Handbook

Many of the causes of health, illness and wellbeing are only partly explained by biomedical factors and are minimally altered by biomedical interventions. Thus solutions to health problems often lie outside the health system - in social policy, urban design, community cohesion, personal relationships, and the penal system, to name but a few. The Master of Public Health stream in Social Research provides students with training in sociological conceptualisations of health and in approaches to health issues using both quantitative/epidemiological and qualitative/interpretive methods. It consists of core MPH courses, with a stream-defining course on sociological approaches to public health, two research methodology courses, and a selection of either an SPHCM elective, project, internship or independent studies. The stream is taught by staff with a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds including sociology, psychology, political science, anthropology, ethnography and epidemiology.

Who should do this stream?

This MPH degree focuses on the social aspects of health and social approaches to addressing public health problems. You may be a social science graduate seeking training in public health research skills, or a public health or healthcare practitioner wanting to develop your understanding of social influences on health and illness.

If you are interested in carrying out research, the degree provides a clear pathway towards further academic research training (e.g. a PhD) or research in the workplace (government policy, program evaluation etc.). Graduates from this stream develop the knowledge and skills to enter postgraduate research degrees that require expertise in either social epidemiology or qualitative research, or both.

This stream is for anyone who wants to change public health and health policy for the better - even when change means political action or social change outside the healthcare system. Much medical and health research does not make a difference, because it stays in the medical journals. This degree will equip you to see the social and structural problems that prevent useful policy change, and find ways to address them.