The Specialized Honours degree options combine core, foundational courses that all students take covering the sciences, social sciences, and humanities approach to global health, including courses on human biology (e.g., anatomy and physiology), disease processes (communicable and chronic diseases), public health (e.g., epidemiology, health promotion), research and implementation (e.g., global health research, program evaluation, healthcare planning), health systems and policy (social determinants of health, politics of health, global health governance), and ethics and law (e.g., global health ethics, human rights law).
In addition to core courses, students in the Specialized Honours program take a minimum of 21 credits in electives from one of four areas of stream concentration shaped to their individual career interests: Global Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Global Health Policy, Management and Systems, Global Health and the Environment, and Global E-Health. In their final term, students take a 250-hour Integrated Global Health Practicum course, working in the field with academic institutions, government, and non-governmental organizations in Canada or internationally. This is followed by a 2-week intensive research capstone course.
While health and healthcare have been predominantly focused on human beings, we have come to realize that both animal health and environmental health play a central role in our efforts to protect and promote human health. Whether as a result of climate change or pandemic diseases, we now know that what happens to animals and the environment have a direct impact on the qualities of our lives and our ability to be healthy. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 12.6 million people died as a result of living or working in an unhealthy environment, nearly 1 in 4 of total global deaths. Given the global dimension of the relationship between health and the environment, this is a growing and important area of global health.
