MSc Public Health in Developing Countries

This course aims to equip students with skills needed to appreciate and analyse public health problems in developing countries, and to design and evaluate actions to improve public health. The course considers issues of global health, development and the provision of health services from a multidisciplinary perspective.

All PHDC students have substantial experience of planning or implementation of public health programmes, of teaching or research, in developing countries.

Graduates from this course work in global health, health service management, in health programmes in developing countries, in international and national NGOs, and in research. In addition to MSc Public Health in Developing Countries, other MSc courses at LSHTM may be relevant and applicants should review the relevant pages of this website: 1) MSc Public Health - for those with an interest in public health in mainly high and middle income countries; 2) MSc Control of Infectious Diseases - for those with a particular interest in infectious disease control; and 3) MSc Epidemiology - for those with a special interest in epidemiology.

Objectives

By the end of the course students should be able to:

• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of theory and practice in the core public health disciplines (epidemiology, statistics, social sciences, health policy and health economics;
• demonstrate specialised knowledge and skills in other areas relevant to public health from a wide range of options (e.g., primary health care, medical anthropology, epidemiology and control of malaria, and population studies);
• apply these skills to identify and assess public health problems in developing countries and evaluate actions designed to improve public health;
• formulate public health strategies and approaches to public health problems appropriate to a given culture and environment;
• apply appropriate research skills for evaluation and use of research findings.
  

Programme specifications - This links to a document showing which elements of the Course support and achieve each objective.

There is an initial, compulsory, one-week orientation period that includes an introduction to studying at the School, sessions on key computing and study skills and also a two-day residential field trip. After the orientation period, students take a series of compulsory modules and can choose from additional recommended modules.

Compulsory: Epidemiology; Statistics; Health Policy, Process & Power; Health Economics; Principles of Social Research, Introductory lectures on Public Health in Developing Countries (PHDC) and PHDC Student Seminars.
Recommended: Public Health Lecture Series

Terms 2 and 3

Students take six study modules, one from each timetable slot. The mainstream options are given below, followed by other options. Not all modules may be available in any one year. Non-mainstream option modules can be taken only after consultation with the personal tutor or course director.

C1: Mainstream options: Health Care Evaluation; Study Design:- Writing a Study Proposal & Grant Application; Primary Health Care. Other options: Drug, Alcohol, Tobacco Use and Public Health; Vector Sampling, Identification and Incrimination.

C2: Mainstream options: Economic Analysis for Health Policy; Family Planning Programmes; Conflict & Health; Statistical Methods in Epidemiology. Other options: Design and Analysis of Epidemiological Studies; Health Impact and Decision Analysis, Promotion Approaches and Methods; Qualitative Methodologies.

D1: Mainstream options: Medical Anthropology in Public Health; Designing Disease Control Programmes in Developing Countries; Maternal & Child Nutrition. Other options: Communicable Disease in Developed and Middle-income Countries; Economic Evaluation; Environmental Epidemiology; Population, Poverty and Environment; Social Epidemiology; Spatial Epidemiology in Public Health.

D2: Mainstream options: Epidemiology & Control of Communicable Diseases; Ethics, Public Health & Human Rights; Globalisation and Health; International Mental Health. Other options: Organisational Management; Population Dynamics and Projections; Reviewing the Literature; Sexual Health.

E1: Mainstream option: Applying Public Health Principles in Developing Countries. Other options: AIDS; Epidemiology & Control of Non-Communicable Diseases; Methods of Vector Control; Nutrition in Emergencies; Gender and Health; Modelling and Dynamics of Infectious Disease; Proposal development.

E2: Free choice of modules: Advanced Statistical Methods in Epidemiology; Analytical Models for Decision Making; Control of Sexually Transmitted Diseases; Current Issues in Safe Motherhood & Perinatal Health; Epidemiology and Control of Maleria; Health Systems; History and Health; Nutrition Programme Planning; Sociological Approaches to Health; Tropical Environmental Health.

Further details for the course modules can be found here.

Residential Field Trip

During the orientation period at the start of Term 1 students and staff go on a retreat outside London. Students develop a sense of group coherence, learn about each other's professional background and experience, and spend some social time together.

There is a second retreat after the June examinations. Students, course directors and personal tutors relax, look back over the year and complete a course evaluation.

Project Report

Students complete a research project and prepare a written report on an approved subject of their choice. This may entail analysis of work done by the participant before the course, writing a proposal for a study to be carried out on completion of the course, or a critical review of the literature on a relevant subject. Fieldwork may also be undertaken as the basis for this report. Students undertaking projects overseas may require additional funding to cover costs and this must be obtained by the student concerned. The project completion date is late August or early September.

Course Duration

Full-time for one year, or part-time or split study over two years. Part-time students are expected to attend the School at least two days each week and should discuss this with the Course Director if offered a place.

Alternatively, students taking the course by split study over two years attend full-time for part of Year 1, and then undertake the remainder of their course in Year 2. The split can occur anytime between the Christmas break and the end of the formal teaching in May, by prior arrangement with the Course Director. Paper 1 may be taken at the end of Year 1 or at the end of Year 2. Paper 2 must be taken at the end of Year 2. Interested applicants should indicate their choice on the application form.

Entrance Requirements

The minimum requirement is the equivalent of a second-class honours degree of a recognised university in health sciences, social sciences or natural sciences, or a related subject, or a degree in medicine. Applicants with an appropriate technical qualification and work experience, who can demonstrate equivalent academic ability, will be considered. Successful candidates are expected to have lived in a developing country and worked in activities related to public health for a minimum of two years, although candidates with less experience may be considered. Competition for entry is high and meeting the minimum requirements does not guarantee a place on the course.

Course Prize

The Okeke Prize & William Simpson Prize is awarded to the best student on the course. This prize combines a gift from Dr E D Okeke, a former student from Nigeria in 1964, with money raised in 1937 to the memory of Sir William Ritchie Simpson, visiting lecturer in hygiene 1898-1923 and director of tropical hygiene at the Ross Institute from 1924 until his death in 1931.