EDUCATION. 28 students representing nine different nationalities have been admitted to the university’s new Master’s Program in Global Health. The program is being offered through a collaboration between four different faculties, with Salgrenska Academy serving as the host faculty.
Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, Greece, Uganda, Mexico, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan and Sweden – the students of the new master’s program come from all over the world. Some are trained doctors, but a background in medicine or health science is not required. The interaction of students with different backgrounds is one of the program’s strengths, as is its interdisciplinary structure. Professors from four faculties are involved in the program, where health science meets social science, economics and humanities.
For Femi Obawole, the new master’s program represents an opportunity to make an old dream come true. He moved from his native Nigeria to Sweden 14 years ago to study economics. He then spent a number of years working as an accounting assistant in Sweden, but felt that he wanted to do something else with his life.
“I’m proud that I quit a job I no longer enjoyed to focus on health because that’s my dream,” says Femi Obawole, who studied biomedicine in Skövde before applying to the Master’s Program in Global Health in Gothenburg.
“I hope that the program will give us practical skills in how to work with health on a global scale.”
Claudine Mushimiyimang previously studied applied statistics. She moved to Sweden from Rwanda two years ago.
“I want to work to promote public health, perhaps as a health officer at a government agency or an organization, either here in Sweden or in some other country – maybe in Rwanda. This program opens up global opportunities,” she states.
The master’s program is a two-year degree comprising 120 credits. It is offered through a collaboration between the Section for Epidemiology and Social Medicine (EPSO) at Sahlgrenska Academy, the Department of Social Studies and the Department of Social Work at the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Department of Economics of the School of Business, Economics and Law, and the Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion at the Faculty of Arts.
Global Health focuses on populations and aims to improve the health of everyone. It involves helping vulnerable groups with a population-based approach.
“The goal is better health for everyone. We consider health a fundamental human right,” says Monica Hunsberger, program director and docent in public health science at the Department of Medicine.
Among other things, the program will describe health challenges in a interdisciplinary context, how public healthcare is controlled, health economics, epidemiology and social epidemiology – all in a global perspective. The program also focuses on complex social structures that have a major impact on the development of public health.
“It is important that the students learn theoretical concepts and then have the opportunity to discuss and apply them along the way, where we work a lot with interactivity. The program is student-centered, and the students contribute greatly to their own learning,” says Monica Hunsberger.
The program ends with a degree project in global health. The first group of students will graduate in summer 2018.
