Master of Public Health (MPH)
MSc (Online)
Ready to lead health programmes, develop policy, and drive impactful research? Our online Master of Public Health (MPH) programme equips you with the knowledge and leadership skills to improve health outcomes at scale. Build expertise in epidemiology, health systems, and global health challenges, preparing you for influential roles across government, non-profits, and international organisations.
Study 100% online, learn from specialists through Aston’s Digital Campus, and join a supportive, global community all committed to shaping healthier futures, locally and globally.
Start dateSeptember, January, May
Apply now for any date
September, January, May
Apply now for any date
Online, distance learning
24/7 access to study materials
Two years (part-time)
Flexible distance learning
£12,500
Tuition fee loans available for eligible UK students
Why choose this programme
Improve public health at all levels: Build the knowledge to address complex and pressing public health challenges and lead health initiatives that make a lasting difference, ranging from infectious disease control to non-communicable diseases and mental health.
Advance your career with leadership skills: Gain essential skills in epidemiology, health promotion, and public health evaluation. These skills empower you to tackle global health challenges and advance into leadership roles, promotions, and higher-paying opportunities.
Gain research expertise and critical thinking skills: Develop practical, research-based skills to analyse health data and apply them to a research project focused on a public health issue that matters to you, showcasing your ability to conduct independent research with a clear consideration of ethics, theory and methods.
Make an impact in your community: If you're motivated by a sense of social justice, this programme gives you the opportunity to lead public health efforts that address health inequalities, inform policy, and improve the well-being of communities with limited access to healthcare, contributing to a better, healthier society.
Study flexibly, on your terms: Our 100% online, part-time format allows you to balance your studies with work and life so you can get your degree while tackling life's other priorities stress-free. Focus on one module at a time and gain access to over 25,000 e-books, journals, and digital resources.
Become part of a supportive, global learning community: Learn alongside a small, close-knit cohort with personalised guidance from expert tutors. Experience a welcoming, inclusive environment where you’re never studying alone.
Programme overview
What does it take to prevent disease, improve health systems, and reduce inequalities that affect millions of lives? Public health answers these questions by addressing the root causes of poor health and building strategies that lead to lasting change.
Our online Master of Public Health (MPH) programme takes a comprehensive look at the forces shaping public health today. You’ll explore topics such as global health, epidemiology, health promotion, behavioural change, and the role of data and emerging technologies in improving outcomes. Alongside this, you’ll gain practical skills to design, implement, and evaluate interventions that address urgent challenges like chronic disease, mental health, and health disparities.
Throughout your studies, you’ll develop core competencies in research, leadership, and communication – essential for high-impact roles that involve influencing policy, managing programmes, or advancing public health strategies at local, national, and international levels. Your final research project offers the opportunity to explore a real-world issue you care about, guided by experienced academic staff with strong public health expertise.
Delivered fully online and part-time, the MPH is structured to fit around your professional and personal commitments. You’ll study one module at a time through Aston’s Digital Campus, with access to high-quality resources, interactive case studies, and a collaborative global learning community.
Whether you’re currently working in health or planning a career shift into the sector, this programme will prepare you to lead meaningful, measurable change in the systems and communities that need it most.
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What you will learn
- Apply advanced public health knowledge: Critically evaluate key issues in public health using specialised knowledge and research skills.
- Reflect on practice and policy: Examine how place, theory, technology, and advocacy influence professional practice in public health.
- Solve complex public health challenges: Investigate, analyse, and synthesise complex information affecting public health outcomes.
- Collaborate and lead effectively: Work in multidisciplinary teams to design public health initiatives and reflect on essential leadership and management skills.
- Use data to drive change: Apply epidemiological data, critical appraisal, and evaluation techniques to assess public health initiatives.
- Conduct independent research: Work autonomously to create and analyse original qualitative and/or quantitative public health datasets.
- Understand context and inequality: Explore how context, place, inequality, and inequity shape public health needs and responses.
Flexible payment plans and funding options
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The Daily Mail University Guide 2025
It’s been an exciting time at Aston University, with amazing new achievements that highlight our teaching excellence, outstanding student outcomes, and strong performance in global and UK rankings. Here are just a few highlights:
- Aston University has been named the University of the Year for Student Success 2025 in the new Daily Mail University Guide.
- We are ranked 21st in the UK (The Guardian University Guide 2025).
- Aston University is 2nd in the country for Social Mobility (Higher Education Policy Institute).
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21st in the UK
I decided to pursue the online route because it afforded me the flexibility of learning while juggling my life as a career wife and mom. It also meant I was able to learn at my own pace within each module timeline.
Career prospects
A career in public health is exciting and full of possibilities. With a degree in Public Health, you could work in local councils, government, the NHS, or with NGOs and third-sector organisations around the world.
Career prospects you can look forward to:
Epidemiologist: A public health professional who investigates the patterns, causes, and effects of diseases and injuries in populations.
Public health researcher: A professional who investigates health trends, risks, and solutions within populations, aiming to improve community well-being and inform public health policy.
Health informatics specialist: A professional who bridges healthcare, information technology, and data management to improve patient care, streamline clinical processes, and ensure the secure and efficient handling of health information.
Environmental health practitioner: A professional dedicated to protecting public health by ensuring safe and healthy environments in which people live, work, and play.
Programme structure
This programme is studied over two years part-time. In each year you will study three modules, worth 30 credits each. Each credit of study is the equivalent of 10 learning hours and so each 30-credit module reflects 300 hours of learning.
Modules
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30 credits
This module will introduce and integrate key concepts, theories, methods, and topics on the foundational concepts in public health, such as health promotion, the sociology of health and illness, health policy, global health, and basic research methods.
Approaches to public health
30 credits
This module examines different approaches to public health. It examines the role that epidemiology, health promotion, and behavioural health interventions play in understanding and improving population-level and individual-level health and healthcare.
Methodologies of public health
30 credits
Using relevant case studies from across public health, this module will explore the variety of methodologies and approaches that can be used in public health, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, as well as key considerations on research ethics and public health ethics.
Emerging areas in public health
30 credits
This module will explore the current issues and emerging areas in public health and the interdisciplinarity with other sectors. The module will look into diverse aspects related to population health, including digital health, artificial intelligence, precision health, environmental health, climate change, health diplomacy, migration, complex health emergencies, and other major trends.
Aston global advantage and research methods
30 credits
This module aims to provide students with a distinct global advantage through the teaching of the fundamental principles behind sustainable development, business pitching, team-working and leadership within relevant contexts. The module allows students to showcase their expertise within their discipline by proposing a novel, digital solution to a business challenge drawn from real-world case studies and live project briefs.
MPH dissertation
30 credits
The module provides an opportunity to undertake an independent research project. The topic and methodology are chosen through consultation with and guidance from an academic supervisor. Your research may address any public health issue/problem and use any appropriate method(s) that has been approved by your supervisor. The module aims to develop your capacities for designing, conducting, and presenting public health research; undertaking independent work; and extending your critical, methodological, and organisational abilities.
Learning outcomes
Module 1
- Discuss and understand social, commercial, economic and political factors that influence local and global health, including the context of place in public health.
- Identify how theory can be used practically to inform the design of health promotion interventions.
- Apply and critically discuss basic terms, concepts, measurements and evaluations related to population health and health inequalities.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the public health interventions that can be used to address social and commercial determinants of health at a population, community and individual level.
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the impact of specific industrial sectors on health.
- Demonstrate an understanding and critical awareness of a range of contemporary (global) health issues.
- Independently and critically identify specific health problems and formulate solutions using appropriate methods and correct use of evidence.
Module 2
- Understand epidemiology and its relevance for public health.
- Describe and apply measures of frequency of disease (incidence, prevalence, risk, rate, odds) association (risk ratio, rates ratio, odds ratio, relative and absolute risk, etc.) and effect.
- Explain the principles, strengths, and limitations underlying different epidemiological studies (e.g. cross-sectional, cohort, case-control).
- Identify problems caused by random errors, bias, and confounding in interpreting epidemiological data.
- Interpret statistical analyses to describe the occurrence and distribution of disease and its determinants.
- Acquire skills in statistical software used for epidemiological analyses.
- Describe health behaviour theories that underpin the design and evaluation of health promotion strategies and public health interventions.
- Identify how theory can be used practically to inform the design of health promotion interventions.
- Illustrate some of the dilemmas raised by health promotion activities, especially those that focus on individual behaviour.
- Outline the difficulties of evaluating outcomes of health promotion strategies and screening programmes.
- Understand the criteria for implementing a screening programme (including those relating to the condition, the test, the treatment, and the programme).
Module 3
- Review and understand the different methods that can be mobilised in public health studies and analyses, outlining their characteristics and scope.
- Demonstrate an understanding of how different research methods fit different research objectives.
- Understand the different types of formats and documents that can be used to disseminate public health knowledge.
- Become familiar with online platforms and software packages that can be used to store or process information regarding public health.
- Understand how a public health study can be designed, justified, and proposed.
Module 4
- Discuss the current issues impacting public health in contemporary society.
- Demonstrate an understanding and critical awareness of a range of trending and emerging public health issues.
- Understand and discuss the impact of emerging fields in public health, including the role of technology and innovation.
- Analyse case studies illustrating modern public health challenges and solutions.
- Understand the economic determinants of health and the relationship between health policies and international economic processes.
- Discuss the relationship and importance of interdisciplinary and collaboration in public health.
Module 5
- Evaluate your own competencies and areas for improvement within the context of working towards becoming a global professional.
- Design and communicate a solution to a real-world challenge with consideration to sustainable, ethical and social impact.
- Synthesise a range of requirements when proposing novel, sustainable, digital solutions to real-world challenges.
- Design an independent research proposal that is achievable, realistic and timely.
Module 6
- Demonstrate independent research skills, including the ability to think critically, conduct a literature review, develop research questions, a research plan, and research, design, and address issues fundamental to responsible research (e.g., data protection and ethics approval).
- Apply public health research skills relating to research methodology, application of theory, and analysis of data, to a real-world problem.
- Demonstrate an ability to produce a report according to prescribed standards, including an introduction, analysis and synthesis of relevant background literature, methods section, results, discussion, recommendations (where relevant) and conclusion.
- Demonstrate the ability to present, interpret and discuss research findings in relation to other studies and, where relevant, make recommendations in a clear and systematic format.
The programme aims to:
- Equip you with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to address public health challenges at a local, national and international level.
- Develop your critical understanding and application of foundational public health concepts, theory, and practice.
- Help you understand, interpret, and apply key concepts in epidemiology, including measures of disease and types of epidemiological studies, to address population-based health issues.
- Equip you to design and evaluate health promotion strategies that support healthy behaviours and lifestyles.
- Support you in implementing and evaluating public health interventions using behaviour change theories and frameworks.
- Familiarise you with various methodologies and approaches in public health for designing studies, collecting, analysing, and reporting public health information and data to support the improvement of health and lifestyles in a comprehensive, effective, and responsible way.
- Develop your critical understanding of the broader influences of different issues in public health and equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to address growing global and local challenges.
- Give you a global advantage by teaching the fundamentals of sustainable development, business pitching, teamwork, and leadership within an engineering context, enabling you to showcase your expertise by proposing innovative digital solutions to real-world business case studies and live project briefs.
- Develop your ability to design, conduct, and present public health research; work independently; and strengthen your critical thinking, methodological skills, and organisational capabilities.
*We may update our programmes to reflect best practices and academic developments. If we do, we’ll let you know of any changes at the earliest opportunity by updating our programme webpages. If you have already received an offer, we’ll write to you directly to let you know of the changes.
Is this programme right for you?
- You are driven to improve public health and ready to advance your career by gaining the leadership, research, and critical analysis skills needed to make a real impact in diverse settings.
- You want to address complex health challenges—locally, nationally, or internationally—by leading initiatives that tackle issues like infectious diseases, health inequalities, and mental health.
- You aspire to develop practical expertise in epidemiology, health promotion, and public health evaluation, empowering you to move into leadership roles, secure promotions, or access higher-paying opportunities.
- You are motivated by social justice and want to lead efforts that reduce health disparities, inform policy, and improve the well-being of underserved communities.
- You need a flexible, fully online, part-time programme that fits around your work and personal commitments, allowing you to study at your own pace from anywhere in the world.
Entry requirements
You will need:
- A UK 2:2 (lower second-class honours) degree.
- Equivalent international degree recognised by Aston University. Click here for more information or contact our Admissions Team to check your eligibility: enquiries@astononline.ac.uk.
All applicants for the Master of Public Health must provide evidence of mathematical ability beyond age sixteen.
Acceptable evidence includes:
- A GCSE Maths qualification with a grade B/5 or above.
- A university module that includes mathematical content (e.g. quantitative methods, epidemiology, or statistics).
- Statistics or quantitative methods studied as part of a research methods programme.
*Applicants whose first language is not English will be required to provide evidence of an English language qualification.
International students:
Students from over 120 countries choose to study with us every year. You can check qualifications in your country here, including equivalent qualifications from Africa, Americas, Australia, North East Asia, Europe, Middle East & North Africa, South Asia, South East Asia, and Western and Central Asia. Contact our Admissions Team for a consultation before applying: enquiries@astononline.ac.uk.
Alternative entry requirements:
We adopt a holistic approach in evaluating applications, accepting applications from candidates with relevant work experience. The information on this website outlines the typical entry requirements for this programme. Applicants with alternative qualifications are encouraged to enquire before applying to determine if their qualifications are acceptable. For less commonly encountered qualifications, acceptance will be judged on a case-by-case basis in consultation with the Admissions Team. Contact our Admissions Team for a consultation before applying: enquiries@astononline.ac.uk.
English language requirements:
You must meet the university's English language requirements to be accepted into our programmes. We aim to make your application process as easy as possible. However, in all cases, we reserve the right to request an English language qualification and/or conduct an interview. Applicants whose first language is not English will be required to provide evidence of an English language qualification.
We accept a wide range of English language qualifications, including:
IELTS Academic and IELTS Academic Online
IELTS One Skill Retake
TOEFL and TOEFL iBT
Oxford ELLT (Global and Digital)
Pearson Academic (PTE)
Password Test
Language Cert International ESOL SELT
Kaplan Test of English (KTE)
Cambridge Advanced Test (CAE)
Cambridge Proficiency Test (CPE)
Tests must have been taken within the last two years from the start date of the programme you are applying to.
Find out if you qualify
If you have any questions about your eligibility or the application process, please get in touch with the Aston Online Admissions Team:
Email: enquiries@astononline.ac.uk
Call: +44 (0) 121 824 6374
Our office is open Monday to Friday, 09:00 - 17:00 GMT
FAQs
Is public health experience required?
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No, public health experience is not required.
Is there a difference between the MPH online and on-campus MPH degree?
Yes, the on-campus MPH is delivered in person and follows a different structure compared to the online version.
How will I be assessed?
You will engage in a variety of regular formative and timetabled summative assessment activities, where assessment modes and formats closely mirror relevant professional and industry contexts.
- Formative assessment set by the module content will include short tasks, knowledge check tests, and production of outcomes to check knowledge and competence.
- A combination of tutor-graded practical coursework assignments, projects, and automated assessment formats will be used to provide a structured summative assessment for each module.
- In all assessments, you will benefit from detailed assessment rubrics provided from the beginning of the module to guide your effort and achievement.
Can I work full-time while studying?
Yes, you can work full-time while studying.
What professions can my online MPH degree lead to?
Careers you can look forward to include:
- Epidemiologist
- Public health researcher
- Health informatics specialist
- Environmental health practitioner
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Don’t hesitate to reach out! Our friendly admissions team is ready to answer your questions and offer personalised guidance on eligibility and funding options.
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