2017: ADVANCING FIRST NATIONS HEALTH AND A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE! 2017 was a significant year for the MPH, with a strategic review, development of new curriculum on First Nations Health and academic staff member Dr Tilman Ruff winning a Nobel Peace Prize for his campaigning for nuclear disarmament. In an ongoing refresh to ensure the program was delivering contemporary, relevant learning
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outcomes, a strategic review of all subjects was undertaken with the “University’s core mission being to teach, to graduate students who go on to pursue meaningful careers and make important contributions to society.” The areas of strategic focus were:
• Quality: Delivery of the highest quality learning, teaching through regular reporting, monitoring, review and oversight.
• Student experience: Ensure the highest quality MSPGH student experience • Innovation and development: Support innovation and development in teaching and learning.
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• Professional development: Support and promote teaching excellence that is recognised and valued by MSPGH.
• Collaboration internal and external: Build a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration in MSPGH. Develop knowledge partnerships with international educational institutions and industry.
Based on employer feedback regarding knowledge and skills application, Prioritising and Planning in Public Health was introduced as a core subject into the program. The program was developed with reference to international public health standards to ensure curriculum and
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learning outcomes were benchmarked globally. Dr Sheila Scopis joined MSPGH to work with Alister Thorpe on the development of videos focused on leadership in Indigenous Health as well as developing a new subject in Indigenous Health called ‘Indigenous Health in a Global Context’. Professor Shaun Ewen, Professor Marcia Langton, Professor Richard Chenhall, Professor Janet MacCalman and Professor Ian Anderson (the former head of the Centre for Health and Society, the predecessor of the Centre for Health Equity) all contributed advice in developing the Indigenous Health curriculum for the MPH. Natalie Ironfield was selected for The Aurora Indigenous Scholars International Study Tour in October and November 2017. This study tour taking Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander university students and graduates to visit leading universities in the UK and US. The group of successful applicants left Australia in late October 2017 and spent approximately three weeks in the US visiting Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia and NYU, and approximately ten days in the UK at Cambridge, Oxford, London Business School and the London School of Economics. The initiative provides opportunities for students to gain insight into the realities of undertaking postgraduate study at these leading institutions and involves meetings with key academics and administrators at each university, as well as current students in the areas of the participants’ interest.
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MASTER OF PUBLIC HEALTH
