Opportunities and Challenges for Undergraduate Public Health Education in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

The international emergence of undergraduate education in public health has transformed the public health education landscape. While this shift is clearest and most widely evaluated in the United States, efforts in other parts of the world—such as Australasia—have not kept pace. This article aims to redress the evidence gap by identifying and discussing the different approaches through which Australian and New Zealand universities deliver public health education at the undergraduate level. A content analysis was conducted of online handbook information published by 47 universities across Australia and New Zealand, to gauge the various ways in which these universities implement undergraduate public health education. Each offering identified was assigned to one of four predetermined categories. Of the 47 universities, 45 were found to offer some form of undergraduate coursework in public health. Offerings took primarily the form of single subjects. Less commonly implemented were specializations ( n = 20), stand-alone undergraduate degrees ( n = 11), and double degree combinations ( n = 6). This breadth of activity highlights the need for renewed efforts in evaluating undergraduate public health education across the region. Further research is recommended into three areas: (1) emerging best practices in curriculum development and implementation, (2) explorations of public health accreditation in the region, and (3) the outcomes achieved by students and graduates of undergraduate public health degrees across Australia and New Zealand. These efforts will ultimately strengthen the operationalization and contribution of this education in helping shape the future public health workforce in Australasia.

A Systematic Review of the Outcomes, Level, Facilitators, and Barriers to Deep Self-Reflection in Public Health Higher Education: Meta-Analysis and Meta-Synthesis

“…Public health has seen a shift from postgraduate to undergraduate education in the early 2000 (Riegelman et al, 2015). This global interest probably first began in the USA (Kiviniemi and Mackenzie, 2017;Luu et al, 2019) due to efforts of the Institute of Medicine and the Association of School and Programs of Public Health recommending all undergraduate students to have access to public health education (Petersen and Weist, 2014). This move has since led to the refining of public health undergraduate curricula to ensure that graduates are well equipped to enter the workforce.…”

Prevalence and characteristics of advocacy curricula in Australian public health degrees

“…The competencies recognise the role of public health advocacy in underpinning knowledge of health promotion and disease prevention 12 and are consistent with the inclusion of advocacy in other international public health competency frameworks 13,14 . While public health undergraduates and postgraduates are expected to have knowledge and skills in public health advocacy, 12 there is a paucity of literature on how it is taught to these cohorts 9,11,15,16 . Contributing to this is a dearth of empirical research on the practice of advocacy 17,18 .…”

Message From the Co–Guest Editors: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Public Health Education in Australasia

“…This special issue of Pedagogy in Health Promotion is dedicated to the work of faculty situated in Australasia and who participate in CAPHIA Teaching and Learning Forums. Collectively these seven articles (two reflective pieces, two descriptive best practices, and three original research pieces) describe the context of public health education in Australasia (Luu, Dundas, & James, 2019), highlight important cultural issues relevant to the region (Ahuriri-Driscoll, 2019) and to international scholarship more broadly (Bowles, 2019), and describe innovative approaches to the development of new teaching techniques (Hickling, Bhatti, & Bowles, 2019), obtaining student feedback (Davies, 2019), addressing challenges in online teaching (Mathieu, Killedar, & Driscoll, 2019), and in assessing student learning (Dundas et al, 2019). Luu et al (2019) present a content analysis of the different approaches through which Australian and New Zealand universities deliver public health education at the undergraduate level.…”

“…Luu et al (2019) present a content analysis of the different approaches through which Australian and New Zealand universities deliver public health education at the undergraduate level. Encouragingly, 45 of 47 institutions offered some public health content; however, there were only 11 stand-alone degrees and 6 double-degree options.…”

“…Encouragingly, 45 of 47 institutions offered some public health content; however, there were only 11 stand-alone degrees and 6 double-degree options. In addition to orienting a global audience to public health higher education in Australasia, Luu et al (2019) highlight the need for renewed efforts in evaluating undergraduate public health education across the region and raise the important issue of accreditation standards.…”