Associate ProfessorSarah Bernays

I have been the co-Director of the Masters of Global Health (MGH) since the start of 2023. During this time, we have reviewed and renewed the vision and structure of the programme to enhance the focus, quality and contribution the programme makes to global health education and training. The mission of the MGH is to address the connections between health and the social, environmental, economic, and political processes that produce and reinforce inequities. Our teaching and research strive to improve health globally by redressing the inequitable distribution of health and the circumstances that create health. Please visit our website to learn more. 

Essential to fostering a valuable and lively learning environment, we are heavily invested in supporting a connected student community, in which students are readily able to engage in an active and thoughtful peer network, as well as work closely with teaching academics (including through each student being assigned an academic advisor to support their individual path through the programme and once graduated).   

Alongside being Director, I designed and deliver two of the core (mandatory) MGH units: Skills for working in Global Health and Global Qualitative Health Research unit. These units are both run in Semester 1. 

The Skills for Working in Global Health unit focuses on how  to engage effectively and collaborate with communities, to understand the nature of global health problems in their local (usually socio-political) context and recognise how this will shape whether interventions are successful, as well as maximise the impact of evidence on implementable policies. This unit aims to engage in these thorny issues, to identify and discuss opportunities and challenges, so that they are both aware of them and have the emerging skills and strategies to navigate them. 

The Global Qualitative Health Research unit introduces students to foundational concepts and skills in qualitative research in global health. It is designed for beginners and people who want an advanced-level introduction. The unit emphasises community-based participatory methods and co-design principles and how these are applied in practice in a range of settings, for example how do we understand a problem locally from a range of perspectives and collaborate with stakeholders to design, deliver and evaluate context-sensitive solutions.