Murray Bailey

I have finished my MPH having chosen to do it at UNSW because the program there offered both breadth and depth in content, plus the flexibility I needed to be able to keep up with work commitments. I am a hospital pharmacist, working increasingly on an international basis as a freelance consultant in developing country settings.

The learning process in the MPH is helped along by the clear indication of requirements and goals provided at the outset of each course. The prepared course material and readings are excellent. I particularly enjoyed Introduction to Public Health, with its challenging and stimulating assignments. Even when it was a question of revising courses taken earlier such as Epidemiology and Statistics, I enjoyed the opportunity to consolidate and to apply the knowledge to critical literature appraisal. The opportunity to look at one's own specialty from a different perspective through Sociology Ethics & Health and through Law & Jurisprudence was invaluable.

The program requires each student to complete a major project, researched under academic supervision and examined externally. This provides a welcome opportunity to apply theory to practice and to develop research skills. Many of the Centre's staff are involved in international project work so there was a meshing of interests which made the Masters particularly relevant for me, and I did in fact pick up some consultancy work via that network!

My next assignment takes me to the Fiji School of Medicine as a Senior Lecturer with the major task of upgrading the Pharmacy course there from diploma to degree status and extending the "problem-based" learning component. The work will have both administrative and academic components and I will be expected to foster research and to publish. The skills and expertise which I have gained through the MPH mean that I can approach this new challenge with added enthusiasm and a broader perspective.