Course description
Programme description
- Uses participatory teaching and learning methods throughout to encourage student involvement and make full use of experience and understanding.
- Praised by external examiners for the depth of reflection it encourages in students.
- Draws on the expertise of leading researchers and teachers in a range of health-related fields, including sociology and ethics.
The four core taught modules are: Health: Concepts & Theories;
The Social Context of Health; Values, Ethics & the Public Health; Researching Health.
There is also a taught special study: Theorising Health and Society.
Programme format and assessment
Successful completion of the core moules together with the special study modules leads to the postgraduate diploma. MSc students also need to complete a dissertation by independent supervised study. All taught modules are assessed by assignments. There are no written examinations.
Programme modules for MSc, PG Dip Health & Society
Researching Health (Core Module)
This course encourages participants' capacity to engage in health-related research, and critically to appraise the research of others. It considers the relevance and applicability of separate research paradigms to different aspects of health-related research, explores how and why methodological choices are or might be made in health research and debates issues around 'evidence of effectivenes' in the health/health care arenas.
The Social Context of Health (Core Module)
This course encourages critical awareness and appreciation of social influences on, and the social context of, health. It considers social determinants of health and illness, inequalities in health and the relationship between public policy, health and disease.
Theorising Health and Society (Core Module)
This course aims to encourage the further development of participants' critical understanding of the contribution of social science theory to analysing the place of health in society. It discusses postmodernism and postmodernity, ways in which health-related themes can be approached and understood in post-modern society, and how social theory can be used to understand conflicts in society related to health, and the potential for their resolution.
Values, Ethics and the Public Health (Core Module)
This course encourages the development of capacity to engage in systematic reflection on the assumptions, concepts and values inherent in the fields of health/health care. It provides an introduction to the nature of ethical and values-related debates, discusses key issues in public health ethics and debates the relationship between public services and the idea of 'professional ethics'.
Duration
One year FT, two to four years PT, October to June.
