International Health and Management

Postgraduate

In Aberdeen

Price on request

Description

  • Type

    Postgraduate

  • Location

    Aberdeen (Scotland)

  • Duration

    12 Months

The aim of the MSc curriculum is to provide a broad-based training in the conduct and application of international health and management. From enrolment to successful course completion, the expectation is that each student will gain sufficient experiences from the course to progress to their educational qualification. Suitable for: People with a relevant undergraduate degree in, for example, health care, nursing, medicine, psychology or social policy, who want to learn more about international health research and management issues. This course is suitable for overseas students who wish to commission research, understand study findings or use the research results in policy and planning.

Facilities

Location

Start date

Aberdeen (Aberdeen City)
See map
3rd Floor Polwarth Building, Foresterhill Medical Campus, AB25 2ZD

Start date

On request

About this course

Apart from the standard English proficiency requirements set by the University of Aberdeen, we require students to have completed a health-related honours undergraduate degree with an upper-second class degree. We particularly welcome students with a health background (e.g. midwifery, nursing, public health, pharmacy, medicine), but we also welcome students with a pure science or social science first degree who have a keen interest in international health.

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Course programme

Structure and Content

The curriculum is designed and co-ordinated with an integrated approach to teaching and learning in mind. Students are expected to participate in formal lectures, small group work, seminars, student presentations, and discussion groups.

The course addresses a variety of International Health questions ranging from questions such as: 'What are the key Public Health issues in the world today?'; and 'What sources of information do we have on disease XX?' to 'What are the global perspectives on reproductive and sexual health?' and 'What are the best approaches to conduct cross-national comparative research?'

Overview of Course Content

The MSc has been designed to include ten 'core' courses:

1. Applied Statistics
This course equips the student with knowledge of statistical principles and methods. In addition, the student will gain experience of analysing, presenting and interpreting numerical data.

2. Epidemiology and Demography
The course teaches basic principles and interpretation skills, and explores the meaning and significance of demographic and epidemiological data. From an epidemiological perspective, the course will examine measures of the health status of populations, including rates and measures of association and risk.

3. Health Economics
Students will explore fundamental principles, including: opportunity cost; what economics is (and is not); demand, supply and markets for health care; market failure in health care; 'need' as an economic concept; financing and organising health care; economic approaches to health service evaluation; health economics research in practice; using health economics in the NHS environment.

4. Health Services Research
The aim of this course is to equip students with the skills and information needed to appraise and undertake health services research. Students will learn how to formulate a research question; design a study; collect and manage data; understand how to select a method of statistical analysis; critically appraise data and prepare a report of the findings.

5. Managing for Health
This course provides students with an understanding of the changing role of management within the NHS and the growing emphasis on evidence-based health care. Core managerial concepts are introduced and their application to the specific environment of the NHS is highlighted.

6. Public Health
This course opens discussion about the nature and purpose of a public health approach to morbidity and health care. The course introduces students to major public health issues such as communicable disease control and environmental health, diet and heart-disease. An important thread is the relationship of poverty to ill health and the role of interventions such as health promotion in trying to enable people to become healthier.

7. Information Skills
This course provides students with a background in the necessary information skills for postgraduate study.

8. International Health
This course provides students with a background in key international health issues, including the Millennium Development Goals, the organisation of different health care systems, migration and different epidemiological patterns in developing and developed countries.

9. Leading International Health Care
Takes an international perspective to healthcare as a developing business sector, considering management and leadership issues of key healthcare systems of developed countries and associated health-related industries. International issues of healthcare systems will be included such as consumerism, public participation, managing technologies and pharmaceuticals..

10. Managing People at Work
This course provides students with the conceptual and prescriptive tools to enable them to understand, identify, diagnose and analyse the principal people management issues facing managers of organisations. It confronts the complexities of managing people in organisations by examining different theoretical approaches to motivation, commitment, performance, conflict and performance. Following these frameworks the course confronts contemporary approaches to communication and participation, and key management issues of reward, training, team-working, equality and discrimination. Topical subjects such as work-life balance and family-friendly employment are also explored with emphasis to their applicability in the new or "knowledge" sectors of the economy.

Assessment and examinations

All taught courses are assessed by continuous assessment, including completion of individual and group assignments. Some courses require completion of additional written examinations. Award of an MSc in International Health and Management normally requires passing each course.

Thesis

MSc students are required to submit and pass an agreed research thesis. Full support from a range of supervisors is provided for students to complete a high-quality research investigation. The thesis should be original work, not previously submitted for another examination. At MSc level, theses are usually 10,000 to 12,000 words. Students are encouraged to negotiate with their sponsoring agency, where applicable, for an agreed research topic. In addition, a pool of research projects is available from the coordinators.

Students who complete the taught course will be eligible for a Diploma. Students who complete the first term term of the taught curriculum are eligible for a Certificate in Health Services and Public Health Research. Students who complete the second term or the second term of the taught curriculum are eligible for a Certificate in International Health and Management. Students, according to their marks for the above courses, can continue to either a MSc project or Diploma.

Those students who finish only parts of the taught curriculum are provided with a Certificate of Completion for individual courses.

Dedication

12 months, full-time.

Additional information

Career opportunities: We envisage that graduates from this degree course will secure employment in diverse occupations in a range of health and development organisations and institutions
Contact person: Dr Padam Simkhada

International Health and Management

Price on request