Classic combos: go big with a combined Public Health degree

The Bachelor of Public Health is a non-clinical health care degree that’s all about tracking, protecting and predicting population health. With a choice of five majors (Global Health, Human Structure & Function, Health Promotion, Indigenous Health or Population Health) or a flexible non-major option, it offers endless opportunities to specialise in this incredibly broad field of practice.

But if you’re looking for a qualification that offers true bang for your learning buck, consider enrolling in a combined Public Health degree. Spanning the faculties of Business, Arts and Social Sciences, and Transdisciplinary Innovation, these six combined courses have been developed in response to critical issues that are shaping the global health profession.

Not only will they equip you with high-level skills in two discrete disciplines, they’ll also enhance your career potential by giving you two qualifications in one.

Here’s what they’re all about. Combine the Bachelor of Public Health with...

Bachelor of Business, Economics or Management (new for 2023)

During the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health orders had a direct and detrimental impact on businesses. Conversely, many businesses couldn’t foresee the devastating outcomes that would have resulted without those restrictions.

Aligning these two interests is critically important, not only for the health of our communities but for Australia’s future economic wellbeing.

“We need a generation of health or business professionals that really understand both sides of these issues,” says Dr Albie Sharpe, Course Director for the Bachelor of Public Health.

What’s more, health care is big business – which is why combining Public Health with a Bachelor of Business, Bachelor of Economics or Bachelor of Management makes a lot of sense.

Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation (BCII) (new for 2023)

The BCII is a flagship degree that will equip you with intangible skills like critical and creative thinking, invention, complexity, innovation, future scenario building and entrepreneurship.

These capabilities offer value to every sector out there – including health care, where public campaigns often fail to gain the traction they need.

“We know how health works – for example, everyone knows if you smoke then there’s a good chance you’ll get lung cancer, but we need to find more and more creative ways of getting those health messages across,” Dr Sharpe says.

“This degree really gives people the advantage to learn how to be more innovative and how to be more creative in their responses to public health.”

Bachelor of International Studies

If you’ve ever dreamt of earning course credits while you travel the world, the Bachelor of International Studies just might be for you: with this degree, you’ll spend one or two semesters studying overseas.

Combine it with Public Health to see international health systems in action – for example, do an Indigenous Health major and explore First Nations health programs in the US or Canada, or enrol in the Population Health major and see how the European Union manages 27 different health care systems under a single umbrella.

“As health professionals, we need to learn how to cooperate with each other, and that means learning about other cultures, it means learning languages, it means understanding how other people and systems in other societies work,” Dr Sharpe says.

Bachelor of Sustainability and Environment

As climate change rears its head, challenges like extreme heat, changes to disease patterns, and threats to our food security are spreading quickly across the globe.

Learning how to respond to these issues is a good reason to pursue a Public Health and Sustainability and Environment degree, but it’s not the only one. This combination can also help you think about developing sustainable programs and services that take a longer-term view of human need.   

“The health sector is often quite restricted in terms of budgets and the time that people have. You’re always playing catch up and you’re fixing immediate problems,” says current student Nodoka Nakamachi.

“Having the sustainability focus really does help you think about okay, we do need to fix that problem now, but how do we fix it in a way that benefits the long term?

“Sustainability is about more than the environment. It’s about the wellbeing of people in the environment as well.”

Find out more about Public Health at UTS