Master of Business Administration and Master of Public Health

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"My parents always told me it’s a big wide world out there, we are not the only ones, so I look for opportunities where I can help other people. In the west we live in a real bubble, we have access to so many opportunities for health, education and wealth, even more so as women. I have opportunities to share what I have with others who have less."

Jacinta Knell | Current Student
Master of Public Health

Move up in your professional career and develop critical strategies to guide your business and employ dynamic leadership and health management skills.

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) course is designed to develop your cognitive, technical and creative skills to make effective decisions in a global context. You will develop strong business acumen which will help you to lead people, teams and businesses and enhance your career prospects. Discover how you can apply your knowledge and skills instantly in your current workplace or a new entrepreneurial venture.

The Master of Public Health will equip health professionals from a broad range of backgrounds with the knowledge and skills to address public health challenges. Students gain an understanding of current global and environmental health issues, health policy, systems and economics, along with knowledge of social, behavioural and cultural determinants of health and health programming and evaluation.

Master of Public Health and Master of Public Health Advanced are available on campuses in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brisbane.

The MBA together with the Masters of Public Health dual masters will help you develop robust knowledge of both disciplines to critically analyse and evaluate health promotion and disease prevention, advocacy, leadership and management and epidemiology to undertake demanding management roles in government, allied health, Aid and development, hospitals and health service departments.

CRICOS CODE
090242C

Key Study Outcomes:

  • Apply advanced business principles to complex problems to determine solutions
  • Organise, conceptualise, and analyse complex business issues
  • Intervention strategies to detect and prevent diseases
  • Analyse financial, legal, and economic aspects of health and health policy
  • Systematically evaluate business risk

About the School

This course is provided by Chifley Business School and delivered by Torrens University Australia Ltd CRICOS Provider Code: 03389E.

Read more about Chifley Business School

Chifley Business School

Course Delivery

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Workload and Assessment

No. of timetabled hours per week:

Torrens University Australia operates on a trimester system comprising of 3 study periods per year.

It is expected that each subject, whether studied online or on-campus, will involve a combined total of 120 hours of structured and self-directed learning, which equates to approximately 10 hours a week per subject over a 12-week trimester.

Typical assessment includes:

Subjects have a range of assessment options to suit the students requirements and circumstance. Methods of assessment may include individual assignments based on live briefs and real world scenarios, group assignments, project reports, presentations, research reports, work integrated learning, scenarios and case studies, and reflexive logs.

Subject Information

This subject discusses marketing management and practice. Topics include marketing functions and their management, environmental, industry and competitor analysis, objectives setting, marketing strategies, and marketing mix components.

This subject is the culminating experience for the MBA course. Drawing on concepts covered in other subjects, the capstone focuses on developing students’ strategic thinking to build and sustain competitive advantage in organisations. Specifically, students are exposed to the frameworks and tools used to develop and evaluate business strategies, including industry analysis and analysis of a firm’s competitive advantage, resources and capabilities. This subject also addresses the issues of business scope, diversification, and managing strategic change. A final project enables students to demonstrate their ability to think strategically and apply the concepts and tools learned in this subject to an organisation of their choice.

Prerequisites: All core subjects in the MBA course.

Being a leader in a dynamic era requires educated judgement and decision-making skills. How do leaders collect the most pertinent and important information to make decisions that impact human and financial capital? On what basis are decisions made? This subject engages students in the nuances of data collection, how to filter data and how to use it most effectively in decision-making. Students will apply decision-making theory and behavioural economics to a range of case studies to acquire situational-based leadership, judgement and decision-making skills.

This subject is focused on how to utilise financial information for internal decision-making purposes. It is designed for the leader who will be using, rather than producing financial information. This subject also addresses the various types of financial decisions that leaders must make, and the strategies necessary to anticipate the alternatives, evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each and recognise the trade-offs inherent in each alternative. The objective of this subject is for students to learn how to apply finance theory and principles to the analysis of important business problems. Specific topics will include capital budgeting, cost of capital, risk, capital structure, payout policy, and enterprise valuation.

This subject focuses on the development of knowledge and skills to enable students to identify, analyse and make effective decisions to resolve people- related issues in organisations, facilitate employee development, and develop and sustain effective teams in complex, diverse, and increasingly global operating environments. Topics include strategic human resource management, organisational design, culture and ethics, organisational behaviour, motivation and performance management, retention and succession planning, and organisation, project and functional teams. Students will focus on group based research methods in this subject including the use of focus groups, surveys and other instruments that provide data about group samples.

Business leaders are expected to make considered and rational decisions that take cognisance of the complex competitive and often volatile environment in which they operate. This subject explains the micro and macroeconomic context needed for making these decisions. It also outlines how institutions, particularly the government and regulatory authorities, shape and constrain that environment. By the end of the subject, students will be able to use economic theories to help them make decisions about the optimal allocation of business resources and to understand the potential impact of regulatory and economy-wide changes on their business environments.

Understanding organisational behaviour, politics, dynamics and environments and how they impact on the role and legitimacy of the management function is the core of this subject. This subject helps individuals understand the constraints they face as managers and emerging leaders and how they can develop strategies to leverage advantages and overcome constraints and barriers in their organisations. The subject also focuses on developing some of the advanced communication skills necessary in management and leadership roles, and the ability of the individual to influence others. The subject introduces students to the concept of naturally occurring data and qualitative analysis.

Being an effective and genuine leader in a dynamic era requires an understanding of leadership concepts, how leaders think and act, and how various management styles impact situations and relationships within an organisation. Being a dynamic leader also demands a strong set of competencies such as motivating self and others, leading creativity in an organisation, cultural intelligence, and navigating ambiguity. This subject provides students with a foundation of leadership theory, styles, and approaches, and an opportunity for students to assess and build on their own leadership styles throughout the course.

This subject explores the organisation of health systems, the financial and other resourcing requirements for planning and delivering effective public health programs, strategies and interventions, and the development and application of effective policies across a range of sectors that affect the health of populations. It introduces the discipline of economics as it applies to public health. Topics covered include health systems thinking and frameworks; the role of government in prevention and health promotion; models and debates regarding public health funding and investment; demand for public health programs; implications for equity, delivery, governance of public health programs and services; and economic analyses applied to public health systems and activities. Students consider current issues such as estimating expenditure on public health, ‘best buys’ in public health, and the role of economic tools such as price subsidisation and commodity taxation in public health.

Prerequisite: Social, Behavioural and Cultural Factors in Public Health

This subject focuses on community health and on the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of disease prevention, covering a range of contemporary topics impacting communities. This subject examines models and approaches for health promotion, the prevention of disease and disease surveillance. Students explore a range of strategies for promoting health and of building capacity when working with diverse communities. Students will learn about community empowerment, the settings approach to health promotion, mental health promotion, health literacy, social marketing, screening and surveillance, injury prevention, disability and chronic disease management, including in Indigenous Australian populations. This subject will extend to an understanding of strategies to prepare for and respond to health emergency and crisis situations.

Prerequisite: Social, Behavioural and Cultural Factors in Public Health

This subject focuses on the competencies required of the public health professional in planning for the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of community health promotion and disease prevention initiatives. Attention is given to needs assessment and the social, behavioural, environmental, biological, and economic factors that contribute to health outcomes. Strategic approaches to planning, implementation, and evaluation including cost benefit analysis are addressed. Health behaviour theories are considered in the development of educational programs, the application of evaluation findings, and prioritisation of community concerns and resources.

Prerequisite: Social, Behavioural and Cultural Factors in Public Health

Public health leadership is more than a hierarchical position of power, it is the ability to advance public health goals and promote the well-being of communities. Leaders effect change within diverse teams, organisations, communities, professional disciplines and sectors. They influence policy and legislation through a range of strategies including advocacy and collaboration. Students will explore the differences between management and leadership and what makes an effective leader. Students will reflect upon their own values and experiences of leadership and analyse these in terms of seminal and contemporary theories. They explore leadership, power, ethics and values, accountability, effective governance, and the application of principles of social justice implicit in public health decisions and practice.

Prerequisite: Social, Behavioural, and Cultural Factors in Public Health

Students in this subject explore the field and practice of public health. They learn to identify and analyse major social, behavioural, and cultural factors that affect population health outcomes, including social determinants of health (e.g. gender, socio-economic status and social capital), community capacity, resilience, age, race/ethnicity, the environment and behavioural risks. Students consider medical, social and behavioural approaches to health promotion and public health interventions. Students also examine current and emerging theoretical and conceptual frameworks from the social behavioural and medical sciences. They apply these frameworks and other theories presented in the course to intervention strategies or program initiatives that address current public health priorities.

Policy agenda setting, implementation and evaluation are crucial to the improvement of the health of populations. Policy making is not a straightforward process. Political ideologies and values, as well as power, coalition building, and the media play key roles in what becomes public policy. In this subject, students will learn about policy agenda setting, development, implementation and evaluation, as well as critical perspectives of policy making. They will be introduced to theories of policy making and apply knowledge of the policy process to a public health problem. Students will analyse and critique issues in contemporary Australian health policy and the various stakeholders and partnerships formed in the policy process. They will examine the role of evidence and advocacy in policy agenda setting. Students will also learn about a range of advocacy strategies including media advocacy and community empowerment strategies for the development and implementation of policy.

Prerequisite: Social, Behavioural and Cultural Factors in Public Health

This subject provides an overview of global health issues and of environmental factors that affect the health and safety of communities. It considers the ways in which globalisation has affected the social, economic and political determinants of health, including trends in communicable and non-communicable diseases at a global level, and the importance of risk communication for disease prevention and outbreak. The relationships between issues such as global health and foreign policy, trade, security and development are explored, along with global health governance and financing mechanisms. Students also examine causal links between chemical, physical, and biological hazards in the environment and their impact on health. They also explore the genetic, physiologic, and psychosocial factors that influence environmentally compromised health outcomes. This is applied to current solutions and considers new ways to address environmental threats, such as waste, water, air, vectors and global warming, as well as issues related to dealing with mass and social media during a public health crisis.

Prerequisite: Social, Behavioural and Cultural Factors in Public Health

Epidemiology is the study of patterns of health, ill-health, and factors that affect health in populations. It focuses on the incidence, prevalence, distribution, impact, and determinants of disease, injury, and disability. Traditionally, epidemiology focused largely on infectious diseases, often using epidemiological methods to determine the causes and sources of outbreaks of diseases. However, it has increasingly broadened to include all health and disease states and both risk factors and protective factors. Epidemiological methods are also used to assess the health status and trends of populations, to determine priorities, and to implement and evaluate programs designed to improve health. Students in this subject examine concepts including incidence, prevalence, and causation. They also learn about the role of epidemiology in prevention and screening, as well as its role in disease surveillance and response. Students identify key sources of data and learn how to use basic epidemiological measures and draw appropriate inferences. Through this subject, students gain a deeper understanding of the strengths, limitations and appropriate uses of various research designs and methodologies in health research. They will learn to assess levels of evidence to make recommendations for evidence based policy. Students will develop an appreciation of the role and potential of epidemiology in public health research, policy and advocacy.
Prerequisite: Social, Behavioural and Cultural Factors in Public Health

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