MSc in Health Education and Promotion

Are you intrigued by human behavior and do you want to understand why people engage in certain (unhealthy) behavior? Are you interested in helping individuals to improve or maintain their health behavior, health and well-being? Do you like working with a diverse set of groups such as employees, children, older people, patients or even health professionals, and would you like to know how best to address their health problems, how to motivate them to change unhealthy behavior, find out what reasons they could have for their behavior? Would you like to contribute to environments and organizations that are conducive to healthy living? If the answer is yes, then this program might be the best choice for you!

Fast facts

• Focus on planned and systematic approach to health promotion
• Understanding and changing health behavior
• Implementation and evaluations of interventions and policies
• Combination between theoretical insides and practical applications
• 1-year full-time or 2-year part-time, taught in English
• Study load - full-time: 12-14 hours classes, 22-24 hours group work/individual study; part-time: 6-7 hours classes, 11-13 hours group work/individual study
• Starts in September

Why this program?

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!” For many people, health is one of the most important aspects in their lives. Still, they may engage in behaviors that are risky for their health. Promoting health and preventing diseases are therefore highly recommended, not only for individuals but also in worksite and government settings. Consequently, health education and promotion experts are very important to not only try to understand and analyze unhealthy behaviors, but also to develop, disseminate and evaluate programs and policies aimed at improving health behavior and thus health. However, health promotion is not a simple matter of telling people what they are doing wrong. On the contrary, helping people to adopt a healthy lifestyle is quite a challenge, since a mix of personal, environmental, social and political factors influence individual behavior.

Health Education and Promotion focuses on core elements in the process of understanding and changing health-related behavior from the individual and environmental perspective. Using a planned and systematic approach, we firstly focus on understanding why so many people do not perform healthy behaviors but rather engage in risky behaviors. Secondly, we discuss how we can develop interventions and policies to motivate individuals and groups to adopt healthier choices regarding lifestyle. Thirdly, in this master’s program you will learn to determine why and how interventions and policies can be implemented and evaluated.

Unique focus on practical skills The program has a unique focus systematic development, evaluation and implementation of health interventions. It's also practice-based with skills training included in each course. This means you'll not only learn why health education and promotion programs are (or aren’t) effective. You also learn how to formulate communication strategies and develop, execute and evaluate health interventions. With practical skills training included in each course and the option to conduct your thesis abroad, this program gives you the theoretical, practical and intercultural toolset you'll need to launch your career.

You learn how to:

• analyze positive or negative effects of behavioral and environmental factors on the quality of life
• formulate specific and testable objectives for health education and promotion programs and policies
• design effective, scientific health-promoting programs and policies
• formulate plans for the diffusion and implementation of these programs and policies
• test, evaluate and refine those programs and policies
• develop communication strategies to disseminate programs to various audiences

Multidisciplinary As an expert in Health Education and Promotion, you have to be familiar with many different aspects of health education. You need to know about topics such as psychology, communication, epidemiology, biomedicine, sociology, political science and statistics. That’s why the Health Promotion and Education program is multidisciplinary, and includes those subjects in all courses.

Spend time abroad The Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences gives you the opportunity to study abroad in a work placement program. Imagine skiing down a slope in Switzerland, wandering the streets of Cape Town or taking a weekend hike through the Scottish Highlands, all while studying at a top university. The faculty has approximately 130 partner institutions in more than 40 different countries all over the world. Students return having had the experience of a lifetime: traveling the world, meeting new friends, learning about different cultures, and working to complete their studies.

Small groups = big advantages As with many Maastricht University programs, the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences programs are taught using Problem-Based Learning (PBL). In small tutorial groups of 10 to 12 students, you seek solutions to ‘problems’ taken from real-world situations. Instructors act as facilitators, giving help as it’s needed. This allows you to build independence and develop problem-solving skills that you’ll need in the field. This active, dynamic and collaborative learning method has one of the highest knowledge retention rates of any instructional method.

Our differences are our greatest strength Maastricht University is focused the development of its International Classroom, a place where our differences become our strengths. From day 1, you’ll be challenged with differing viewpoints and experiences as you interact with staff and students from all over Europe and the world. Your preconceptions and worldview will be enhanced by this interaction, bringing you closer to the program’s goal of teaching students not only facts and concepts but also international accessibility and understanding. Roughly 30% of the students in this master’s program come from outside the Netherlands. Such diversity creates an international atmosphere that is strengthened by the international orientation of the program.

The Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences started on 1 January 2007. The faculty was the result of a merger between the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine.

Medicine

The Faculty of Medicine was the first faculty to be established at Maastricht University. The University was officially established on the 9th of January 1976, although the first medical students began their studies in September 1974. The Faculty of Medicine was the second in the world that applied the Problem-Based Learning method. The other faculties of Maastricht University , i.e. Arts and Culture, Economics and Business Administration, General Sciences, Health Sciences, Law, and Psychology adopted educational systems and research organisations akin to that of the Faculty of Medicine.

The Faculty developed into a community with a staff of around 1200 (academics, administrative and support staff), and approximately 1950 medical students. Since 1992 staff and students are based at the complex of buildings of the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Psychology, and the University Hospital (Academisch Ziekenhuis Maastricht) which opened in 1991.

Health Sciences

The Faculty of Health Sciences offered a broad range of disciplines that made the faculty unique, not only in the Netherlands but also in Europe. The format allowed students to integrate their discipline and research work into all areas related to society, sickness and health. By way of research and specific (undergraduate and postgraduate) education, the Faculty of Health Sciences contributed to the quality improvement in healthcare.

At the moment the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences has some 2,500 students enrolled in its broad spectrum of educational programmes leading to a Bachelor's and/or Master's degree. Health Sciences examines the relationship between health, lifestyle, disease prevention, care and cure. The Health Sciences curriculum covers the entire field of health sciences: biological, behavioural and social health sciences. Three questions take centre stage throughout the course:

1) What is health? 2) Which factors influence health? 3) How can we influence these factors?

To ensure a good quality of health care not only doctors are needed, but nurses and paramedics are also important, too. But also the expertise of other professionals is essential: the health scientists.