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Study postgraduate online through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

Develop or further your career in public health practice, research and management with a Graduate Certificate in Public Health, recognised nationally and internationally as the credential for a career in public health. With an understanding of how local, national and international health systems are structured and operate, you&#39;ll be capable of planning and delivering effective programs to address our most challenging health issues.You will focus on the socio-ecological model of public health that emphasises and analyses the important interactions between the social, biological, economic and environmental determinants of health. Throughout, there is opportunity for you to apply this analytical skill set to research, plan, implement and evaluate population-based interventions that protect and promote health.This graduate certificate provides you the opportunity to focus on the area of public health that interests you. The diverse range of core and electives courses in areas such as nutrition, health promotion, environmental health, climate change, program planning and health services management, ensures you can tailor your studies to your own circumstances and aspirations.

Build on your knowledge of public health practice. Examine key determinants of health, including the social, biological, economic and environmental factors. Choose from a range of electives and explore international trends.

Graduate Certificate in Public Health

For those wanting to integrate health promotion, primary prevention or population approaches into their existing role or for those seeking a career change. Keeping populations healthy and well requires innovative responses to ensure a sustainable future and health care system. Be part of the solution when complex social and environmental public health challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic emerge.

Advance your skills in health promotion. Develop the skills you need to create strategies that promote health and wellbeing. Drive behavioural change that benefits society through evidence-based study.

Graduate Certificate in Health Promotion

This degree gives health professionals from a broad range of backgrounds the advanced knowledge and skills to address public health challenges locally and around the world. You’ll enhance your understanding of current global and environmental health issues, ethical practice, health policy, systems and economics, along with social, behavioural and cultural determinants of health and welfare.Tailor your study to your lifestyle thanks to our innovative digital learning system, accessible from anywhere with 24/7 personalised support. With all your course materials online, and the option to study full or part time, on-campus, online or a blend of both it&#39;s all about flexibility.Course duration: 1.5 years full time, part-time options available, 1 year accelerated

Deepen your knowledge of current global and environmental health issues. You’ll explore ethics, health policy, systems, and economics. Accredited by the Council of Academic Public Health Institutions Australasia.

Master of Public Health

Be at the forefront of innovation to address dementia, the major health and social issue of the 21st centuryThe Master of Dementia Program (offering a Graduate Certificate in Dementia; Graduate Diploma of Dementia and Master of Dementia) is aimed at graduates and professionals currently working within or building their expertise in, any field related to dementia. It is built on the perspectives of individuals, families, communities, health care systems and governments, as well as the neurobiology of dementia, including pathology, biomarkers and therapeutics.Program objectivesThe rising prevalence of dementia is creating new challenges and a pressing need for change in the way our systems and practices support people who live with dementia. This program will equip you with the expertise to lead transformation, based on the latest evidence.Program information:<ul><li>Fully online and flexible with modular content suitable for a wide variety of study approaches</li><li>Easy to navigate and accessible across a range of devices</li><li>Personal perspectives highlighted in assessments linking acquired knowledge to individual contexts.</li><li>Relevant and up-to-date program information</li></ul>

Help to improve the lives of people with dementia and support their families and the community. Explore health science aspects and social issues. Begin to understand relevant neurobiology. Study public health policies and systems.

Graduate Certificate in Dementia

This program introduces health professionals from a range of backgrounds to the key elements of public health. It allows them to explore population perspectives on health and disease, and health systems responses to these. It introduces the necessary skills for analysing the patterns of disease in populations, their determinants and associated factors and provides an overview of behaviours that contribute to disease in the community, and the development and implementation of appropriate interventions.

Want to specialise in public health? This is a perfect taster course. Explore introductory subjects around public health practices, epidemiology, biostatistics and health promotion. Then use your newfound knowledge to pursue further study in a Masters Degree.

Epidemiology the branch of medicine dealing with the incidence and prevalence of disease in large populations and with detection of the source and cause of epidemics of infectious disease. This program aims to provide structured coursework, developing epidemiological, biostatistical and methodological skills to an advanced level.

Grow your health workforce knowledge with this specialist qualification. Choose from clinical or standard epidemiology. You’ll develop your methodological research skills. Do the vital work that improves the health and lives of communities.

Graduate Diploma in Epidemiology

Physical, chemical and microbiological hazards present constantly changing health challenges. Coupled with population growth, globalisation, and climate change, the potential for emerging or re-emerging environmental health risks and threats to human health puts governments, industry and communities under pressure to adapt and apply sustainable solutions. The Graduate Diploma in Environmental Health Sciences (GDipEnvHlthSc) is an interdisciplinary program that teaches courses relevant to environmental health practice; it is a collaboration between UQ School of Public Health and the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, an internationally renowned research centre incorporating the former National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicology (Entox). This one-year program aims to equip public health professionals with knowledge and skills to address complex environmental health challenges. Such challenges require graduates to develop anticipatory and integrated responses, which in turn rely on an understanding of the interrelationship among risk factors related to a broad range of hazards and contexts, skills in coordination across sectors and jurisdictions, and risk communication with communities, the private sector and government agencies.

Take your interest in health challenges and environments to the next level with this series of eight subjects, forming your qualification. Learn to develop integrated responses to hazards for work in the private sector of government agencies. 

Graduate Diploma in Environmental Health Sciences

The Graduate Certificate in Public and Environmentally Sustainable Health introduces learners to the basic principles and methods of public health, systems thinking and environmental sustainability. The program emphasises the collection and sources of routine public health and social data, epidemiology, biostatistics and communication skills. earners are introduced to a broad range of contemporary public health issues including the challenges that climate change and environmental degradation pose to health and healthcare systems. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are used as an integrating structure across the whole program. The Graduate Certificate of Public and Environmentally Sustainable Health is an articulated qualification that forms the foundation for the Graduate Diploma and/or Master of Public and Environmentally Sustainable Health.

Unpack challenges to human health and health systems during this time of rapid change. You’ll study epidemiology and biostatistics in this specialised public health course. Help the health sector and the population adjust and adapt to climate change.

Graduate Certificate in Public and Environmentally Sustainable Health

As a graduate of the Certificate in Public Health you will have foundation competencies required for public health practice in Australia and globally. You’ll learn to think broadly about the factors that affect health and wellbeing including social, environmental, cultural, economic, political and structural determinants. You will be empowered to address public health challenges as a practitioner who is culturally competent, collaborative, evidence-based and builds capacity for public health action. This program is relevant to those who work within public health as well as those wanting to move into the field of public health.

Prepare for a move into the public health sector, where you can make a lasting impact on large-scale health challenges. Gain the practical skills you need to analyse existing healthcare systems. Become a leader who advocates for change. 

This program helps you to develop and further your career in public health practice, research and/or management. It allows you to re-orientate your work interests in health to disease prevention and health promotion and is widely recognised both nationally and internationally as the public health credential for careers in public health.These programs focus on the socio-ecological model of public health that emphasises and analyses the important interactions between the social, biological, economic and environmental determinants of health. They enable you to apply this analytical skill set to plan, implement and evaluate population based interventions that protect and promote health.The program has a strong focus on international health and provides you with the opportunity to focus your public health studies by selecting a range of electives in areas such as public health nutrition, health promotion, climate change, international health, environmental health, and health services management.

Further your career in research, management or public health practice. Examine the key  determinants of health, including the social, biological, economic and environmental factors. Focus on international health and choose from a range of electives.

Health and Community Services in Australia

Health Promotion

Health Systems and Services

First Peoples' Health

Community Health and Wellbeing

Navigating the Aged Care System

Health Policy and Decision Making

Health and Society

Promoting Health and Wellbeing

Epidemiology and Evidence

Students undertake an independent research project. The project provides an opportunity for students to undertake independent research on a topic relevant to a specific discipline, for example, dietetics, occupational health and safety, health promotion, health policy and management, food science or public health. Supervision is available where appropriate. Students are able to pursue a topic of interest to their sponsors or relevant to their workplace. Students will formulate a research question, design and execute a study and apply their findings in a community or workplace context.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Secure an opportunity to design and execute an independent research project. Study a specific health science topic relevant to your sponsor or workplace.Analyse, interpret and assess data and apply findings in the community or at work.

Health Sciences Research Project

This subject was previously known as Health Promotion Partnerships, Politics and Power.
The new public health demands that individuals not be treated in isolation from the larger social context in which they live, work and play. This subject seeks to extend your understanding of the ways in which we can promote health through the development of healthy public policy and supportive environments. To do this effectively we need to understand the power structures and decision making contexts which shape the health of our society and those that we may need to influence to improve health status. In this subject you will explore systems, policies and political ideologies which impact on health and opportunities to work collaboratively across sectors to reduce health inequities. You will also critically assess corporate influences on health and examine the role of civil society and advocacy in public health. This subject involves both a theoretical and practical understanding of the social determinants of health and contemporary political issues.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Assess how politics and power influence health outcomes, and find ways to reduce health inequality and support equity.Develop public policy that inspires change and sways public opinion. Apply advocacy strategies to promote public health’s profile.

Politics and Power in Public Health

This subject was previously known as Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
Epidemiological research, association and causation, rates and ratios, standardisation, bias, confounding and sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic and screening tests. Principles and evaluation of clinical trials, cohort and case control studies. Multivariable analyses: simple and multiple linear regression, two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and logistic regression. Use of (STATA) statistical software.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Study the causes and patterns of disease in human populations. Reveal essential data to plan, manage and evaluate services to prevent, control and treat disease.Support critical health investigation and research using statistical software.

Quantitative Methods

This subject was previously known as Foundations of Public Health.This subject introduces students to public health as an organised global and local effort to prevent illness and promote and protect the public’s health. It will explore principles and practice of public health - past, present and future. It frames public health in its historical, political and cultural contexts to enable student to engage critically and conceptually with contemporary public health theory and practice. Public health issues, both local and global, are used as case studies to assist students to develop the knowledge, skills and conceptual vocabulary necessary to analyse public health challenges and articulate possible solutions. This subject will cover: historical contexts and developments; frameworks, theory and multidisciplinary approaches; the pillars of protection, prevention and promotion; the determinants of health and illness of populations; global and indigenous public health; ethics, equity and evidence in public health.Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Navigate the public health system’s origins. Identify and scrutinise environmental, social and biological factors affecting public health services.Analyse causes of global health issues and plan, introduce and monitor public health interventions. 

Global Public Health Challenges

ACU-PUBH649 Preparation for Practice is one of two subjects (PUBH649 Preparation for Practice and PUBH655 Practice Placement) which will apply and consolidate learning acquired in the Master of Public Health program to prepare students to practice as public health professionals. PUBH649 Preparation for Practice comprises a range of educational activities which will prepare students for PUBH655 Practice Placement. In PUBH649 Preparation for Practice, students will undertake coursework including modules on sourcing placement, skills strengthening and practice reflections.ACU0 PUBH649 Preparation for Practice is linked to the Australian Qualifications Framework and supported by educational theory on the importance of experiential learning for preparing students for professional practice.In the subsequent subject, ACU-PUBH655 Practice Placement, students will build on knowledge acquired in PUBH649 Preparation for Practice and complete a project consisting of a practice-based public health activity or fieldwork that involves the integration of knowledge and skills across multiple public health areas. In AICU-PUB655 Practice Placement, students are to demonstrate core public health competencies as appropriate, including community engagement and ethical practice. Overall, PUBH649 Preparation for Practice and ACU-PUBH655 Practice Placement aim to enable students to apply and integrate their public health skills and knowledge within a summative public health practice experience.

Get ready for work in public health settings. You’ll explore placement opportunities and work on applications. Consolidate what you’ve learned in your Master of Public Health as you prepare to enter the workforce. 

Preparation for Practice

Public health advocacy involves individuals and organisations who operate locally, regionally, nationally and globally to address policies, products and practices that compromise people’s health. Advocacy is a critical skill for all practitioners to effectively promote and protect population health and wellbeing. Advocacy is often needed to transform research into policy and practice. This subject enables students to refine their existing communication skills by building their knowledge of the “art of advocacy” and the various ways this can be used to influence decisions and outcomes to improve health. Students will examine various facets of advocacy, including: approaches to advocacy; persuasiveness, rhetoric, method, audience, presentation and evaluation; nested advocacy within larger approaches; and challenging existing values or practices. Students will then consider the various factors that underpin effective, valid and appropriate advocacy, such as: community engagement, consultation and empowerment; community/organisational relationships; and respectful communication methods.  In considering health advocacy in a global context, this subject will also include cultural responsiveness and cross-cultural communication. Finally, this subject will apply critical analysis to advocacy “tools” (existing or emergent) such as social marketing, new media approaches, focused health campaigns, fundraising, celebrity advocacy and competitive advocacy in health.

Health Advocacy

Optimal nutrition is a cornerstone of human health and well-being. Food security is a means by which optimal nutrition is delivered to individuals, communities and populations. This unit will introduce students to the major concepts and issues around global nutrition and food security. Emphasis will be placed on the Nutrition Transition phenomenon, which reflects the interconnectedness of food consumption, health (and illness), socioeconomic and environmental factors, and sustainable development. Students will explore challenges to nutrition and food security from the standpoints of availability, access, utilisation and stability, as well as other risk factors and broader issues of food industry influence, culture and colonisation, globalisation and new media. Causes of major nutrition issues, their prevalence and severity will be examined, along with their impact on health and development. Application of community-/population-level nutritional assessments and interventions will then be considered, especially in the context of developing countries and humanitarian response to crises. This unit will conclude with models for the development of programs and/or social enterprises aimed at improving food security. This unit aims to familiarise students with global nutrition concepts and food security.

Global Nutrition and Food Security

If public health embodies the organised effort of society to protect and promote health, then public health law and policy is fundamental to achieving that organised effort. The aim of this subject is to enable students to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills necessary to use law and policy to improve public health. Following introduction to fundamental legal concepts, students will examine key areas of public health law relating to health protection, practitioners, systems and services, as well as specific issues or situations that pose a risk to health. Students will also consider policy development, implementation and analysis, and the role of politics, interests, evidence and economics in shaping policy. Students will then apply their knowledge and understanding to the process of law reform and policy change, with emphasis on public health advocacy for improving law and policy and thus improving public health and wellbeing.

Public Health Law and Policy

Disease prevention and management strategies constitute major areas of public health action and are key to reducing mortality and the population-level burden. COVID 19 has demonstrated that communicable diseases can very quickly become global pandemics, requiring public health emergency responses. Non-communicable diseases are also a cause of death and disability globally, including in low and middle income countries. Injuries, such as falls in older people and road traffic accidents in young people, also contribute substantially to the global burden of disease. This unit will equip students with the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to effectively prevent and manage communicable and non-communicable disease or injury in various settings, including public health emergencies. Students will learn about communicable disease using a case study (e.g. COVID 19). Areas covered will include public health surveillance and emergency responses including the treatment strategies, and preventive strategies (e.g. case containment through quarantine/physical distancing, contact tracing, vaccination). Students will also examine integrated models for non-communicable disease management. This unit aims to introduce students to disease prevention and management strategies with a focus on communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases and injuries.

Disease Prevention and Management

Health is determined by many factors. Public health professionals must have a detailed understanding of these factors to improve population and individual health and wellbeing. Students will learn to critique the evidence on health determinants and the implications for creating a society conducive to health. Complex public health/social issues involving multiple health determinants will be explored. The unit will help students consolidate their critical analysis of health determinants , the interaction between determinants and the promotion and maintenance of healthy social and physical environments. This unit aims to provide students with the opportunity to develop a critical understanding of the determinants of health, inequalities in their distribution within the population, and the ability to discuss approaches to addressing these inequalities critically.

Determinants of Health

Curtin University

Australian Catholic University

Public health advocacy involves individuals and organisations who operate locally, regionally, nationally and globally to address policies, products and practices that compromise people’s health. Advocacy is a critical skill for all practitioners to effectively promote and protect population health and wellbeing. Advocacy is often needed to transform research into policy and practice. This subject enables students to refine their existing communication skills by building their knowledge of the “art of advocacy” and the various ways this can be used to influence decisions and outcomes to improve health. Students will examine various facets of advocacy, including: approaches to advocacy; persuasiveness, rhetoric, method, audience, presentation and evaluation; nested advocacy within larger approaches; and challenging existing values or practices. Students will then consider the various factors that underpin effective, valid and appropriate advocacy, such as: community engagement, consultation and empowerment; community/organisational relationships; and respectful communication methods.  In considering health advocacy in a global context, this subject will also include cultural responsiveness and cross-cultural communication. Finally, this subject will apply critical analysis to advocacy “tools” (existing or emergent) such as social marketing, new media approaches, focused health campaigns, fundraising, celebrity advocacy and competitive advocacy in health.

Optimal nutrition is a cornerstone of human health and well-being. Food security is a means by which optimal nutrition is delivered to individuals, communities and populations. This unit will introduce students to the major concepts and issues around global nutrition and food security. Emphasis will be placed on the Nutrition Transition phenomenon, which reflects the interconnectedness of food consumption, health (and illness), socioeconomic and environmental factors, and sustainable development. Students will explore challenges to nutrition and food security from the standpoints of availability, access, utilisation and stability, as well as other risk factors and broader issues of food industry influence, culture and colonisation, globalisation and new media. Causes of major nutrition issues, their prevalence and severity will be examined, along with their impact on health and development. Application of community-/population-level nutritional assessments and interventions will then be considered, especially in the context of developing countries and humanitarian response to crises. This unit will conclude with models for the development of programs and/or social enterprises aimed at improving food security. This unit aims to familiarise students with global nutrition concepts and food security.

If public health embodies the organised effort of society to protect and promote health, then public health law and policy is fundamental to achieving that organised effort. The aim of this subject is to enable students to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills necessary to use law and policy to improve public health. Following introduction to fundamental legal concepts, students will examine key areas of public health law relating to health protection, practitioners, systems and services, as well as specific issues or situations that pose a risk to health. Students will also consider policy development, implementation and analysis, and the role of politics, interests, evidence and economics in shaping policy. Students will then apply their knowledge and understanding to the process of law reform and policy change, with emphasis on public health advocacy for improving law and policy and thus improving public health and wellbeing.

Disease prevention and management strategies constitute major areas of public health action and are key to reducing mortality and the population-level burden. COVID 19 has demonstrated that communicable diseases can very quickly become global pandemics, requiring public health emergency responses. Non-communicable diseases are also a cause of death and disability globally, including in low and middle income countries. Injuries, such as falls in older people and road traffic accidents in young people, also contribute substantially to the global burden of disease. This unit will equip students with the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to effectively prevent and manage communicable and non-communicable disease or injury in various settings, including public health emergencies. Students will learn about communicable disease using a case study (e.g. COVID 19). Areas covered will include public health surveillance and emergency responses including the treatment strategies, and preventive strategies (e.g. case containment through quarantine/physical distancing, contact tracing, vaccination). Students will also examine integrated models for non-communicable disease management. This unit aims to introduce students to disease prevention and management strategies with a focus on communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases and injuries.

Health is determined by many factors. Public health professionals must have a detailed understanding of these factors to improve population and individual health and wellbeing. Students will learn to critique the evidence on health determinants and the implications for creating a society conducive to health. Complex public health/social issues involving multiple health determinants will be explored. The unit will help students consolidate their critical analysis of health determinants , the interaction between determinants and the promotion and maintenance of healthy social and physical environments. This unit aims to provide students with the opportunity to develop a critical understanding of the determinants of health, inequalities in their distribution within the population, and the ability to discuss approaches to addressing these inequalities critically.

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