Global Health

This module serves as an induction to the course and the principles, nature of content and processes which are valued on the programme. It outlines the contemporary and historical meanings of relevant concepts including global development, health, and wellbeing, and sustainability. It reviews current models of health and development including neo-liberalism, capitalism, and neo-colonialism. It considers the role of international organisations and their policies in global health and development.  Students prepare for taught sessions by reading and undertaking practical activities. Taught sessions are online and interactive with small group discussion and debate. The contribution of case study research will be covered and identification of a contemporary, significant case study to serve as an educationally useful study-platform.

The module introduces course participants to what determines global health and wellbeing. It outlines the social and physical determinants of health and the forms of knowledge and expertise that underpin global health. It examines both the scientific and social science perspectives and considers how both can contribute to and support sustainable change. It discusses the practice of global health and some of the challenges inherent in this practice including for example, cross cultural working, human rights issues and national policies, structures, and the human players. It reviews the way in which professionals learn and develop their practice and the basics of research and evaluation. Taught sessions are interactive with small group discussion and debate. Students are asked to prepare for taught sessions by reading and undertaking practical activities.

In this module the students revisit content from semester one, now from a very practical perspective. It explores the project life cycle and covers the fundamentals including planning and scheduling, communication, teamwork, resource management, project risk management and project reviews. This module considers some of the ethics and key responsibilities of project planning and management in global health including the achievement of sustainability. Students will carry out a planning exercise to create a global health project to effect change that either reflects their current work, or one that anticipates future employment. They will be allocated to a learning set that will meet (through distance learning) weekly to present their emerging plans, and hear constructive, yet critical, comment from their learning set colleagues. It is ensured that the themes of the module are covered through skilled facilitation of the learning set.

This module enables students to consolidate their understanding of the nature of global health research and evaluation, including ontology and epistemology, methodology and ethics. The focus is on the student's own developing practice as a global health practitioner and frames this in terms of practitioner research. The module covers the key skills and techniques to be able to carry out research including searching the literature, developing research questions, selecting appropriate data collection techniques, and negotiating access to settings and participants. Statistical data analysis and various forms of qualitative data analysis will also be incorporated in the module along with the presentation of results. Taught sessions are preceded by reading and some practical tasks, for example undertaking a short survey or interview. Teaching is interactive and based around small group discussion online.

The dissertation is the culmination of a student's studies on the programme. This is demonstrated through an empirical, independent study situated in the student’s own global health work context. It allows an aspect of the student’s practice to be examined through research in significant depth, and the findings of the study to be communicated effectively in scholarly writing, building on their learning over the year(s) of study. Students are encouraged to disseminate their results more widely through conference presentation and publication in impactful peer review journals. In this way students will make a significant contribution to the field. The student is supported in this module by tutor supervision and through peer feedback.