Graduate Certificate in Health Policy

Course overview

The Graduate Certificate in Health Policy (GradCertHlthPol) offers a critical perspective on how our health care system operates. It emphasizes the importance of power and value choices, focusing on the interaction of governments with the private and community sectors in shaping policy.

The Graduate Certificate in Health Policy is a unique program that will extend the professional skills of students, enabling them to become health policy leaders. By the end of the course students will understand the forces shaping the health policy environment, work with professional confidence across the health sector and become familiar with national and international health policy networks. You will learn how to develop and implement health policy through the analysis and application of knowledge to current policy issues. Students will learn how to develop and implement health policy through the application of knowledge to health policy issues and analysis of current health policy directions.

The health policy curriculum has been designed especially to suit:

Those people who are currently working in policy and wish to extend their knowledge and skills in the health sector;
Health care practitioners who wish to develop policy skills for current or future work;
Recent graduates with science, medical science or social science degrees who wish to pursue a career in health policy;
Managers working in health related sectors – public and private; and
Those with existing technical backgrounds, including clinical managers, seeking higher levels of knowledge of the health policy process.

Course Content

The Graduate Certificate in Health Policy includes units of study that cover health policy history and practice, policy analysis, the organisation of health care systems, and applied skills in health policy. The course has a strong orientation towards contemporary policy learning, with an emphasis on linking policy and practice. It takes a strongly comparative focus – looking at international trends in policy development.

The Graduate Certificate in Health Policy will use case studies and problem based learning in a global analysis of health policy. Students will engage in a dynamic debate and exchange of ideas in response to evidence from cutting-edge research.

Students will develop an understanding of: the political and economic context of policy development; the issues and links between knowledge and evidence and policy and planning; and current and emerging health policy issues.

Course structure

The GradCertHlthPol is a part-time course that can be completed in one or two years. You are required to complete all 4 compulsory units of study (totalling 24 credit points) in order to satisfy the course regulations. Students will attend day workshops and participate in online discussions, making the course suitable for people living outside the Sydney metropolitan area.

The table below summarises the course structure and requirements for the Graduate Certificate in Health Policy:

Unit of study code	Unit of study name	Credit point (CP) value	Total credit points
Semester 1
HPOL5000	History and Practice of Health Policy	6CP
HPOL5001	Understanding Health Systems: Planning and Financing	6CP
			12
Semester 2
HPOL5002	Contemporary Issues in Health Policy	6CP
HPOL5003	Analysing Health Policy	6CP
			12
Total credit points:			24

Related Information

Also under Health Policy:

Administrative/enrolment enquiries:

Postgraduate Administration
Phone: +61 2 9351 5470
Fax: +61 2 9351 8529
Email:

Key academic contacts:

Dr James Gillespie
Phone: +61 2 9351 5048
Fax: +61 2 9351 7420
Email:

Prof Stephen Leeder
Phone: +61 2 9351 5211
Fax: +61 2 9351 5204
Email: