Personal Professional Development (Public Health and Primary Care)

Fees for entry in 2027 have not yet been set. For reference, the fees for the academic year beginning September 2026 were as follows:

• Modular (part-time distance learning)
  UK students (per annum): £1,200 per 15 credits
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £2,600 per 15 credits

Fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance. For general fees information please visit postgraduate fees .

The course fees include all the tuition, technical support and assessments required for the course, but you are likely to incur some additional costs:

• maximum of one core text book per unit (approximately £30 per book) where e-books are not available;
• communication costs for internet use and telephone;
• a statistical software package (approximately £20).

A copy of the statistical software for Practical Statistics for Population Health will be provided free for all international fee-paying students.

Costs may also be incurred for travel, subsistence and accommodation charges during the following optional events or units:

• the Arts and Public Health blended learning unit
• the Intercultural Public Health blended learning unit
• the Infection, Prevention & Control blended learning unit
• the Engaging the Hard to Reach for Health Gain blended learning unit

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

This module is relevant to a range of professions within healthcare services, voluntary sector or Non-Government Agencies. The module provides a background to the key principles of public health including health inequalities and the social determinants of health as well as health promotion theory. There is opportunity for students to develop transferable skills and knowledge for inter-sectoral working, asset based approaches, and evaluation. The unit is internationally relevant and uses examples and case studies to demonstrate concepts and application in a range of country settings. This course unit covers material that will be helpful to staff from the NHS as well as more traditional Local Authority roles to fulfil their public health remit. 

This module provides a good grounding in the basic theory and practice of health promotion and prevention of ill health. In the unit we start by examining personal and professional perspectives in health and how these impact on individuals, communities and wider populations. We cover principle methods and approaches to the development, planning and evaluation of health interventions whilst considering both the intended outcomes and potential unintended consequences for health inequalities. The course unit is complementary to a number of modules on the MPH and MRes. In particular, the unit is relevant to Working with Communities, Intercultural Public Health, Behaviour Change and Public Health, and Introduction to Health Policy.

The teaching sessions involve live webinars (which will also be recorded), presentations and discussions. This is an interactive online course. Students must work through the online course material. Students are encouraged to use the  discussion boards to ask questions and check their understanding of the course material.  

• To acquire a critical understanding of the principles, methods and theoretical approaches to the promotion of health and the prevention of ill-health, and the planning and evaluation of health promotion programmes.
• To be able to apply learning to developing, planning and evaluating health promotion interventions and programmes in response to relevant public health and health promotion issues.

 

Category of outcome	Students should be able to:
Knowledge and understanding	A1. Define health and ill-health and explain the underlying principles behind inequalities in health
Intellectual skills	B1. Explain and critically discuss the principal methods and theoretical approaches to the promotion of health and prevention of ill-health
	B2. Explain and critically discuss the principal methods and theoretical approaches to the evaluation and assessment of evidence for effectiveness of health promotion programmes and interventions
Practical skills	C1. Apply their learning about theories and methods of health promotion, programme planning and evaluation to relevant public health and health promotion issues
Transferrable skills and personal qualities	D1 Manage time and work to deadlines

 

• Concepts of illness, health and their determinants, including the role of the broader environment, social and economic factors.
• Models, approaches and ethical issues in Health Promotion.
• Historical review of the development of health promotion theory and practice.
• Health promotion approaches to reducing health inequalities; national and international policies on inequalities
• Individual Health related behaviour and Theories of Behaviour change; the importance of knowing your population.
• Population focused approaches: Mass Media, Social Marketing, and Settings Approach. The prevention paradox: high risk and population approaches to prevention.        
• Community development and participatory approaches: definition, philosophy and place in health promotion; approaches and examples; levels of participation; community profiling and social capacity. This is an introduction to working with communities and students wanting a more in-depth knowledge about this would need to study the optional unit entitled Working with Communities which runs in Semester 2.
• Healthy public policy: role in health promotion, inter-sectoral approaches to health promotion and Health in All Policies, SMART governance for health.
• Public health advocacy and issues in implementing healthy public policy.
• Evidence-based health promotion: issues in identifying evidence understanding the importance of evaluations of health promotion interventions and programmes. Sources of evidence. Please note that this unit does not teach critical appraisal skills or how to use tools to assess the quality of evidence- that is taught in Evidence Based practice.
• Importance of planning; planning models; health needs assessment and asset based assessment; principles and values; choice of approaches; evaluation; project management.

This unit has a high degree of self-directed learning including exercises and assignments which involve active reading, appraising and applying information to health promotion problems and scenarios. Throughout the unit, all participants are encouraged to link the course materials to their experiences in every day practice.

Formative feedback is given in a variety of ways including webinars, peer comments as well as tutor comments via the discussion board activities. This kind of feedback is not allocated marks but is an integral and very important part of the learning process. 

All students will receive written feedback following the final summative assignment.

There will be regular interaction with the tutors through scheduled webinars (which will be recorded and made available) and through the online discussion boards. Students will be encouraged to use self-reflection to think about the ideas discussed, and take part in discussion board activities. Students should work through the unit in a logical sequence. The individual course unit timetables will guide what should be done and when. Participation in the discussion boards is greatly encouraged, and can help enhance your learning experience and prepare you for your assessment.

In line with guidance from the Office for Students and Quality Assurance Agency, the programme will be augmented by the Programme Director Seminar Series to deliver study skills, written English, academic writing, research skills, critical thinking and understanding arguments, careers and employability skills, revision/assessment/examination skills including time management. 

Students will be provided with personalised feedback for their final summative assignment (3,000 words or equivalent) within 20 working days.

Further opportunities for formative feedback (on non-assessed work) will also be provided during a course unit.

Naidoo, Jennie, Jennie Naidoo, and Jane Wills. Foundations for Health Promotion. Fourth edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2016. Print. (Required reading from the start of the module. Available online through the University library) 

For further information please watch this video from our Course Unit Leader.

If you have any questions about the content of this unit, please contact the course unit leader, Angela Spencer, via email at angela.spencer@manchester.ac.uk. If you have any other queries, please contact the PGT programme administrators via email at shs.programmes@manchester.ac.uk.