ECEHH run a flexible full or part time post-graduate degree course in Environment and Human Health. The course, delivered by members of European Centre for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter Medical School’s Truro Campus, focuses on the complex connections between the environment and health, considering emerging threats to health and wellbeing posed by the environment as well as the health and wellbeing benefits the natural environment can provide.

The Masters, PgDip and PgCert in Environment and Human Health

The core themes of the Environment and Human Health programme are:

• the intricate relationships between contemporary global human health and the environment;
• how factors such as climate change, air pollution and microbes impact health; and
• the potential of the the natural environment as a resource to improve health and wellbeing.

Students also benefit from applied methodological training including developing the ability to critically analyse evidence from a range of qualitative and quantitative sources, and learning the skills needed for the assessment of the health profile of a population group anywhere in the world, particularly in the context of global urbanisation and rising health inequalities.

The MSc consists of eight 15 credit taught modules, plus a dissertation project (60 credits, so worth 1/3 of the MSc). The modules are:

1. Contemporary Environment and Human Health
2. Postgraduate Skills and Evidence
3. Nature, Health and Wellbeing
4. Environmental Science and Population Health
5. Ecological Public Health
6. Project Design
7. Global Public Health and Environment [option]
8. Research Methods for Practice [option]

One of the option modules can be swapped for another University of Exeter MSc-level module at any of the campuses (dependent on timetabling, prerequisites and funding). For example relevant option modules taught at Penryn Campus (as part of other programmes) could include “Perspectives on Sustainable Development” or “Heritage and Environmental Change”.

The programme is aimed at graduates who are planning or already undertaking a career within public health, health promotion, environmental health and protection, occupational health, workplace wellbeing or social enterprise. The programme was developed with reference to the training requirements of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and the UK Faculty of Public Health to maximise future employability in the discipline of environment and human health science.

Delivery of the Masters, PgDip and PgCert in Environment and Human Health

The course is delivered by members of the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter Medical School’s Truro Campus, with guest sessions led by representatives of a number of organizations which can include the Met Office, Public Health England and the World Health Organisation. 

The course has a September start and is flexible with full time or part-time MSc, PgDip, or PgCert options:

• MSc
  • Full time 1 year
  • Part time 2 years
  • Modular 3 years
• PgDip
  • Full time 1 year
  • Part time 2 years
• PgCert
  • Full time 2 terms over 1 year
  • Part time 4 terms over 2 years

More information on the entry requirements, approaches taken to teaching and learning, facilities, fees and finance options can be found on the University of Exeter’s post graduate taught course pages. Some scholarships are available to contribute to course costs, these include for example the De Freitas MSc Environment and Human Health Scholarship for International Students and the Pro Vice Chancellor’s NHS Postgraduate Scholarship.