and the expertise that they need to become leaders in their chosen field of health and climate change.