Jane Kalweo

Hi, my name is Jane Kalweo and I come from Kenya where I work in health promotion. I am very glad I did my MPH at UNSW.

First of all, I was impressed by the variety of courses offered within the program and that I could choose to do some courses either externally or internally. Secondly, the staff at UNSW, both academic and administrative, are friendly, qualified, accessible, available and helpful and most of all treat you, the student, as an individual. This is true! They are especially caring and they make an effort to help students feel very at home. This was comforting especially for me as an international student. They helped me with area of concentration and course choices and also informed me of wider opportunities relevent to my interests. When I was collecting data for my major project at home, the staff maintained constant and detailed contact throughout. I also found that the teaching staff had both academic and practical experience which they brought with them to class. Thirdly, I have made many friends at UNSW...this is exciting! Not only have I got to know Australian students I've also made friends from Asia, Africa, and Canada. As one student put it ' The MPH course in UNSW is a small United Nations'. This leads to a rich exchange of experiences between students.

I have learned a lot from the course and although I do not come from a clinical health background, I am now on a placement with a health promotion unit in the NSW Department of Health. I find that many of the concepts used here are actually what I learned in my MPH. I realise that I understand how the health promotion unit works and that I can actually make a useful contribution in the real world. I think that's the main outcome of this course, I guess because it is very practical in its orientation.