Graduates of the MPH programme discuss the course.
Duration: 5:42mins
Speakers
S1 Hamira, MPH graduate
S2 Beck, MPH graduate
S3 Nicholas, MPH graduate
M/F refers to males/females, members of the general public, who were asked a question but no names given
Transcript
What is Public Health?
F Public health?
F Public health?
M Public health?
M Public health?
M Public health obviously is -
F Pollution, smoking.
M Is that just basically promoting health, so instead of restoring people’s health we’re trying to prevent it in the first place.
F Mexican flu.
F Health promotion and stuff like prevention.
M The way publics are involved in the treatment they get I would imagine.
F Oh, i just think immediately the NHS, public health.
F If there was an epidemic it would be public health that would actually advise the Government I should expect about how to go forwards.
M I really don’t have a clue.
S1 Public health is all about how you improve the health of the population. Quite lot of people will think of doctors and nurses and think of the NHS but actually there's quite a lot of work that goes behind the scenes.
S2 Something I’ve encountered over the years, people think it’s about, you know, street cleaning and making sure the water’s safe but it’s much broader than that.
S3 The major appeal regarding public health to me was the fact that I felt it was much more important to look after the heath of many, many people rather than looking after the health of just one person.
S2 The MPH offers a superb grounding in the breadth of public health.
S3 I always wanted a career in public health and I felt an MPH was the best place to start. If I have an MPH then I can pretty much do anything in public health.
S2 The Birmingham MPH is one a few in the country that is attended by individuals on public health training schemes.
S1 I was a bit concerned that I’d be the only person there that wasn't a doctor but that was far far from the case. We had a mixture of doctors, we had a mixture of non-medics, we had environmental health people, people from India, from Nigeria, also from Finland as well. Having that kind of diversity, it helps bring out sort of different elements in people’s backgrounds and that all helps in the group work as well.
S2 The majority of MPHs aim to give people broad public health skills but I certainly feel that Birmingham has strengths in the more challenging skills, for example the epidemiology and statistics I feel is very strong here.
S1 It is very challenging. Doing a Masters is very very different from doing a Bachelor’s. There's a lot of information to take in and especially for me there was a lot of new knowledge so yes, I found it very challenging but also equally very rewarding.
S2 It’s challenging but in a very good way. So the support is there and there’s fantastic facilities on campus. Because of where it is and because there's a really strong public heath workforce within the West Midlands, it draws really good quality both candidates and teachers. It’s tough work but it’s very gratifying to get to the end of it.
Birmingham, The City
S3 My first big surprise was there was a train station right in the middle of the university campus. From the train station you could get to the city centre and from there you could get to anywhere in the UK.
S2 Very close by are the beautiful areas of Worcestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire – I could go on and the castles, the hill walking, there’s so much to see and do.
S3 Outside the university the city centre was really close by. You could get there, you could watch movies, you could go to the clubs, you could go shopping. There was always a lot of things to do outside your university work.
S1 Within the town centre we’ve got the newly developed Bullring so any shop that you’re interested in, you’re likely to find it in Birmingham.
S2 All manner of restaurants as well to go out eating. We’ve got a very diverse community in Birmingham, not just English or Italian or European or so forth, we have a wide mixture from African to Asian. From the cafes and the low budget ethnic restaurants, right up to high end Michelin star cooking, it’s all available in Birmingham. The music scene’s fantastic here for example, whether it’s hip-hop or dance music, there’s a very vibrant scene. We’ve got the City of Birmingham symphony orchestra which is an internationally renowned orchestra and also art as well, we’ve lots of galleries around the city for modern art but also more classic traditional art. And some of the more ethnically diverse art forms as well, so there’s lots to see and do. I think it’ a very real city, you know, it’s not necessarily a tourist destination but I think it has lots of hidden wonders. It’s a really diverse vibrant place, it’s got a fantastic culture, night life, wonderful places to visit but it’s also got fantastic access to all other parts of the UK. The fact that it’s a bit of a secret means it’s there to be explored by those of us who do come here to live and work and study.
S1 Pretty much everything that you need is within a sort of fifteen minute radius and that’s really useful when you have to think about how many things you tend to do as a student.
S2 I found the MPH a mind-broadening experience. I met some fantastic people. I learnt a huge amount and really improved my skills. It helped me to get through my professional exam and I would highly recommend it.
End of recording