Michael Sparks

My background is in education and on moving to Australia in 1990 I became increasingly involved with education in health contexts. I worked on a health education project for the Royal Australian College of GPs and ended up managing a section of the Commonwealth Health bureaucracy. The academic questions that emerged from this work were largely related to public health issues so it was natural that I looked to an MPH to provide the answers. I didn't think a quantitative research or heavily clinical approach would respond to my search for some underpinning for what I was actually doing in the workplace. I chose the MPH at UNSW for its solid offerings in health promotion and am about to graduate.

The core coursework units held a pleasant surprise - things like Epidemiology and Statistics would not normally have tempted me but I now see their role in health promotion and how qualitative and quantitative research techniques can be complementary. The flexibility of the program was another plus. I have enjoyed a mix of full and part time semesters, internal and external courses and built a strong major among the electives whilst being allowed to follow my curiosity into new areas like gerontology. The theoretical questions I set out with have been fully addressed and I've enjoyed some teaching opportunities via the course network which have confirmed to me that I'm more content as an educator and health promoter than as a manager in a bureaucracy.

I've come to realise that there is a fully legitimate way to explore questions about health that does not require a clinical background . The course has given me the tools and I'm now keen to do further research at doctoral level.