Environmental Health MSc
1 Year Full-Time | September Start

You will learn about public health through the key issues and debates that shape current thinking, research and policy. You will build a critical understanding of the approaches to promoting and protecting health and well-being, preventing ill health and prolonging life through a societal approach. You will explore the underlying socio-economic and wider determinants of health as well as disease looking at systematic evidence based approaches to improve population health. You will focus on the key domains of public health practice through topics including:
• Health inequalities and the wider determinants of health
• Assessment and surveillance of population health and wellbeing
• Public health policy and the influence of power, politics and ideology
• Evidence based approaches across the life course to reduce risk factors
• Social Marketing as an approach to influence, make and sustain behaviour change
• The role of epidemiology to plan and evaluate approaches to prevent ill health
• Outbreak investigation and management
• Environmental hazards, resilience and emergency response

In addition to learning about current issues and debates, you will develop your critical analysis skills and abilities to acquire, assimilate and apply knowledge using risk based approaches.

On completion of the module, your improved ability to link theory, practice and application will serve to enhance your employability prospects within a broad environmental health / public health job sector. Students seeking to achieve Environmental Health Practitioner status can use the module assessments to support completion of two intervention areas of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health ‘Portfolio of Professional Practice’ (PH1 and PH5).

You will learn about the key environmental stressors that impact upon human health and ecological systems, and the legislative and technological approaches that can be implemented to ameliorate these impacts. You will learn how to design appropriate monitoring strategies for a range of environmental media, including air (ambient, workplace and industrial emissions), water (natural aquatic systems and drinking water) and land (e.g. contaminated land and waste), as well as for the assessment of environmental noise and radioactivity. Synergies between environmental and workplace exposure assessment techniques will be explored wherever appropriate, for example, noise, radon and atmospheric contaminants. You will gain experience of evaluating environmental monitoring data in the context of current research and national and international guidelines on health and ecological effects. You will develop your skills in a range of practical environmental techniques; including field sampling and analysis, laboratory instrumental analytical techniques and environmental modelling software.

You will learn how each of us relates to our place of residence by looking at the distinction between a house, a home and the context of society/community and how stressors conceptually apply across. In the first half of the module you will explore UK housing policy, construction and the risk based approach to assessing health impact through the application to a real world property of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS under the Housing Act 2004). In the second part of the module you will look beyond individual properties and to a community/societal context to housing and support. With the inclusion of external lecturers from practice you will gain an understanding of the application of the law to housing needs.

You will learn how to critically evaluate health and safety management approaches, systems and regimes. Both compliance with health and safety and its regulation will be considered. The module will cover the regulation of health and safety, evaluation of health and safety compliance, the efficacy of safety policies and safety management systems, analysis of workplace co-operation on safety matters, evaluation of health and safety risk management, analysis of intervention strategies to address a wide range of workplace safety and health risks and the evaluation of health and safety enforcement strategies.

You will explore the role of the Environmental Health Practitioner in ensuring food is safe to eat. This will predominantly focus on measures businesses can take to assure compliance and the role of regulators in monitoring and facilitating this. The module will cover potential food safety hazards (biological, chemical and physical), food safety and quality management systems and the principles and practice of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) management systems. Important and topical developments in Food Technology will also be covered as will food safety law along traditional and alternative food safety enforcement strategies. Case studies in food borne ill health outbreak investigation and control will also be examined. Towards the end of the module the requirements of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) Practical Food Inspection assessment will be covered and examined.

You will learn how the practice of environmental health across society, in different sectors and in different roles, involves the application of scientific, technical and legal knowledge gained from research and applied to your needs in an ethical and professional manner. Across the year you will learn about the key concepts around ‘health’ and ‘wellbeing’ and how we define threats as ‘hazards’ and manage them through appropriate ‘risk management’ approaches. You will study how the English Legal System is structured and how English law can be applied to protect public health from unacceptable impacts on health and on the environment.

You will further develop your learning about research through studying foundations (research theories) and the advantages and drawbacks of a range of methodologies which you will apply to your own postgraduate research alongside other postgraduate programmes in the Department. You will also be prepared to scrutinise other people’s research discovering to what extent it is appropriate, robust and meaningful – particularly the connection between research objectives or questions, methods and interpretation of their findings. You will attend lectures and seminars with other postgraduate students on Departmental courses and will gain from their insights as you discuss ideas and research methods.
You will leave the module with fundamental knowledge ready to be applied to other modules in the programme and through external speakers, you will see environmental health applied in a range of settings from the private sector to non-traditional roles working across local government.

You will learn to identify research questions and project ideas by critically evaluating current research and /or practice in a discipline and identifying an appropriate topic for your own exploration through reviews and analyses of appropriate literature and the planning, development and management of a research / work related study. The module enables you to design your research using appropriate project methodologies including through analysis and evaluation of qualitative or quantitative data and within the context of existing literature. You will learn to apply concepts, models or theories to consolidate an extended knowledge in your chosen field of study whilst being aware of your own influence on the research and project process. The module enables you to apply combinations of theoretical, empirical or practice based analysis in proceeding to further applied research or practice and to present findings effectively using academic or project based conventions. You will learn to comprehend the importance and application of research and project ethics, good practice and health and safety aspects of field research and projects including regards its potential commercial status, confidentiality and data protection. You will be able to write up the research in the form of a 15,000 to 20,000 word dissertation. The dissertation module equips you to cope with and extended piece of work that significantly increases your employability in the sectors represented by the MSc programme. This may include through an internship / placement within the industry itself that you use to produce the dissertation.

You will apply knowledge gained from your studies of all the Environmental Health intervention areas (KE7012 Food Safety Management, KE7010 Housing and Health, KE7011 Managing for Health and Safety, KE7009 Environmental Protection and Health and KE7008 Public Health) to a case study /scenario provided to you. You will need to be able to show your competency in applying at least two of the five intervention areas to this scenario completing the tasks set during the two hour written seen exam. This is a professional assessment of your competency to practice as an Environmental Health Practitioner (EHP) and a requirement of the professional body – the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH).

Academic skills when studying away from your home institution can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject area in the Department of Architecture and Built Environment. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’.
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Discussing ethical issues in research, and analysing results.
• Describing bias and limitations of research.
• Developing self-reflection skills.