Public Health is big. It is always in the news, it is big in business, it is big in policy, it is big in government, and it is big in the lives of individual citizens. 

European Public Health is about health responses to public needs. It is bringing individual healthcare together for collective benefits; there are individual health dimensions but there are also collective issues - collective expectations, rights and responsibilities to ensure health is promoted as a good for all in the face of economic, social, and medical difference. So part of the degree will examine medical and health dimensions of European Public Health. 

For the first time this year we are looking explicitly at two further aspects of European Public Health - aspects that concern the organisation and delivery of a European Public Health: leadership and governance. 

This first course on the degree is designed to introduce all the aspects of the degree - to give an overview, a map, so that by the end of the course you have a clear indication of the landscape and the journeys that we can make together. 

Whilst the staff engaged in this programme are all experts in their different fields and will bring a great deal to the programme, one of the key resources for the degree is you and your fellow students on the programme. You come from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, all complementary to developing an understanding of European Public Health. You also come from different places, not just across Europe, but from around the world. So, during the course we want you to teach each other about your different disciplinary and cultural backgrounds. This is what will make the course truly great and it will lift your understanding to a new level.

1. The aim of the module is to introduce the three conceptual streams of the degree, European Public Health, Leadership, and Governance, effectively to the students. 
2. This aim will be achieved through the following objectives:

- to ensure that by the end of the four weeks you have a clear understanding of the basic landscape of each of the three concepts;

- to ensure that you understand that these are contested concepts, to see something of the scope of the contests within the concepts and disciplines, and to see differences in concepts as a positive and natural part of Master’s level study;

- to ensure that you also see something of the interaction between the three conceptual elements of the course;

- to ensure that you are lifting your level of reading and preparation to a Master’s level, by explicitly working on skills in close analysis of texts and detailed reading of materials, and on the development of multi-layered, critical arguments using a variety of evidence;

- to introduce you to different professional debates within the three concepts, particularly to ensure you are shown and are encouraged to participate in professional academic discussions and professional practitioner discussions; and,

- to encourage you to draw on your own experience and observation of public health debates from your home countries as a part of the literature that will be discussed.