Programme Aims 

• To prepare students with sound academic knowledge in One Health to identify, analyze and understand public health and health care issues, particularly those related to the control and prevention of emerging zoonotic diseases at the interface of humans, animals, and the environment and the role of ecology in infectious disease maintenance and transmission;
• To provide students with key skills to critically assess scientific literature, analyze and interpret epidemiological data to identify health determinants, infectious diseases incidents and their socio-economic impacts;
• To equip students with the necessary skills in designing and implementing public health research (e.g., study design, collection and analysis of data from different types of field studies, including molecular epidemiology), develop infectious disease predictive models and translate these findings to public health policy makers, front line workers and the public;
• To help students develop strong skills in statistical analyses for public health and animal disease data;
• To enable students to apply advanced statistical models to epidemiological data for predictions and surveillance of infectious diseases;
• To prepare students with good leadership, planning and management skills necessary to formulate evidence based effective prevention and control policies for diseases in both human and animal populations, for the betterment of public health.

Programme Intended Learning Outcomes (PILOs)

• Acquire essential concepts and knowledge of the fundamentals of disease ecology, risk factors and disease drivers at the interface between people, animals and the environment.
• Understand concepts of epidemiological investigations, including molecular epidemiology, disease surveillance and outbreak investigations.
• Be able to use statistical and other analytical methods appropriately to advise on the epidemiology, and the control and prevention of diseases of public health concerns.
• Advise on solutions for problems associated with the local and global transmission of infectious diseases, and the appropriate control and mitigation strategies.
• Communicate effectively, manage skillfully, and work closely with people from diverse educational, professional backgrounds and experience
• Apply the One Health approach, theories, scientific, data analytical and modelling skills to address public health issues and/or undertake research and support data-driven decision-making.

General Entrance Requirements

Applicants must satisfy the University's general entrance requirements and the following programme-specific entrance requirements:

• Possess a recognised undergraduate degree in Biological/Medicine/Veterinary/Animal/Health/ Environmental Sciences/Statistics/Mathematics/Biostatistics/Data Science/Microbiology or a related discipline;
• Preference for admission will be given to high calibre individuals with a scientific background and who have completed a holistic undergraduate education covering statistics, cell biology, biochemistry, physiology, pathology, ecology, infectious diseases, pharmacology, food engineering, health sciences.

English Proficiency Requirements

Applicants whose entrance qualification is obtained from an institution where the medium of instruction is NOT English should also fulfill the following minimum English proficiency requirement^:

• a score of 59 (revised paper-delivered test)^ or 79 (Internet-based test) in the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)@#; or
• an overall band score of 6.5 in International English Language Testing System (IELTS)@; or
• a score of 450 in band 6 of the Chinese mainland’s College English Test; or
• other equivalent qualifications.

^ Effective from 11 April 2021, the TOEFL revised paper-delivered test is no longer offered.

@TOEFL and IELTS scores are considered valid for two years. Applicants are required to provide their English test results obtained within the two years preceding the commencement of the University's application period. 

# Applicants are required to arrange with the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to send their TOEFL results directly to the University. The TOEFL institution code for CityU is 3401.

In view of the recent development of COVID-19, ‘TOEFL iBT Home Edition’ and ‘IELTS Indicator’, as indicated below, are accepted as equivalent qualifications for the fulfillment of the University’s minimum English proficiency requirement for admission to TPg programmes until further notice:

•    TOEFL iBT Home Edition: a score of 79; or
•    IELTS Indicator: an overall band score of 6.5

Fellowship awards are available for local students admitted to this programme under the Fellowships Scheme supported by the HKSAR Government. This programme in the priority area of “Health” is one of the targeted programmes listed under the Fellowships Scheme with 3 fellowship awards. Local students admitted to the programme in full-time, part-time or combined study mode may be invited to submit applications for the fellowships.

Students are required to complete 30 credit units for graduation from this Master of Science in Public Health and Epidemiology (MSPHE) programme. MSPHE will be organised as an interdisciplinary programme among Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health (PH), Department of Chemistry (CHEM), and Department of Mathematics (MA).

Core Courses (24 credit units)

• Principles of  One Health and Epidemiology
• Introduction to Biostatistics in One  Health
• Introduction to Health Economics
• Environment Health and Risk Assessment 
• Advanced Epidemiology
• Infectious Disease Epidemiology
• Computational Biology, Experimental Design and Data Science
• Applied Public Health Projects

Elective Courses (6 credit units)*

• Time Series Analysis
• Spatial Data Analysis
• Statistical Data Analysis
• Statistical Modelling for data mining 
• Public Health Surveillance
• Intermediate Level Statistics for One Health

*Some of the elective courses will be offered subject to sufficient enrolment or every two years.

Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health (PH)

Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC)

Department of Chemistry (CHEM)

Department of Mathematics (MA)