The Master's in Demography and Health is Europe's only
graduate course in population studies that also emphasizes
health and social epidemiology.
This course is the basis of all population health science because it
provides postgraduate training in statistics,
epidemiology, research methods
as well as the determinants and consequences of population trends.
Demography is a small area of expertise
but actually there aren't many courses but
the ones that do exist actually concentrate mainly on
demographic technical methods or population studies in general.
This is the only course that actually links with health,
social welfare and economic development. It provides
students with broad-based skills that can be used in many fields, that can be
used in social
welfare economic development as well as population studies in health.
I chose to study demography and health at the School
because my undergrad was in environmental studies so I wanted to do
something of a more social concept
and then when I looked into the Master's degree at the School, I thought it was
was very interesting,
because it had bits of epidemiology and statistics but there were also some
courses that were
environmentally related, so I thought that this would be very interesting, and that's
why I applied.
I chose to study demography and health because
I am a geographer, my undergraduate degree is in human geography,
and so I was looking for a Master's degree
that would give me a chance to
delve further into a subject that over
time I've become more interested in. This course
is designed for people who are interested in acquiring
technical demographic skills but also people who
are interested in understanding the linkages between
population studies and health issues. For example:
aging, sexual behavior, health inequalities, thing like that.
The advantages of the course
are after the first term we get to choose the courses
we like most which is nice because we can tailor
our program to our individual wants and needs
and also because the
first semester courses were quite chaotic
it's nice to see that all those merge together and
at the end of the second semester you have an idea about why you are taking
all those first term courses. The teaching is very very it
sometimes you're in a lecture theatre with two hundred people
with a lecturer and PowerPoint slides to support the
work and then at times you're in a much smaller
group. There's a lot of hands-on
work so a lot of working computer labs, working with
different technology and different programs.
Very often the larger lectures
are then supported by practical. So you might be in a lecture theatre with two
hundred people
but then you will be in a practical with maybe just eight or ten, and sometimes
that could be a discussion group
sometimes that could be a computer exercise,
sometimes that would be a seminar, sometimes students presenting
so it really varies, and that is another real plus about the course.
We get to have the theory in the beginning
and then the practicals which were helping us understand and where we
got to collaborate and ask questions in case
we missed something in the theory part. I thought that was quite helpful
and all the projects which were good because you get to do your own
research and then get feedback on it.
Students who do this course go to four broader areas:
one is academia where they can do demographic or health research,
the second is students who come from abroad,
they may be sent by a Ministry or a governmental organisation,
they would then maybe go back to more promoted roles within that organisation.
The third is international agencies, like the United Nations
or WHO, things like that and
the fourth is NGOs: Save the Children or International Planned Parenthood Federation.
I highly recommend the course because you get very
good and in-depth knowledge of demography,
which of course is not all of demography, but you've got very good skills you can
then build on.
You also integrate that with public health
in a way that for me was a completely new
area but it enriches demography,
and you also understand well how demographers can contribute to public health.
so I think it expands the role of demography.
One of my future plan is to hopefully
get a publication out of my summer project, so now we're in
that phase with my tutor when we're like twisting around and making a few
changes
in order to turn it to a more presentable form.
So hopefully it will get published
in the future.