My first term on the MPH at the University of Birmingham has really renewed my passion for learning. The university itself has a fantastic atmosphere which hits you from the minute you walk on campus and spot inspirational Old Joe standing tall above you. Then you get the buzz of the beginning of another academic day with students and teachers alike hurrying across the Chancellor’s Court to get to lectures on time. After lectures (or before and after in my case) there are plenty of contemplative spots to sit back and enjoy a top notch cup of coffee with your lunch.
The MPH FT course is not for the faint hearted. Each module is a jam-packed week of learning material, delivered in a variety of formats to suit the learning styles reflective of the richly diverse range of students on the course. After just one term, I have already completed 5 modules – each of them tailored to both the subject and the needs of the group. I particularly enjoyed health economics – a subject of which I had very little prior knowledge. The economic and mathematical principles of it were put into context by the political and philosophical questions which invariably arise in discussions around the allocation and rationing of finite resources.
My personal journey onto the MPH has been a convoluted one. I started off as a graduate of mathematics and philosophy at the University of Oxford and then spent five years working in Angola as an engineer in the oil industry. It was there that my interest in public health was first sparked when I witnessed the stark contrast between rich and poor, and the devastating impact of the absence of basic public infrastructure on people’s lives. From there I retrained as a medic at Barts and the London Medical School and in 2014 started my house officer jobs at hospitals in East London. Rewarding as those two years were, I quickly came to realise that the only way to instigate real change in health outcomes is to do so at the population level. So from there, I moved to Birmingham to start my five year training programme to public health consultant. The MPH at the University of Birmingham is the first of these. And if the subsequent four years are as rewarding and interesting as this one has been so far, then I have definitely chosen the right path!
Written by Natalie Wright, Full-Time MPH Student Rep
