What’s public health all about, anyway?
If you’ve ever wondered what a degree in public health is all about, you’re not alone. Here’s what you need to know about public health at UTS.
A career that can take you anywhere
You’ve probably got a good idea of what a nursing, midwifery or sport science degree entails, but what about public health? This non-clinical health discipline is closely aligned with the field of public health. It’s all about tracking, protecting and predicting the health of entire populations, and it has a strong focus on the cultural, economic, social and other factors that contribute to health inequity.
But, while understanding the broader health landscape and the issues that contribute to health and wellbeing is important, how do you take that knowledge and turn it into a career?
Public health practitioners can work across a wide range of health and related disciplines, according to Dr Albie Sharpe, Course Director of the UTS Bachelor of Public Health. Many students will go on to work in health promotion, as well as in data science, epidemiology and biostatistics – areas that look at health data and how it can be used to improve health systems, track diseases, and understand trends as they relate to illness, injury and other health outcomes.
That’s actually something I really like about this degree, because it gives you such a wide range of options of what you can do with it later on.
According to Dr Sharpe, about a third of UTS Public Health graduates work in the non-government sector, a third work for government agencies, and the remaining third work for the private sector, such as for pharmaceutical companies and – surprisingly – for tech companies, where they lend their health expertise to the development of mobile apps and other tech products.
Majors that align with your professional goals
Where public health students wind up after graduation often depends on their choice of major during their studies. They start their majors in second year, which allows for some flexibility in the first year when it comes to considering their options.
And there are a lot of options to choose from. There are five majors on offer: Global Health, Human Structure and Function, Health Promotion, Population Health, and Indigenous Health.
“The Indigenous Health major responds to the fact that formal public health education in this area is really limited to a couple of introductory subjects on Indigenous health and wellbeing – and that’s across all universities,” Dr Sharpe says.
We wanted to offer something that’s a little bit more in-depth in this space that is in line with UTS’s vision as a public university that also supports social and cultural prosperity.
Students can also choose not to specify a major and study subjects across the entire course offering.
Industry-informed curriculum
All five majors have been developed in line with industry feedback, ensuring that students are building specialist skills that are of value to health sector employers.
Some of the fundamental components of the course have also been tweaked to respond to changes in industry, which indicates that students need strong skills in health communication, as well as a robust understanding of research methodologies, particularly statistics.
“As a result, we’re putting a lot of effort into those two areas, firstly by introducing a core subject on health statistics for all of undergraduate, and also by having a much stronger link between subjects that deal with how we handle, translate and contextualise information within a health setting,” Dr Sharpe says.
“In response to the communication requirements, we introduced the Health Promotion major, which is all about communication – how can I communicate with people and specific populations about health behaviours?”
Assessments are designed to produce real-world outcomes, such as planning mobile health apps, while industry speakers and guest lecturers – from physicians to epidemiologists to health promotion officers – also make frequent cameos throughout the course. UTS is also one of only a handful of universities to offer a professional placement – a minimum of 140 hours in the final year of study – as part of the public health degree.
We’re really trying to embed the industry perspective into our course to make sure it’s as representative of the real world and the real work experience as possible.
Public health can be very theoretical, so we wanted to find ways to make it as practical as possible, and these are just some of the ways we do it.
Core topic areas in public health
- Health communication
- Digital health
- Epidemiology and biostatistics
- Health promotion and advocacy
- Health systems
- Indigenous health
- Infectious and non-communicable diseases
- Primary health care
- Project management
- Psychosocial perspectives in health
- Population health
Quick guide to the five majors
- Global Health: learn about the health of individuals and populations in a global context. Learn about the health of different groups, how these are interrelated and which factors we have to tackle on a global stage to ensure a healthy future for all.
- Health Promotion: understand why people perform negative health behaviours and how we can help individuals and populations gain control over and improve their health.
- Indigenous Health: gain an in-depth understanding of the physical, social and mental health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians and how public health can assist in closing the gap.
- Population Health: focus on the art of public health as an organised effort that uses research and policy to prevent disease and ill-health.
- Human Structure and Function: gain an in-depth understanding of the human body and the interaction between physiology, anatomy and neuroscience.
