Global Public Health at University of Essex at Colchester

Society the world over is faced with mounting public health challenges, from pandemics to forced displacement, to rapidly depleting planetary resources. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the complex links between population health, and the wider economic, social, political, environmental, and commercial determinants that shape human and planetary health in the globalised world we inhabit. The MSc Global Public Health will challenge students to investigate these intersecting issues, critically appraise health and public policies, and engage in innovative research to drive forward change that contributes to a more equitable, sustainable, and healthy future.

Globally, most nations have committed to the international human rights framework and the UN Sustainable Development Agenda pledge to “leave no one behind”. However, progress on these promises requires an understanding of the root causes of mounting global inequity as well as the role intersecting crises play in driving increased inequity and distracting from the necessity of structural reform. Developing a deeper understanding of interlinkages will help students develop a foundation from which they’ll explore the increasingly political role of multinational corporations and other powerful actors (such as charitable foundations) in influencing global and national decision-making. This course will equip students with the academic knowledge and skillset to analyse the impact of structural forms of discrimination including racism and colonialism, both in the UK and internationally, so that students can contribute to addressing the roots of the ensuing social injustice this discrimination perpetuates.

Through a combination of interactive lectures, intensive seminars with practitioners and leading experts, and the unique externship opportunities with research and policy institutions of global repute, this course will help students develop a comprehensive and critical understanding of:

• what factors determine health;
• what drives decision-making and priority setting in global health?
• who governs health, how (i.e. policies and mechanisms) and with what effects at individual, societal, national, and global levels;
• how people, illnesses, and drugs/ therapies travel in a globalised world? How these movements relate to the movement of capital and trade?
• how wider inequalities (based on class, gender, sexuality among others) and systems of oppression interact to shape people’s life chances and ability to thrive?
• And importantly, what skills, approaches, interventions, actions can help resist the detrimental forces that undermine health and well-being and realise the promises of “health for all” and “leave no one behind” to achieve fairer, equitable, and healthier societies?

Students will benefit from the opportunity to pursue this course through one of two specialist pathways. Each pathway will share some core modules but allow flexibility for students to select modules that are in line with their interests and employment. Students can either opt to follow the ‘Policy and Systems’ pathway which has been designed with an emphasis on preparing students for entering the workforce with strong evidence-based research and planning skills, or the ‘Intersectional Inequalities and Determinants’ pathway which will advance their interdisciplinary skills in examining and tackling inequalities in the distribution of determinants of health and diseases.

Both pathways offer the unique opportunity to undertake a project-based ‘externship’ with selected UK or international policy-setting or research organisations to work on a specific health problem. The externships allow the opportunity to apply theoretical concepts to real-life public health challenges; helping to consolidate students' learning, enhancing their ability to apply a range of research methods to answer important, relevant public health questions and build a network.