Overview
Understanding Public Health introduces you to ways of thinking and perspectives that form the foundations of public health. These include examining the received wisdom of public health from the last 200 years such as different models of health and theoretical frameworks, and critiquing the approaches used in the past. You will be introduced to the social-ecological model of health that forms the basis of community-based and community-led public health. As such, you will consider the different types of leadership required for various approaches to public health practice and consider your own positionality. You will explore the differences between evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence and how these types of evidence can apply to the various approaches in public health. Finally, you will be introduced to strengths-based and disease prevention approaches as they are applied in public health.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 3 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Direct comments from students
Students often comment that the unit is eye opening because they had no previous knowledge of Public Health as a field and were unaware of the evolving state of health. Current issues are of great interest and should feature in class and material.
Emerging issues that students can read about in the news should be included in class discussion as well as in readings and the study guide.