Public Health
A career that starts with care
Key Information
This undergraduate pathway will give you the knowledge, values and skills you will need to continue your studies on the Public Health degree or one of the registered Nursing degrees.
Key information
Undergraduate course
Duration
- Foundation (4 Years)
- First Year (3 Years)
Intakes
- September
Location
- Cambridge
Chelmsford
Public Health Overview
Our foundation course provides the knowledge, values and skills you will need to pursue a career in public health and health care services. In this type of profession, it isn’t just about what you learn: it’s also about who you are. You will need qualities such as patience, honesty, sensitivity, tolerance, persistence, integrity, sound judgement as well as excellent communication skills.
As a student, you will study across a broad base of transferable knowledge and skills areas, becoming skilled in critical analysis and problem-solving, supporting you to understand how to manage, support and drive forward health care services, organisations and communities.
Students will also be introduced to the core skills necessary to succeed in higher education, including thinking critically, researching and referencing appropriately, demonstrating appropriate numeracy and ICT skills. In addition to these fundamental study skills, Students will be given an introduction to the various scientific disciplines underpinning the life sciences, including the social sciences. Fundamental mathematical skills will be covered in order to support students’ other subjects and give them confidence in manipulating data.
Pathway progression
Successful completion of this degree will lead to the award of the following from ARU:
Public Health – BSc (Hons) – Chelmsford campus.
– UK or EU settled/pre-settled students: If you are a UK student or EU settled /pre-settled student, upon successful completion of the Foundation Year, and attainment of Level 2 English (if you don’t already hold GCSE grade 4 or above), you may wish to apply for one of the following courses, for which you’ll need to be successful at interview.
- BSc (Hons) Nursing (Adult)
- BSc (Hons) Nursing (Child)
- BSc (Hons) Nursing (Mental Health)
- BSc (Hons) Operating Department Practice
Your application for a course that is regulated by a professional body such as the Health Care Professions Council or the Nursing and Midwifery Council, will be dependent on your successful and timely completion of the University’s selection process for that specific programme, which will include an interview, satisfactory DBS check and occupational health assessment. For more information on the interview processes for these courses please click on the following link: Professional course university application process – ARU.
If you are unsuccessful at interview, but have successful passed the year, you can remain on the Public Health degree.
– International students who are interested in progressing on to one of the above courses are recommended to apply for the standalone International Foundation in Healthcare.
How to apply
We recommend that students on Public Health with Foundation Year, who wish to apply for a professional degree (Nursing or ODP), make their applications before the 26th of January, of the year they wish to study, to ensure they have equal opportunity to be considered for the programme.
Apply using the Internal Transfer Form, with the name of the course and campus you wish to apply for.
You’ll be offered a choice of interview dates. We Interview based on values, read more information on the Interview process.
If you are offered a place, you need to accept your place via Evision, it will be on the condition that you complete your Foundation Year and meet the conditions of your offer.
Course Structure
Interactive Learning Skills and Communication (ILSC) will help you to develop your academic, research, communication, and literacy skills in preparation for your undergraduate degree. ILSC covers reading, writing, speaking, and listening and will give you an understanding of institutional culture, practices, norms, and expectations of UK higher education. You will develop transferable skills such as effective communication to support ongoing study, career, and professional development skills.
Information Communication Technology (ICT) provides you with the practical computer skills needed for university. In this module, you will cover fundamental topics surrounding the use of technology and discuss these together with societal and ethical perspectives. This will allow you to reflect on and discuss the main challenges facing society and consider the implications of your technology use. This module requires no previous technical experience and will introduce you to practical ICT skills that will be needed for academic success across many areas of higher education. By the end, you should have sufficient proficiency in the Microsoft Office productivity suite for planning and producing presentations, using functions, and writing formula to display, formatting and analysing quantitative data, and producing written assignments to a standard appropriate to higher education.
This module aims to enable you to participate in and practice independent learning tasks for deeper thought and investigation as needed for Higher Academic pursuits. You will participate in a Socratic Discussion based around Conspiracy Theories and Source Checking to encourage presentation and debating skills. You will be encouraged to invest in strategies that will deepen understanding and interpretation of processes, motives, argument, rationale, credibility, and possibilities which will then be applicable to a range of studies. You will also undertake research, based on an issue related to your degree programme, to review the main points of examining an argument in depth. You will then learn to create a personal response that analyses the content of the issue under study.
Core Maths has been designed to ensure you will have the necessary basic numeracy skills needed for university. Within this module, you will practice various mathematical manipulations and apply these concepts to real-life situations, to indicate the importance and applicability of mathematics to your future degrees. You will study a wide range of core mathematics including arithmetic skills, algebra, solving equations, probability, and basic statistics, all of which will be extremely beneficial for supporting you in your studies.
This introductory Module is available to all students studying healthcare related subjects. Workshops and guest speakers from the Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care (HEMS) provide an overview of the different professions you may want to move into. You will also have opportunities to develop interpersonal skills in preparation for a career within health and social care services and to improve your presentation and interview techniques.
Ethics is all about making decisions based on what you consider to be correct and not correct which is a discipline that is fundamental for students in higher education. Within this module, you will discuss the complexity of ethical theory and will investigate the status of several major ethical theories and claims and consider some practical ethical issues which are impacted by these theories. You will be encouraged to use critical thinking and research to discuss descriptive, normative, and analytic approaches to ethical problems and you will also look at how ethics is applied within the humanities, technology, business, medical and legal contexts.
Biology is the study of living organisms and Physiology is an aspect of this which looks closely at the functions and mechanisms in a living system. In this module, you will study the science of body function and its relation to the structure, or anatomy, or the organism (physiology). You will learn how the main organ and regulatory systems work to enable the body to function and respond to change, whilst maintaining a constant internal environment. You will also gain foundation knowledge of organ systems and different regulatory systems, as well as learning to classify organisms and their major components. You will also be introduced to classification and the basic principles of genetic inheritance and consider this in the context of Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
Psychology will teach you about the brain and psychosocial contexts within the humanities and sciences. Within this module, you will look at how research has informed theories about how we think and behave, and how this applies in a variety of contexts. You will learn about the main psychological approaches (cognitive and behavioural; psychodynamic; developmental, social and biological) which will be discussed in relation to current psychological theory. You will also be given an introduction to psychopathology through the discussion of mental health disorders. By applying psychological principles to current events and common situations, you will gain a greater understanding of human actions and motivations.
Social Work England, the Health Care Professions Council, or the Nursing and Midwifery Council, will be dependent on your successful and timely completion of the University’s selection process for that specific programme, which may include an interview, satisfactory DBS check and occupational health assessment.