Majoring within the discipline of public health

Public health is a broad discipline and the standard degree provides a general course conferring generic competencies. To accommodate more focused competencies the College of Medicine allows concentration of study into five special interest areas. To major a student should complete 30 elective credits and a dissertation in their chosen specialty area, the completion of which will be noted as majoring in the speciality in the student transcript. Completion of 30 credits in the chosen specialty area, will be noted as minoring in the speciality in the student transcript.
The six special interest study areas and the required modules are listed below:

Field of Study A choice of 30 credits from these elective modules
Bioethics MPH613a, 613b*, 613c, 613d, 613e*, 613f, 613g, 613h,
Health Management MPH612, 617*, 618*,619, 626*, 629, 630, 632*,, 642*, 643, 648, 649a, 649b
Reproductive health MPH 610, 625, 627, 628, 631, 634, 646
Epidemiology MPH 623, 644a, 644b ,MEP611*, 612*, 613*, 614*
Nutrition MPH 635a*, 635b*, 635c, 635d, 635e, 635f, 635g*
Health Informatics MPH615a*, 615b*, 616a*, 616b*

* Module carries 10 credits

All other modules carry 5 credits

Candidates may elect to major and must register their intention when making their elective module choices in the first six months of the course. To take a major specialty course the dissertation must be in the specialty and supervised by a member of faculty from that specialty.

Elective Module Requirements

Students select 600 hours (or 60 credits) of elective modules (currently from more than 30 offered modules). An elective module which is valued at 50 hours constitutes 1 module and 100 hrs is equivalent to 2 modules. Students will receive guidance from their academic supervisors in the selection of elective units in order to fill gaps in their existing experience, build upon their strengths or to enhance a proposed career outline. Each student is permitted to take a maximum of 75 credits or 750 hours of elective modules ONLY as part of the course. Additional modules over this limit may be taken, but at an additional charge. Elective modules, covering a range of topics, are normally scheduled to be delivered in five half days, either as 2½ days or spread over one week with another module running concurrently, and accumulate 50 hours each. Tutorials may take place outside the timetabled module contact hours. Attendance of selected elective modules is compulsory, i.e. students may not be assessed if they have not attended classes.

The elective modules offered in this programme are listed in the table below. However, it should be noted that not all modules are offered every year and some electives modules may be offered but if less than 6 students register, it most probably wont be delivered.

Students choose modules after completion of the core modules, and again at the beginning of year 2.

Elective Module List

Module Code Elective module Total hours Number of

Credits
MPH610 Adolescent health 50 5
MPH612 Application of Health Economics 50 5
MPH613a Bioethics – Introduction to theories, principles, guidelines and African bioethics 50 5
MPH613b Bioethics – Ethical review of research, clinical trial monitoring and ethics committee management 100 10
MPH613c Bioethics – conflict of interest and integrity 50 5
MPH613d Bioethics – Informed consent, justice and research with vulnerable populations 50 5
MPH613e Bioethics – Globalisation and research ethics 100 10
MPH613f Bioethics – Public health law 50 5
MPH613g Bioethics – Special and current topics 50 5
MPH613h Bioethics – Health, ethics and human rights 50 5
MPH614 Introduction to health informatics 50 5
MPH615a Database design and management I 100 10
MPH615b Database design and management II 100 10
MPH616a Implementation of health management systems I 100 10
MPH616b Implementation of health management systems I 100 10
MPH 617 Health policy implementation 100 10
MPH 618 Resource allocation in health care 100 10
MPH 619 Health system design and evolution 50 5
MPH622 Child health 50 5
MPH623 Communicable Disease Control 50 5
MPH625 Demography 50 5
MPH626 Effective group leadership 100 10
MPH627 Family planning 50 5
MPH628 Gender and health 50 5
MPH629 Health financial management 50 5
MPH630 Introduction to Health Management Information Systems 50 5
MPH631 HIV and AIDS 50 5
MPH632 Strategic Human resource management & planning 100 10
MPH633 Malaria 100 10
MPH634 Maternal health 50 5
MPH635a Nutrition 100 10
MPH635b Nutrition epidemiology and assessment of nutritional status 100 10
MPH635c Nutrition – management of severe and moderate malnutrition 50 5
MPH635d Nutrition – infant nutrition and breastfeeding 50 5
MPH635e Nutrition – diet and disease 50 5
MPH635f Nutrition and HIV 50 5
MPH635g Nutrition – an integrated district nutrition improvement plan 100 10
MPH642 Primary health care 100 10
MPH643 Programme planning 50 5
MPH644a Research methods and proposal writing 50 5
MPH644b Research Synthesis – systematic reviews 50 5
MPH646 Sexually transmitted diseases 50 5
MPH647 TB 50 5
MPH 648 Quality assurance in health care 50 5
MPH 649a District health governance Part1 50 5
MPH 649b District health governance Part2 50 5
MPH655a Essentials of Data Management and Analysis for dissertations 28 0
MPH655b Introduction to Data Management and Analysis using Stata 32 0
1.1.1      MEP611 Descriptive Study Design and analysis 100 10
1.1.2      MEP612 Case Control Study Design, binary and logistic regression analysis 100 10
1.1.3      MEP613 Cohort Study Design and Time-to-event Analysis 100 10
4.3.4   MEP 614 Experimental Studies and correlated data analysis 100 10
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