南澳大学

Public health aims to address social and environmental factors that lead to illness or poor health to prevent disease, prolong life and improve the health and wellbeing of populations and communities. Along with addressing determinants of poor health, you will cultivate skills to promote health and wellbeing in healthy populations to maintain health over the lifespan.

The field goes beyond the treatment of disease or poor health in individuals. As a Public Health Practitioner, you will work at a population and systems level and use diverse approaches including policy development; data analysis and reporting; media and advocacy; public events, and community-based education and interventions to address health concerns and promote health and wellbeing within communities. For example, a variety of these methods may be used to assist with global health issues such as COVID-19, heart disease, cancer and mental health, negatively impacting populations. You will also have a focus on equity in access to health programs and services for priority population groups such as the homeless, Aboriginal people and migrants.

Students will benefit from a curriculum aligned to the Australian Public Health Competency Framework and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework. This will provide you with transferable skills that can be applied across the growing health industry at all levels of government as well as in a variety of organisations such as the Australian Red Cross, the Heart Foundation, the Royal Society for the Blind, and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).

What you'll learn

Through a combination of theoretical and practical learning, you will become equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to contribute as a dynamic and forward-thinking generalist Public Health Practitioner.

You will develop skills to engage with communities to promote wellbeing through locally-relevant information and activities and contribute to prevention and control of global disease outbreaks such as COVID-19, Influenza and Smallpox. You will also learn epidemiological techniques to identify patterns in population health, such as prevalence of mental health, novel associations between risk factors and diseases such as diabetes or cancer.

During your first year you will develop foundational knowledge in core areas of practice and in your second year you will focus on the application of that knowledge. In final year, there will be an emphasis on becoming a public health practitioner and your transition into the workforce, driving your career development.

Graduates of this degree will meet a broad range of industry-relevant public health competencies across six key areas including:

Health Monitoring and Surveillance
Disease Prevention and Control
Health Protection
Health Promotion
Health Policy, Planning and Management
Evidence-based Professional Population Health Practice.

Benefit from the opportunity to study either one Minor or choose from four elective courses. Your Minor can be made up from the University’s wide list of Majors and Minors, allowing you to develop a unique combination of knowledge and skills to your interest and future career, becoming ready to work in either industry or research. On the other hand, your four elective courses can be selected from a specific list of courses related to the degree.