MSc in Population Health Leadership
€9,000 (EU)/€15,000 (non-EU)
Enhance your leadership with the broad knowledge to speak to the wide variety of components affecting the health of populations, and the leadership skills and techniques to implement change.
Masters
2 years
Online - Part-time
90 ECTS
September 2025
About
The MSc in Population Health Leadership from the RCSI School of Population Health aims to equip leaders in this space 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.
Develop a broad comprehension of population health science and leadership and 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.
The MSc is part-time, delivered in a digital format over two years via our online teaching platform, making it accessible to busy professionals, wherever they may be working. This programme has early exit and award options. See progression section for details.
Synchronous 'live' online content for the MSc Population Health Leadership will be delivered weekly online on Thursdays between 2.30-4.30pm; you should ensure your availability on this day.
Develop a broad comprehension of population health science
Explore how to inform policy, systems design and practice
Practice with core population health principles
Enhance your leadership with the principles to implement change
Explore how to assess needs, priorities resources, and communicate evidence
Produce an applied research project
Suitable for
This programme is ideal for healthcare professionals including: doctors, managers, nurses, allied health professionals, interdisciplinary health and social care workers, clinical specialists, and administrators. It is also relevant for those in medical supplies, the pharmaceutical sector, and healthcare regulation.
Study Population Health Leadership with RCSI
Meet Dr Sarah E. Barry, Director of Academic Programmes and Senior Lecturer at the School of Population Health, RCSI and find out how our Population Health Leadership programme focuses on preparing you to transform public health in a rapidly changing healthcare environment.
What you will learn
Introduction to the understand-decide-act framework, population-health strategies, scientific guidance, and effective implementation
Skills to design, interpret, and communicate population health research using quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods
Global health challenges and evidence-based decision-making
Evaluating evidence for designing and assessing effective individual and population health interventions
Holistic understanding of population health, focusing on systems, leadership, and connecting organisational drivers for health generation
Challenges in implementing evidence-based health policies, integrating implementation sciences, economics, and community engagement
Conducting health needs assessments considering social determinants and make resource allocation decisions to meet public health needs
Frameworks to integrate scientific disciplines and evidence for prioritising resource allocation and action in population health
Cultivate ethical awareness, synthesise evidence, and develop strategies for effective communication and implementation in population health
Conduct evidence synthesis or execute projects related to population health, following protocols from Module 9 with ethical approval
Faculty highlight
Biography
Dr Sarah E. Barry
Dr Barry is Director of Academic Programmes at RCSI's School of Population Health. She uses methods for the co-production of knowledge in local contexts, contributing to national policy development and design.
Learn more
Prof. Edward W. Gregg
Prof. Gregg is Head of the RCSI School of Population Health. He has worked extensively in chronic disease epidemiology and surveillance, prevention effectiveness trials, the development of natural experiments to study health policies, and modelling of health impact and cost-effectiveness of public health interventions.
Find out more
Register your interest
Course information
This programme will provide you with the skills and knowledge to:
- Synthesise the principles of population health science and demonstrate how these are applied in complex health, social and community care ecosystems for better health outcomes
- Critically appraise and evaluate the core rationale and research designs of population health sciences; and apply appropriate methods drawing from the following population health disciplines: social and behavioural sciences; epidemiology; biostatistics; environment health sciences; health policy, economics, systems and management
- Interpret and critically appraise the implications and outcomes of the social determinants of health on vulnerable populations, including applying the principles of equity in public health promotion and provision
- Critically evaluate the feasible application pathways for innovative approaches and solutions for population health
- Deliver strong leadership through skills in critical analysis, advocacy, communication, management, community and cultural orientation, and professionalism and ethics (ASPHER Education Committee Core Competency Model in Public Health)
- Successfully manage and complete an academic learning journey and award, using online educational and production tools and methods.
Three taught, part-time Population Health Leadership (PHL) programmes are offered:
- PgCert in Population Health Leadership
- PgDip in Population Health Leadership
- MSc in Population Health Leadership
The curriculum builds cumulatively in three stages of development and leadership training, through which students can progress from a Level 9 Postgraduate Certificate in PHL (30 ECTS) that establishes the foundations, scope, rationale and intervention routes of population health leadership, to a Level 9 Postgraduate Diploma in PHL (60 ECTS) that builds specialist skills in population health science and intervention.
Finally, an MSc in PHL award is achieved through production of a structured applied project to include literature review, policy relevance statement, evidence of project implementation, outcomes evaluation, discussion and reflection.
Postgraduate certificate and postgraduate diploma awards can be completed without further progression.
| Module | Credits | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Module 1: Optimising Population Health Leadership: Understanding, deciding, acting | 5 ECTS | The overarching aim of this module is to introduce the learner to the key elements of the understand-decide-act framework set out here. The module will sequentially connect the key attributes and aims of a population-health approach, the primary avenues of action, the scientific steps to guide its decisions, and the key strategies and skills to implement programmes effectively. As a ‘framer’ this module will orientate learners for the overall course and approach.
|
| Module 2: Exploring Approaches to Research and Data for Population Health | 5 ECTS | The aim of this module is to prepare future leaders in population health by understanding how to plan a population health research project using quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research methodologies, and to develop the skills required to appropriately interpret and communicate research findings. |
| Module 3: Fundamentals of Public Health | 5 ECTS | Gain an appreciation of global health challenges and solutions and be able to engage in leadership and evidence-based decision making to contribute effectively to improving public health. |
| Module 4: Applying Psychology and Behavioural Sciences to Population Health | 5 ECTS | The aim of this module is to provide students with skills to critically evaluate the evidence in relation to intervention design, implementation and evaluation that maximises the effectiveness of individual and population health interventions. |
| Module 5: Leadership, Governance & Policy in Population Health Ecosystems | 5 ECTS | The aim of this module is to ensure students develop a holistic, systems and network-based understanding of population health generation that also takes account of operational drivers and the importance of an enabling and distributed leadership approach – including their own. The module will enable students to critically appraise and connect different system levels, organisational drivers and leadership values and strategies – reinforcing the holistic and pragmatic idea that population health is ‘generated’ through leadership on a broad range of mechanisms. |
| Module 6: Implementing Population Health - Translating Evidence and Outcomes | 5 ECTS | The aim of this module is to ensure students consider and address the challenges of implementing evidence-based population health policies, programmes and interventions and develop a strategic perspective for evidence-based action drawing on the sciences of implementation, health economics and outcomes research, knowledge translation and organisational learning, and including participative designs for community engagement such as realist evaluation, PPI and Community-Based-Participatory-Research (CBPR). |
| Module 7: Assessing Health Needs & Prioritising Resources | 10 ECTS | This module will provide the skills needed to carry out a health needs assessment, taking into account the impact of social determinants on health. It will also focus on decision-making regarding allocation and prioritisation of resources to meet public health need. |
| Module 8: Decision making for Population Health | 10 ECTS | The aim of this module is to apply a comprehensive framework for integrating diverse scientific disciplines and sources of evidence to prioritise decisions for resource allocation and action in population health. |
| Module 9: Population Health in Action | 10 ECTS | The aim of this module, building on introductory modules, is to cultivate awareness of ethical considerations in relation to population health, teach students how to synthesise existing evidence on a population health topic relevant to their practice or interest, develop a knowledge translation plan to communicate the findings of the evidence synthesis to relevant stakeholders, and create an implementation strategy which will outline a plan to facilitate the effective adoption or scale-up of an intervention relevant to the evidence synthesis topic. |
| Module 10: Applied Research Project | 30 ECTS | This project supports scholars to either (a) undertake the evidence synthesis developed in Module 9 relevant to a specific population health topic or where feasible, (b) to execute a project, for example, primary data collection, secondary data analysis, process evaluation related to the protocol developed during Module 9 given the necessary ethical approval and data governance is in place prior to data collection/analysis. |
All of the following are delivered online.
| Module | Duration | Credits | |
| Year 1 - Semester 1 (six-week module blocks) | |||
| Orientation week | 9 September 2024 | ||
| 1. Optimising Population Health Leadership: Understanding, deciding, acting | 16 September-25 October 2024 |
5 | |
| 2. Exploring Approaches to Research and Data for Population Health | 28 October-6 December 2024 |
5 | |
| 3. Fundamentals of Public Health | 9 December-31 January 2024 (two-week break for Christmas; finish Friday, 20 December, resume Monday, 6 January 2025) | 5 | |
| Year 1 - Semester 2 |
|||
| 4. Applying Psychology and Behavioural Sciences to Population Health | 3 February-14 March 2025 | 5 | |
| 5. Leadership, Governance and Policy in Population Health Ecosystems | 18 March-9 May 2025 (two-week Easter break: finish Thursday, 17 April; resume Tuesday, 6 May) | 5 | |
| 6. Implementing Population Health – Translating Evidence and Outcomes | 12 May-20 June 2025 | 5 | |
| Year 2 - Semester 1 |
|||
| 7. Assessing Health Needs and Prioritising Resources | 8 September-28 November 2025 | 10 | |
| 8. Decision-making for Population Health | 1 December-6 March 2026 (two-week Christmas break) | 10 | |
| Year 2 - Semester 2 |
|||
| 9. Population Health in Action | 9 March-12 June 2026 | 10 | |
| Applied research project | January-July 2026 | 30 | |
An MSc in PHL award is achieved through production of a structured applied project to include literature review, policy relevance statement, evidence of project implementation, outcomes evaluation, discussion and reflection.
We are proud to be a recognised University of the National University of Ireland (NUI).
All RCSI programmes are accredited by the NUI. Recognition by Ministries and bodies in all jurisdictions must be determined by the individual applicants.
We are pleased to confirm that a number of our recent graduates, that are domiciled in the United Arab Emirates and in the Kingdom of Bahrain, have successfully had their certificates recognised by the Ministry of Education in their respective countries.
Admissions
To be eligible for the programme you must:
Hold a bachelor degree. If you don’t hold a bachelor degree, please see the recognition of prior learning pathway.
If you do not have an undergraduate degree at Level 7 or above you may still be eligible to apply through recognition of prior learning (RPL). RPL is the assessment of knowledge, skills and competence previously acquired.
Learning occurs in many contexts which include work, involvement in social and community activities, or learning through life experience generally. RPL does not give credit for experience as such; rather it considers the learning that was acquired as a result of the experience.
RPL may be used to gain:
- Admission to courses/programmes where a person may not have obtained the standard entry requirements.
- Exemptions from course modules which duplicate the learning outcomes an individual has already demonstrably acquired through prior learning.
You must meet the English language requirements (unless exempt): IELTS score of 6.5, Duolingo 105-110, or equivalent score on another standardised test. Please see below for list of exemptions.
Exemptions may apply for:
- If you have completed your school or undergraduate studies (three or more years) through English in a country where English is the majority native language
- If you have completed their school or undergraduate studies (three or more years) in an English speaking institution in a country where English is not the majority native language and where an IELTS score of 5 or more was a requirement for admissions to the programme
- If you have been working in a country (three years or more) where English is the majority native language or for an employer where English language is the official language
- Graduates of an RCSI Undergraduate, Masters or Professional Diploma programme in Dublin and Bahrain
Please note: Certified proof must be uploaded as part of your application.
Fees and funding
- EU: €9,000
- Non-EU: €15,000
| Year | Description | Date | EU fees | Non-EU fees |
| Year 1 | First payment | When confirming acceptance | €1,500 | €2,500 |
| Second payment | 30 November 2024 | €1,500 | €2,500 | |
| Third payment | 31 January 2025 | €1,500 | €2,500 | |
| Year 2 | First payment | 30 August 2025 | €1,500 | €2,500 |
| Second payment | 30 November 2025 | €1,500 | €2,500 | |
| Third payment | 31 January 2025 | €1,500 | €2,500 | |
| Total tuition fee | €9,000 | €15,000 |
Please note:
- Fee includes all resources, access to our award-winning online learning portal and access to extensive RCSI-only databases.
- Fee includes an NUI fee.
- Fee is payable via the above schedule, where relevant.
- If you have outstanding fees you will not be entitled to receive your grades or be eligible to progress and or graduate (VLE and Library privileges will be withdrawn in these cases).
- RCSI accepts no obligation to refund any fee, or part thereof, in respect of a student who chooses to withdraw from a programme.
- If you choose to withdraw from a programme you are liable for full fees owed for the seat on that programme.
- All NUI parchments are issued in Latin; you will be required to pay an additional fee of €50 to NUI if you wish to have a parchment published in English.
- Fees are subject to review annually.
- If you are being sponsored or funded by your employer you should upload a funding confirmation letter in the document upload section on the application portal.
How to apply
Please ensure you attach the following supporting documents with your application:
- Clear copy of a valid passport
- Copies of your academic transcripts/degree
- Copy of CV
- English proficiency test (if required)
Already begun your application? Complete it via our application portal now.
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