Environmental Health MSc

Food Safety and Control
(30 credits)

Consideration of all measures needed to ensure the safety and wholesomeness of food at all stages from growth, through production, manufacture and retail until it reaches the consumer.

Food Safety control is a larger module because it also contains important cross-cutting Public and Environmental Health issues in more detail including outbreaks, food and nutrition, allergens, hazard analysis and critical control point assessment. It also covers microbiology and epidemiology.

Occupational Health and Safety
(20 credits)

The module enables students to achieve a systematic and critical understanding of the interaction between work, health and well-being and apply appropriate control mechanisms and strategies. Skills of communication and judgement on occupational health, safety and wellbeing factors are covered. Also, the systematic understanding of the control mechanisms by which occupational hazards can be managed are included. Important elements of safety culture and management are also covered.

Environmental Protection and Climate Change
(20 credits)

This module will develop students' appreciation of key concepts that link environmental science, ecology, pollution of the environment and human health and wellbeing. They will develop an understanding of the scientific, technical, socio-economic, political and legal factors which influence climate change, environmental quality and safety and the mechanisms and partnership strategies available to effect change. Students will also gain an understanding of the sources, modes of transport and effects of pollution; and how pollution may be controlled in order to protect human health and the environment.

Health Protection
(10 credits)

This module provides the foundation knowledge and skills needed for engagement in health protection and health improvement. It will examine communicable disease surveillance and there will be epidemiological studies for infectious diseases and environmental epidemiology related to exposures from pollution sources. It will also include an insight into the work of public health including effective projects and partnerships.

Law Enforcement
(10 credits)

Examines the English Legal System, and the legal procedures that support interventions available under Public Health and Environmental Protection legislation to solve serious problems of pollution, contamination, statutory nuisance, and public health illnesses, along with the requirements of criminal law in the collection of evidence and undertaking prosecutions.

Housing Enforcement and Renewal
(20 credits)

This module is designed to develop a systematic and conceptual understanding of the ways in which poor housing and environmental conditions adversely affect the health and well-being of residents and the public at large. Participants are taught the key elements of policy and practice, including enforcement, in the field of private sector housing renewal. The module also equips students with a knowledge and understanding of current policy debates and statutory powers available in order to analyse local housing and environmental problems and formulate appropriate policy responses.

Public Health Integration
(10 credits)

The aim of the module is for students to integrate their acquired public and environmental health knowledge across intervention areas associated with Dahlgren and Whitehead’s 1992 conceptualisation of the determinants of health and well-being. This includes the ability to demonstrate, how, a range of measures can be used to maximise the outcome for a given situation and to be able to demonstrate the complexity of the interaction of the determinants of health, and how the use of evidence based practice and reflective practice supports an effective approach. This module links closely with the Health Protection module.

Dissertation
(60 credits)

This module will provide students with the underpinning skills necessary for them to successfully undertake an MSc research dissertation. Students will gain an understanding of processes needed to plan, implement and evaluate a research-based study. In particular there will be sessions looking at hypothesis and research question generation, survey design, sampling strategies, qualitative approaches, literature searching and evaluation, and an introduction to some basic statistical techniques. Students will be expected to formulate their project ideas and to write their research protocols.

An in-depth project will be submitted in the form of a dissertation or research paper. Research can use a variety of methods, including mixed approaches.

Students must expect to attend four-five days per week in the autumn and spring terms. There is little teaching in the summer term with time set aside for completing assignments, examination preparation, and undertaking the Dissertation.

In addition to the MSc programme, graduates are required to undertake a specific training programme and pass an examination on the wholesomeness and fitness for human consumption of a range of food and food products to meet the professional practice requirements of the CIEH. The University provides a short course followed by a certified examination. The price of this programme is not included in the MSc course fees and an additional fee will be charged for the training and examinations of £650.

The course is modularised and structured so that part-time students can accumulate credits over a period of time. It is compulsory to take the Law Module first but this can be with any combination of other modules. The University allows five years to complete the MSc. Students will be able to develop their Portfolio of Professional Practice required by the CIEH during this time, if they have relevant work experience.