BSc (Hons) Public Health with Foundation Year

The BSc (Hons) Public Health degree and pathways are full-time degrees where you will be taught at our Canterbury Campus.

You will study six modules each year, across two semesters. Four of the modules (two each semester) will be shared as common modules, meaning that you will study with students studying the BSc (Hons) Health and Lifestyle Science, BSc (Hons) Mental Health and Wellbeing, BSC (Hons) Public Health and Arts, BSc (Hons) Public Health and Digital Technology, and BSc (Hons) Public Health and Business Management.

For each module that you study you will receive 50 hours of academic direction usually equivalent to 30 hours of contact and 20 hours of guided independent learning structured by an academic. Your actual contact hours will depend on the optional modules you select. This means that during semesters, you will usually to be on campus for between 9 and 15 hours each week.

The guided independent learning will form a series of activities that complement the contact hours directly and may include observation activities, simulated activities, pre-class reading, engagement with digital resources, research tasks, or completion of a set exercise.

Your degree includes a wide range of teaching and learning strategies. These strategies are designed to encourage you to develop your knowledge, skills, and independent learning, and to continually apply your academic learning to real-world experience and vice versa.

The strategies include work based-learning, the use of real-world or industrial briefs, group discussions, lectures, student presentations, ‘flipped learning’ (whereby students may read or watch a presentation in advance and this is discussed in class), problem-based learning, class based discussions, problem solving group work, brainstorming, use of case studies, reflection, use of broadcast media to show health in the real world, library based exercises, role play, creative practical exercises, peer learning, peer teaching, student led seminars, engagement with the virtual learning environment (Blackboard/Library), IT skills, online discussions, and individual and group tutorials.

Technologies such as Blackboard Learn, Blackboard Collaborate, Mentimeter, Padlet, PebblePad, ReCap, and Turnitin will be used to support the learning and teaching strategy within the course. The learning, teaching, and assessment strategy for the BSc (Hons) Public Health supports success for all students by ensuring that the transition to Higher Education is manageable through the progressive structuring of the modules over the three levels of the course.

The emphasis of the course and the learning and teaching throughout is the development of the whole person, supporting students to be partners in their learning who can confidently engage in their studies, and directed and independent activities, enabling them to become part of a wider learning community.

The course aims ultimately to produce graduates who understand and can act on public health goals, and support individuals, communities, and populations to engage in health promoting and protective behaviours with confidence, and the ability to work within a range of contexts and settings, whilst demonstrating appropriate values and behaviours. All courses are informed by the University’s Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy and Vision 2030.

Independent study is essential to your learning experience as it provides an opportunity for you to consolidate your learning and the development of wider graduate skills. Academic staff will provide you with resources such as reading lists, documentaries, podcasts etc and make suggestions for how to use your independent study time effectively.

Independent study is self-directed, and you can decide how best to use that time to benefit your learning experience. We would expect you to complete 150 hours of independent study for each 20-credit module. This will be equivalent to 12 hours week each semester, in total.

Your overall workload on this full-time degree will be equivalent to 1200 hours each year, broken down as 50 hours of academic direction and contact per module, with 150 hours of independent study per module. This means that during each of the two semesters, you should expect to be studying for around 600 hours.

Our academic team have over 30 years’ experience and keen research interests in Public Health. Many come from practice backgrounds and are now engaged academics and researchers. The teaching team is comprised of lecturers, senior lecturers, and principal lecturers. Our staff all hold, or are studying for, the Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice, ensuring that they are qualified to teach you.