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Prevent future health problems with a degree in public health

Public Health skills and knowledge are fundamental to addressing many of the 21st century's complex health problems. Millions of people are alive today due to public health initiatives such as vaccination programs, motor vehicle safety laws, tobacco regulations, screening programs, and clean air and water standards.

Much of the misery and costs of disease and disability are preventable. Gaining the necessary skills and knowledge are fundamental to addressing many of the 21st century's complex health problems and future proofing your career as a leader in public health.

If you are seeking to lead in the fields of disease prevention, health promotion, health research and evaluation, health policy, environmental health and health systems, a University of Tasmania Master of Public Health will help prepare you to have impact and to make a difference.

This degree is flexible by allowing you to study part-time and fully online or on-campus in Hobart, while having the opportunity to exit with a Graduate Certificate or Graduate Diploma in Public Health.

What you will learn in Public Health

As a student studying public health you’ll develop the skills required to effectively practice in Australia and around the world while learning about the broad factors that affect the health and wellbeing of populations, including social; environmental, cultural, economic, political and structural determinants.

Our course is designed to be:

  • Practice based
  • Involve systems thinking
  • Is comprehensively mapped against CAPHIA competency standards for public health graduates

Upon completion you’ll be empowered as a practitioner who can address public health challenges by applying an evidence-based and culturally competent, collaborative approach to bringing health solutions and preventative measures into reality.

With the Master of Public Health based online, I have been able to interact with class mates spread all over Australia with such different backgrounds and experiences to my own, and yet similar goals and interests.

- Sophie Maslen, Master of Public Health

Career Opportunities

The Public Health workforce is multidisciplinary, which means that Public Health practitioners come from a wide range of backgrounds including medicine and health professions, teaching, management, pharmacy, science, geography, mathematics, nutrition and civil science. Increasingly, recruits to Public Health are recent college and university graduates from a wide range of subjects.

Public Health is "the organised response by society to improve health, comprising health protection, the prevention of illness, injury and disability, and health promotion". Therefore, a career in Public Health can serve a variety of societal purposes, such as:

  • Improving health
  • Protecting health
  • Maintaining and raising standards of health and social care
  • Working with information (health intelligence)
  • Working in academic Public Health (teaching and researching)
  • Leading strategic planning, management and policy development
  • Designing and evaluating public health interventions

As Public Health initiatives require inter-industry collaboration; people from a broad range of backgrounds can work in senior leadership and/or scientific roles in the field of Public Health. Just a fraction of career pathways includes exploring the spread of specific diseases amongst populations, developing new innovative technologies for mental health assessments, promoting safe and healthy nutrition.

A Master of Public Health also opens the door to further academic qualifications such as a PhD.

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