Congratulations on obtaining your place to study at Canterbury Christ Church University. The Public Health degree will develop your skills and your graduate employability in crucial roles supporting the health and wellbeing of people in populations, focusing on the prevention of ill-health. Our lecturers have a wide range of expertise and experience which we are keen to share with you. Our lecturers are approachable and provide an inclusive and supportive learning environment that nurtures your passions and interests in health and wellbeing. Whilst you are here you will become part of a thriving group of public health students and will have opportunities outside of the curriculum to become involved in community and university life. We are looking forward to meeting you, getting to know you and supporting you on your academic journey.

Your Course Team

Key dates

Academic Calendar: Semesters

View key dates for this Academic Calendar for 2025-26 including when teaching starts and finishes and when you break for holidays.  

Welcome and Induction

Your Welcome Week is an essential introduction to your course and the wider University, helping you to feel confident and prepared for your studies right from the very start.

It is important to check your Course Welcome Week for all the activities you are required to attend as part of your course induction. If any of your welcome activities are in groups, your course team will contact you before you arrive to let you know which group you will be in.

In addition, check the Student Events Hub for a range of fun activities. including the Students’ Union Welcome Fair, to help you make friends and live your best CCCU student life.

Your teaching timetable 

UniTimetables provides an overview of all teaching activities for a course. If your course is taught in groups, it will display information for all groups, not just the group you will be assigned to.

Your individual student timetable will show you what modules and groups you are expected to attend via MyTimetable. This will be available for when your teaching starts.

Learn more about timetabling for new students including user guides and videos.

Welcome

You will be keen to get as organised as possible before starting your degree course. We think it is important at this stage to help you put into place support and strategies to enable you to flourish at university. We are proud to be an inclusive University that supports a diverse community of students. Please note that if you have a disability or would like to learn more about the support that we can offer to students, please visit the Disability and Mental Health website.

The team appreciates that this is a time of change for you. The prospect of university can be somewhat daunting as it is a big step up from your previous education. It might also be the first time you are leaving home. To assist with the transition, you will be assigned a personal academic tutor. Your personal tutor will be your first point of reference for any personal or general academic matters you might have throughout your time at the university. There will also be opportunities for you to access a peer mentor if you would like one.

This is a full-time, academic course of study. You will receive direct teaching and learning activities and, you are also expected to do independent study. Being fully engaged with all taught sessions is crucial for your success. To support you in this, there will be induction activities at the beginning of the academic year that will help to get you organised and settled in and these will continue throughout the year.

The University has a wealth of student services that can offer you information and guidance to help you prepare for being at university and making the most of your time whilst here.

Getting started

We hope you arrive at the University eager and ready to start on your new course having taken some time to rest and relax having worked hard to get into university.

To help start thinking about Public Health, it will help to watch television programmes related to health topics and read around news-related issues to understand the broader aspects of the importance of public health in day-to-day life. You might also like to look at the Royal Society for Public Health and the World Health Organization.

We would encourage you to review the course structure and module options via your course page before you arrive.

Pre-course reading

A full reading list, including recommended textbooks will be available when you start your course. You may want to look at a core textbook that will underpin your learning throughout the course co-authored by the Public Health team:

Robinson, S. (2021) Priorities for Health Promotion and Public Health: Explaining the Evidence for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Oxon: Routledge.

For additional resources please follow the links to the Library and the University Bookshop.

Contact details

Have a question?

Speak to our friendly team for support.