Mr Murray Allen

I am the Course Director and Senior Lecturer in BSc Public Health and Health Promotion and BSc Health & Lifestyle Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Social Care at Canterbury Christ Church University. I joined the team in 2018. I have a special interest in physical activity and health, obesity, and behaviour change with a background of working as a Clinical Exercise Physiologist in the fields of cardiac rehabilitation and morbid obesity programmes for the NHS. My first degree from Liverpool John Moores University was in Sport Science, and I then completed my MSc in Cardiac Rehabilitation from the University of Essex in 2007, achieving a distinction and being awarded the Alan Rustige Award for Academic Excellence. In 2021, I completed my Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice and am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

I also achieved the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences ‘Accredited Sport Scientist’ status in 2010, becoming one of the first NHS practitioners in the UK to be awarded this. The practical element of my physical activity background is reflected in my level 4 Register of Exercise Professionals status in cardiac rehabilitation, lower back pain management, and obesity and diabetes.

I lead on the MSc Global Public Health ‘Health Promotion; Think Globally, Act Locally’ module and the 'Physical Activity, Health and Wellbeing', 'Researching Health and Wellbeing' and 'Psychology and Health' undergraduate modules. I teach on numerous other modules in addition to supervising undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation students. I also guest lecture on other degree pathways and deliver behaviour change training for NHS healthcare professionals.

Prior to working at CCCU, I delivered training for Kent Community Health Foundation NHS Trust in addition to writing and delivering bespoke CPD training for the British Association for Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation.

My interests are in the areas of physical activity and health, dementia, obesity, and health-related behaviour change.