Master of Health Sciences - Health and Community

UC School of Health Sciences draw on their public health expertise to prepare graduates of the Health and Community major with the skills and knowledge to design and implement evidence-based health interventions in community settings.

Increasingly, public health interventions target groups whose well-being is considered at-risk, such as young people and the elderly. Some recent studies indicate that public health programmes targeted at the population or risk-group level may have moderate effectiveness, and may need strengthening. This appears particularly true for hap? and wh?nau (Cram et al, 2003). 

The social model of health strongly identifies the contributions of communities and social networks to health and well-being. This major helps students understand how communities contribute to health and well-being to increase the effectiveness of health promotion. Fry and Zask (2016) describe the need to strengthen community action by “expanding the resources and capacity of communities to make decisions and take collective action” through networking, advocacy, programme development and building healthy public policy. Current and future workers within the fields of primary health, health promotion, public health and not-for-profit health organisations will benefit from this course of study.

The Health and Community endorsement of the Postgraduate Diploma of Health Sciences, the Master of Health Sciences, and the Master of Health Sciences Professional Practice will prepare students so that they can be employable and/or provide leadership in community health within Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally.