南安普顿大学

About this course

Become a leader in public health management with this specialist master's degree. You’ll learn how to assess the need for, and management of, public health programmes. Gain key management skills such as leadership, risk analysis and cost-effectiveness as you work in multi-disciplinary teams on real-world tasks.

This MSc Public Health Management degree will give you the skills for a management career that makes a difference. Graduates of this master's have gone on to work for the government and public bodies both in the UK and abroad. These include Public Health England, local government and ministries of health.

An in-depth understanding of public health underpins this course. You’ll learn to develop and evaluate public health programmes and conduct epidemiological studies. The specialist management areas you’ll explore within a health context include:

• systems thinking to tackle complex problems
• making decisions to manage risk and uncertainty
• cost-effectiveness of programmes

Through your dissertation, you can personalise this course to your interests. In previous years students have worked on projects related to health care systems, such as reducing the burden of treatment for people with long term conditions and multiple morbidity and social care needs. Public health is an interdisciplinary profession, and this is reflected in your learning. Your lecturers are academics who are actively involved in research or are working in the sector. They’re experts from across the University, in both Public Health, Health Economics and Management.

Careers

“The MSc Public Health equipped me with the skills I needed to successfully gain employment and flourish in roles with a local authority public health team.” Rachel Brown, MSc Public Health

There are a wide variety of master's in public health careers you can get from this course. Your exact role will depend on the type of organisation you work for. You may be managing and supporting teams, providing public health expertise and advice, or commissioning services and managing public health budgets.

Previous graduates have gone on to work for the Medical Research Council, Public Health England, universities, local government, ministries of health and charities such as Action Against Hunger.

This degree is very applied. Learning reflects real-world multi-disciplinary teams and we assess you through practical tasks. This will prepare you well for employment across the sector.

Possible job roles include:

• public health programme manager
• commissioner
• health improvement principal

Some graduates go on to take a PhD and some are working for themselves as independent consultants or educators.

You’ll also gain transferable skills that will improve your employability in whichever career you choose, including:

• how to conduct research projects
• collaboration, negotiation and influencing skills
• effective communication using a range of methods