Covid Test April 2021

Master of Public Health

Batch of

Developing leaders for social change to improve health and wellbeing outcomes in India.

India is facing a number of public health challenges including persistent malnutrition, health risks due to environmental degradation and climate change as well as a growing burden of non-communicable diseases including mental health and newly emerging infectious diseases. 

Socially vulnerable groups based on caste, class, gender, ethnicity, region bear a disproportionate burden of adverse health outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic bears testimony to such sharp inequalities in health. Promoting health and wellbeing among the populations requires organised efforts that go beyond individualised medical care and actions beyond the health sector including provision of better sanitation, safe drinking water, nutrition and improving overall work and living conditions. 

To tackle India’s growing public health challenges that address social inequalities in health, we urgently need public health practitioners who are committed to the social purpose of public health, have the required public health competencies, and are grounded in the field realities and contexts in the country. 

The Indian Government as well as the Lancet Commission on education of health professionals for the 21st century strongly call for revamping public health education to respond to the current and future challenges of public health. 

Azim Premji University’s Master of Public Health (MPH) programme aims to contribute to this by enabling professionals to develop a grounded understanding of public health challenges in India embedded in a commitment towards the values of equity, rights, and social justice. It is designed for professionals with medical or non-medical background, who are interested in tackling India’s growing public health concerns.


What are the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for strengthening India’s public health system? 

Which urgent systematic actions are needed to ensure the wellbeing of the rural and urban poor who face disproportionate burden of healthcare access and outcomes?

What can we learn from the intersectoral actions, such as improved sanitation, access to clean water, nutritious food, that have led to better health outcomes?

Our programme aims at nurturing prospective public health practitioners to have the theoretical knowledge, as well as skills to: 

  • Understand and apply a multidisciplinary and intersectoral approach to public health 
  • Design, develop, implement, and evaluate public health policies, programmes and interventions leveraging opportunities for inter-sectoral actions
  • Use and generate research evidence for public health action
  • Undertake public health action through community and health system engagements 

Association with Azim Premji Foundation

Azim Premji Foundation, which has made a significant contribution to the field of primary education, is beginning a long-term and sustained effort in different domains of Public Health such as health system strengthening, healthcare access, and health education.

The upcoming Master of Public Health (MPH) programme being offered by Azim Premji University, Bhopal, is one step towards this long-term commitment and conviction.

Why study with us?

The programme will ensure

  • a synergy of theoretical perspectives with diverse empirical realities.
  • substantial field engagements through concurrent, periodic and semester-long engagements as well as hands-on workshops.
  • a social and population orientation to public health with a focus on preventive, promotive and rehabilitative aspects and not merely the curative aspects
  • development of perspectives and skills for intersectoral action to address growing inequities in health through community participation and actions sectors allied to health.
  • a pedagogical approach to promote active and collaborative learning; ample opportunities to learn from public health field practitioners
  • one-on-one academic mentoring by faculty members for field projects and other aspects of the programme.

Eligibility

Candidates with at least a bachelor’s degree from any discipline and at least two years of work/​field experience after graduation will be eligible to apply for the programme. For candidates from medical and paramedical disciplines, the experience could include internships, clinical and healthcare work. For non-medical candidates, the experience could include full-time employment, long-period internships, substantial volunteer work in the development sector. 

Faculty

Our faculty members have diverse backgrounds and expertise in academia and public health practice in domains such as epidemiology, public health programmes, health communication, medical sociology, environmental health, public health law, health systems and policy, among others.

Opportunities

The University’s Placement Cell provides assistance for placement after completion of the programme and support for general professional development. For this purpose, the Cell works with varied types of organisations in the health sector, including NGOs and other social sector organisations, corporate social responsibility organisations and government organisations.

Azim Premji University’s MPH programme is designed to prepare students for work with various government as well as non-governmental organisations in public health and related sectors. Examples of roles include programme coordinators, district programme managers, project officers, coordinators, policy analysts, health communication officers, and consultants.

Know more about Azim Premji University at Bhopal here.

Know more about the Bengaluru campus here.

Know more about the Fees and Financial aid here.

Connect with Us

  • Chat with us: 99021 25621

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Course structure

Our curriculum is designed to engage students through a multi-disciplinary and inter-sectoral approach to public health. Students will develop a historically grounded understanding of public health challenges, interventions, and their social and ethical implications through a set of 15 core courses including field learning courses. 

Multiple competency-driven core courses during the programme will enable the prospective public health professionals to address public health concerns through research, communications, advocacy and programmatic interventions at the community, programmes, and policy levels. 

Our core courses, that include deep engagement with field realities will help students learn to empathetically engage with lived realities of diverse communities as sites of public health knowledge and practice. This will enable them to imagine new initiatives and actions to deal with existing and emerging public health problems through identifying and leveraging opportunities for inter-sectoral actions. 

The programme offers a set of elective courses on diverse topics in public health in the second year (such as mental health, global health governance, comparative health systems, advanced research methods: epidemiology, qualitative, participatory and mixed methods, sexual reproductive health, disability, nutrition, etc.)

The core courses are designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of public health perspectives. These offer a historically grounded understanding of public health concerns, interventions (including programmatic and other responses by the state and non-state actors) and their social and ethical implications.

The courses together help to develop students’ competencies in research, communications, advocacy as well as different aspects of program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. 

Electives will be offered in semester III. Electives would largely fall under four areas including deeper understanding of perspectives, skills relating to programme management, evidence generation, advanced courses on public health actions and courses on select specific themes within public health keeping in mind some of the neglected themes including disability. 

A combination of courses from the following will be offered for students to choose two courses depending on their interests. 

  • Perspectives: Enhancing perspectives around gender and health, globalisation and health, medical pluralism, etc. 
  • Programme management-related: Advanced courses on programme evaluation; Programme implementation; health system governance
  • Evidence in public health: Advanced courses on methods including advanced epidemiology and biostatistics, qualitative methods, participatory methods 
  • Public health actions: National/​local advocacy, development communication, social accountability 
  • Public health themes: Adolescent health; mental health; public health law; disability; technology and health, WASH, work, and health; global health, etc.

The program includes multiple core field practice components. These include Immersive Engagement with community (Semester I, Engagement with health systems and program (Semester II), Primary Health Interventions (Inter-semester I) and a semester long internship and field project.

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