Graduate Diploma in Public Health

ACU's Graduate Diploma in Public Health equips graduates with advanced knowledge, understanding and skills in public health to improve population health and well-being. The course prepares graduates to practise with a community, national or global focus, and with an ethical, social justice perspective. On successful completion, graduates should be able to demonstrate advanced knowledge across the major subject areas within public health, analyse and use the best available evidence to support public health action, and demonstrate the skills needed to critique and implement a range of public health interventions. The program suits postgraduate students who are also working, offering full-time or part-time study, on-campus or online modes, and intensive unit teaching schedules including weekends. Its curriculum is designed with reference to Australian and international conceptual frameworks for public health, including the Foundation Competencies for Master of Public Health Graduates in Australia and the requirements of the Australian Faculty of Public Health Medicine, and illustrates theory with practical examples of established and emergent public health issues such as family violence, homelessness and cyber- and workplace bullying. The award requires 80 credit points of specified public health units covering foundations of public health, biostatistics and epidemiology, Indigenous health, health promotion, Australian health care systems, disease prevention and management, public health law and policy, and health sciences research, over one year full-time or the equivalent part-time at ACU's Melbourne campus. Students who complete a minimum of 40 credit points may exit with the Graduate Certificate in Public Health, and the diploma articulates into second-year studies in ACU's Master of Public Health via either the Research Pathway or the Capstone Pathway.