If you want to contribute to meaningful change, reduce inequalities, and help shape health policy, a career in public health could be an excellent choice. For students considering a Master’s degree in public health, this course offers a population level approach to understanding and improving health outcomes. This Master’s degree provides a strong foundation for a career in the field, combining independent study with opportunities to work collaboratively in team-based, real-world scenarios. You will benefit from direct engagement with UCL’s expert teaching staff and a diverse community of fellow students. Over the course, you will learn how to define and measure population health, analyse and interpret data on health and its determinants, and understand the influence of socioeconomic and behavioural factors. You will also explore how health systems and public policy shape health outcomes. The course examines a range of interventions designed to improve population health, including housing policy, behavioural change initiatives, screening programmes, and fiscal measures. With a selection of optional modules, you can tailor your studies to suit your interests, with opportunities to focus on areas such as health inequalities, health economics, ethnicity, life course determinants of health, or advanced statistical methods.
We accept students from a wide range of disciplines. The most important thing is to demonstrate a strong interest in population health and public health. You do not need to have studied statistics before as we start from basics in statistics and build up your knowledge and skills slowly in Term 1.
This course will give you the skills and expertise in population health to build a successful career in the health sector and beyond.
Depending on which optional modules you choose, you will become confident in areas like research methods, public health and health systems, health behaviours, sexual health and infectious disease, and health across the life course.
Discussions on policy and practice will also equip you to think critically about challenges such as social and economic changes, climate changes, unhealthy lifestyle smoking, alcohol consumption, diet, lack of physical activity and related phenomena e.g. obesity.
You will gain valuable transferable skills including:
Whether you want to work locally, nationally or globally, you will be able to consider careers in fields such as: