Postgraduate Studies in Health Promotion

Do you seek to advance your skills and knowledge for a career in Health Promotion? Monash University offers specialist units of study in health promotion within the Master of Public Health (MPH).

If you have a degree in:

• Health science
• Nursing, dietetics or an allied health discipline
• Medicine or pharmacy
• Exercise science
• Education
• Development studies
• Journalism
• Psychology
• Social work
• Arts, or
• Business

You can gain a qualification to equip you to design and manage strategies to tackle public health challenges in Australia and overseas.
Health promotion aims to promote wellness and prevent illness and injury at the population level. It has brought about dramatic benefits in the quality of life of people in Australia and in countries around the world in areas like smoking, child injury, road traffic accidents, sun protection and HIV (to name a few).

Health promotion is at the forefront of efforts to address problems like obesity, diabetes, depression, heart disease, cancers, mental health, violence, substance abuse, and the social causes of unequal health status between population groups. Internationally, it is being applied to challenges like maternal and child mortality, malnutrition, HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and emerging chronic diseases in developing countries.
As a field of work, health promotion is both ‘science and art'.  It uses a range of strategies, including policy development, advocacy, community development, urban planning, mass media communication, education and counselling, organisational capacity building and a range of others. Health promotion is a growing field that offers diversity and satisfaction, with excellent job prospects in the local, national and international contexts.
Graduates may take up positions in:

• Health foundations (e.g., VicHealth, Heart Foundation, Diabetes Australia)
• Government departments (e.g., Human Services, Health, Education, Planning)
• Community and women's health services
• International aid and development organisations
• Local government
• Hospitals and health care networks
• Divisions of General Practice
• Schools
• Corporate health services
• Leisure and recreation services

 The types of roles that people with health promotion qualifications fulfil are (for example):

• Project manager
• Policy analyst
• Research manager
• Advocacy manager
• Community development worker
• Capacity building advisor
• Health educator
• Peer education coordinator
• Media and marketing officer

Studying health promotion at Monash

The Health Promotion units of study within the Monash MPH provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the determinants of health, the principles and theories that underpin health promotion, and the broad spectrum of strategies that are used to promote health. Students have the opportunity to develop skills for needs assessment, program planning, intervention mapping, program management and evaluation. Current priorities and practical challenges in health promotion are addressed, including reducing social inequalities in health status, engaging diverse populations, working in partnership with sectors outside of the health arena, capacity building, and developing policies to achieve sustained improvements in population health.

Course structure

The MPH is delivered via both on-campus and off-campus mode, and can also be completed by coursework units only or a combination of coursework units and a project or minor thesis. Information on the course structure of the MPH can be found at: www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/courses/0046.html

Health Promotion units of study

Futher Information