Teaching and education
Postgraduate programmes in Population Health Leadership
In a pioneering course, the MSc in Population Health Leadership at RCSI aims to equip learners with the broad knowledge to speak to the wide variety of components affecting the health of populations, whilst providing them with the leadership skills to implement change.
Graduates will have a broad comprehension of population health science and leadership, with the ability to leverage critical understanding, decision-making and applied actions to inform policy, systems design and practices for positive population health outcomes.
Integral to the education planned is the appraisal, synthesis and application of core population health principles, methods, and applied leadership skills as set out in the WHO-ASPHER Core Competency Framework for the Public Health Workforce.
In addition to the MSc award (90 ECTS), it is possible to undertake a Postgraduate Diploma (60 ECTS) and a Postgraduate Certificate (30 ECTS) in Population Health Leadership.
SPHeRE: Structured Population and Health services Research Education
The School of Population Health is home to SPHeRE, the national, inter-institutional, structured doctoral programme, funded by the Health Research Board (HRB).
This programme is expanding Ireland’s capacity to conduct population health and health services research and maximise its translation into policy and practice.
The SPHeRE programme provides a comprehensive set of capacity building and training activities to scholars. These activities are organised around expert-led, independent and peer-led learning processes. These core approaches to teaching and learning underpin the different stages of the PhD journey. These stages are divided into yearly terms where you complete the programme on a full-time basis; people completing on a part-time basis will have longer periods between stages.
SPHeRE involves eight universities across Ireland: RCSI, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, Dublin City University, Maynooth University, University of Galway, University College Dublin and the University of Limerick.
Population health teaching across RCSI
Staff at the School of Population Health provide population health education for the University’s Undergraduate programmes in Medicine, Physiotherapy, Pharmacy and Postgraduate Surgery programmes, amongst others.
A new curriculum for RCSI medical students is introduced in 2022/23. Faculty from the School have a significant role to play in this development, with core involvement in the new vertical pillar of the curriculum PPId (Personal and Professional Identity) and the vertical theme of PHHD (Population Health and Healthcare Delivery), each of which is embedded in each module of each year of the new curriculum.
Looking to the future, the School aims to develop new flagship academic programmes in population health to prepare a multidisciplinary cadre of graduates who will be equipped with the requisite knowledge and skills to help address the world’s population health challenges.