BSc (Hons) Health Studies

Our Health Studies course is designed to provide you with a unique and coherent experience, offering you a thorough exploration of this exciting and growing subject area.You will look at health from both a biological and sociological perspective, as well as health promotion and how it can prevent ill health. The course enables you to examine states of positive wellbeing as well as those that go beyond definitions and focus on disease and deprivation; to examine all factors which have the potential to influence health and wellbeing.For example, you will consider psychological and social aspects, such as causes of ill health as wide-ranging as unemployment, living conditions and politics. You will explore how smoking affects health and why people struggle to quit, and questions of whether obesity is caused through learned behaviour or a lack of education.This course is one of many courses run by the Institute of Public Health, Social Work and Care, and has an established reputation for excellence in terms of the quality of the course, particularly through the provision of innovative approaches to teaching and learning, and for the student centred friendliness of its academic and administrative staff.This course will enable you to gain an understanding of the nature of health studies which entails inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches. As a student, you will develop the skills necessary for the assimilation and understanding of the complex and diverse nature of the subject, as well as more general skills which will be widely transferable, enabling you to effectively prepare for and to establish a career in a wide range of health and public health related areas.A range of modules will be studied, some alongside other health and social care students, which will broaden your understanding of health, public health and social care arenas and provide you with opportunities for inter-disciplinary learning, gaining a deep understanding of work within the wider health economy.You will study three modules in Semester 1 and three in Semester 2 per year. You will be encouraged to undertake research, and in your third year can also study a module that looks at how environmental aspects such as carbon footprinting can affect health.You can get involved in the annual Health Promotion Fair, run every year by students, where you are able to design a stand on a topic of your choice – for example, childhood obesity, binge drinking, mental health awareness, sexual health, etc.Teaching and learning methods include lectures followed by group work, with on average 140 in the year and classes between 30 and 40 people.