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 |