Teaching and learning
At St George’s, you will benefit from working as part of a small, close-knit team. Students, clinicians and researchers work happily and effectively together, and you will be welcomed into our small specialist research community, with all the advantages that brings for personal input and development.
The nature of the Global Health discipline ensures that we attract a diverse student cohort each year, of different ages, stages of life and professionals from sectors as disparate as medicine and law, which students tell us makes the learning all the more interesting.
They also tell us they like the many opportunities to learn from people working directly and indirectly within the global health sector and humanitarian organisations. Where possible, we invite guest lecturers to share their experiences, capitalising on the in-house experts within our own faculty, St George’s Hospital and our extensive industry links. Previously, students have heard from a senior advisor at WHO, a Kenyan NGO, international lawyers and world-leading researchers in tuberculosis and malaria, to name just a few examples.
Teaching is delivered through a variety of methods including group lectures, tutor-led seminars, postgraduate masterclasses and workshops, and case or scenario based learning sessions. For example, in the Global Governance for Health module, you will explore the impact of corruption in healthcare and examine the impact of various anti-corruption policies on health. You will also participate in self-directed study and wider reading, as well as individual and group practical sessions.
Personal and professional development is fostered through academic study, self-directed learning activities and the implementation of a research project under supervision. With opportunities in London and internationally, research projects reflect the flexibility offered throughout the programme with the potential to study an exciting range of subject matter as part of a humanities, laboratory or clinical project.
The course is designed to encourage you to become more self-directed in your studies and, in doing so, gain insight into your own learning styles, preparing you to take responsibility for your future learning and professional development. You will develop transferrable skills in critical thinking, communication skills, time management, planning and logistics and data analysis.
Our expertise
You’ll be taught by staff whose expertise covers medical ethics, law, philosophy, humanities, communicable diseases, clinical medicine, surgery, environmental epidemiology and public health. This includes, for example, an an academic specialising in mental health, gender-based violence and conflict, an environmental epidemiologist with more than 10 years’ experience working in the area of environmental determinants of human health, and a veteran public health specialist formerly of the World Health Organization (WHO).
St George’s enjoys a global reputation as experts in population health, infection and immunity, and molecular and clinical sciences thanks to our four world-class research institutes – Molecular and Clinical Science, Population Health Research, Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education and Infection and Immunity.
For the past two centuries, since the ‘father of immunology’ Edward Jenner, based here, created the world’s first vaccine, we have been at the forefront of developing new and innovative solutions to enhance the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of disease. More recently, our research has included a focus on tuberculosis, malaria, HIV in low and middle-income countries and Covid-19. A founder member of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), we have been involved for over 25 years in measuring the burden of respiratory disease nationally and globally.
Assessment methods
Assessments are designed to help you with preparation for your dissertation. They help you review published work critically, use appropriate experimental design, and analyse experimental data. They also enable you to develop scientific writing and presentation skills. All modules are assessed through written assignments or an oral presentation, with the exception of the statistics module which is assessed via examination. Following the research project, you will be asked to present a poster on your research.