Course summary

Planning and delivering humanitarian aid can quickly become a political and legal minefield. The emergence of global health law and a growing sense of the relevance and importance of national, regional and international law to global healthcare is helping policy makers, politicians and practitioners negotiate some of the ethical and legal obstacles in their way. On this specialist pathway, you will gain a richer understanding of the global health challenges and develop a deeper understanding of the relevance of ethics and law to the overarching aim of improving health for all. You will learn to critically analyse complex scenarios, investigating theories of humanitarianism, humanitarian needs, ethical principles and values. There will also be a strong focus on the application of moral and political philosophy to global health issues, in particular, theories of cosmopolitanism, distributive justice and human rights. Global health is a fascinating, broad and multidisciplinary field that is underpinned by the desire to improve people’s health worldwide, reduce inequality and protect communities from global threats, such as conflict, economic crises or preventable diseases which, as coronavirus has demonstrated, do not respect national borders. In addition to our general degree in Global Health, we offer five themed degree pathways which enable you to graduate with a named degree award: Global Health and Conflict; Global Health and Humanities; Global Health and Mental Health; Global Health, Ethics and Law; and Global Health, Infection and Immunity. Core compulsory and elective modules, common to each pathway, will give you the skills and knowledge necessary to understand, interpret and help solve critical global health challenges, and prepare you to conduct a high-calibre research project in your chosen specialism. Past research projects have covered the full spectrum of the discipline – from a clinical project to examine correlation between COVID and HIV conducted here in the UK, for example, to assessment of mental health care provision in rural South Africa and an analysis of the narratives of women imprisoned in Afghanistan and Iraq. St George’s University of London is the UK’s only university dedicated to medical and health sciences education, training and research. We share our site with a major London teaching hospital which is both on the clinical frontline for a diverse local community and a centre of excellence for specialist conditions. You’ll study in a clinical setting with like-minded individuals, mixing with the many different healthcare professionals you will go on to work alongside throughout your career.