This transcript is for the video Bachelor of Health Science info session
Daniel: All right, I think we are ready now. So good afternoon, everyone, and thank you very much for joining us today for our online info session for the Bachelor of Health Science here in the Faculty of Health at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Daniel: To start the session, I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation upon whose ancestral lands our city campus now stands. I would also like to pay respect to the elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for this land.
Daniel: I’d like to bring to your attention that we’ll be recording today’s session and by taking part today that you give us consent to process any information that you may share during our information session.
Daniel: My name is Dr Daniel Demant, I am a Senior Lecturer in the school of public health, and I am also the course director of the Bachelor of Health Science. I am an epidemiologist by training, and I also teach subjects that are around public health, health promotion, as well as introduction to bio statistics and similar subjects.
Daniel: I also have a couple of colleagues here, as well as a student, and I would like them to introduce themselves. And we are starting with Klaus Gebel, who is also Senior Lecturer.
Klaus: Hi, everyone. I’m a Senior Lecturer and similar to Daniel, I’m mainly working in epidemiology, and my main area of interest is physical activity and public health, and I am the course director of the Master of Public Health.
Daniel: Then we have Bernard Saliba.
Bernard: Hi everyone, my name is Bernard. I am a lecturer and teaching fellow in the Bachelor of Health Science.
Daniel: And it does seem like we have the same problem a lot of people have experienced over the last one and a half months, probably seeing how important a good Internet connection is.
Daniel: And it does seem like Bernard’s internet connection, is not one of those good internet connections today because it’s stuck. But at least the picture we see of him being stuck is not too embarrassing. But then we also have Emma with us, Emma would you like to introduce yourself?
Emma: Yeah. Hi, I’m Emma. And I’m a second-year student of a Bachelor of Health Science majoring in pharmacology. And I’ve been lucky enough to have Daniel, Klaus and Bernard all as my tutors throughout my degree already and yeah here to answer your questions.
Daniel: Thank you so much Emma. Now, today’s session is also your opportunity to ask us your questions about studying at UTS. If you do have any questions, please just type them into the Q&A box in your Zoom control panel at the very bottom. You can see a picture on the screen, and we will respond to them after the post presentation. If you have a lot of questions, you might receive your answer in text reply from one of the panellists or from the amazing Faculty of Health marketing team, who are also here to helps us moderate the Q&A. Being an online event please bear with us if there any technical issues such as Bernard being stuck and not being able to introduce himself. And we will work to resolve them as quickly as possible and if we actually can resolve them. If you find yourself not being able to access the webinar at any point, please just log out and log back in, that usually resolves such issues.
Bernard: Daniel, I’m able to introduce myself if you can hear me now.
Daniel: Oh, perfect. Now we can hear you then.
Bernard: Hi, so I’m a Lecturer in the School of Public Health and also a scholarly teaching fellow. I teach subjects in first, second and third year around diversity and culture, health promotion, advocacy, global human rights and health communication. I have logged in to zoom on my phone, so I’ll be speaking here, listening to you here, and then using the camera on my computer.
Daniel: Awesome, thank you so much Bernard. Now, one of the few things people always ask us actually what is health science. So health science can be described as a non-clinical field, but aimed to improve the health of individuals and populations. In health sciences professionals work to improve human health across advocacy, education, planning and policy. So what that exactly means probably is going to be much clearer at the end of this presentation after we have shown you a couple of the subjects that are part of this course, as well as the majors we are offering as part of the Bachelor of Health Sciences.
Daniel: So why do people actually choose to study this course. Obviously, Emma is going to say a little bit more, but once I’m done with this presentation on why she chose to do the Bachelor of Health Sciences, but overall, there are a lot of students and we always get the feedback and we are taking that into account in the way we are teaching the course and the way we are designing this course. And one of the things always people say is that health sciences is something that is extraordinarily flexible and very innovative. It is always going with the time, there’s always something really new. At the end of the course, people are really engaged into their particular field of health sciences and are very adaptive thinkers. We have a lot of subjects that are very tailored to suit your interests and what do you actually want to do as your career later on. You can also use our course as a preparation for entering postgraduate studies, such as UTS Master of Physiotherapy and a lot of other entry Masters in Health, both at UTS as well as other universities. It does give you a qualification where you can make a difference across a range of settings and in various different contexts, various different populations and health issues. Overall in our degree we have a very strong emphasis on the social model of health. So taking into account whole society works and what we have to make sure that people actually are getting control over their own health. And we are giving you the knowledge and stop to think naturally and globally and understand what the global aspects of health mean for the national and local ageing and local health care system works.
Daniel: So here just these statistics about the Bachelor of Health Sciences. And you can also see that we not only have the Bachelor of Health Sciences as the degree by itself, but we also offering double degrees, for example, the Bachelor of Health Sciences with the Bachelor of International Studies, which gives you a lot of good teachers and spend a whole year overseas. Pandemic restrictions depending here, obviously. And we also have the degree of sustainability and environment. So you have the chance to actually not only do the Bachelor of Health Sciences, but also to have a look at what other opportunities. As part of the Bachelor of Health Science we have a few options you can choose as a major, that is, global health, health promotion, indigenous health, public health, human structure and function or just do no major at all and didn’t just pick and choose what subjects like. I’m going to introduce each of those majors later in a bit more detail. The way it works is that two thirds of the degree core subjects and then one third of your degree is the subjects in whatever major you choose.
Daniel: So this is what we have as the core subject, so the degree here, is all studies students a solid foundation of knowledge across the core health subjects and a couple of examples are epidemiology and health statistics, health promotion, psychosocial perspectives, more public health more generally. In the second and third year, you will then also get to choose your electives, as well as your major. The number of the electives you have and the subjects that are available to you also depend on the major you have chosen.
Daniel: Now, the first major I’m going to introduce you to is the major of health promotion. Health promotion is about understanding why people perform certain health behaviours and how we can help individuals and populations to gain control over and improve their own health. The five major subjects here include things such as ethics and theories of public health, health promotion and indigenous context, communication and technology, for example, how to use social media to improve health. It’s really studying electives, like some first nations health and wellbeing, sustainability or economics and evaluation of health programs.
Daniel: The second one is the major of public health. Public health major focuses on the art of public health as an organized approach to preventing disease and who have the means of research and policy. Here you have six major subjects, and they also include ethics, theories and health promotion, research and evaluation, Indigenous health, global population health, as well as health, economics and evaluation. You also have to make two doctors available, and you can choose things such as global sexual health.
Daniel: And we have as one of the very few universities in Australia we have a major indigenous health. Indigenous health is one of the areas that actually is growing rapidly, fast. And there are a lot of jobs in this area. And this major is open to everyone, whether you are indigenous or not. So the indigenous health major is about gaining an in-depth understanding of the physical, social and mental health and wellbeing of indigenous Australians. And how public health assists in closing the gap. There are five major subjects, and include again, health promotion, but also a subject that focuses on the culture and tradition of the Aboriginals within Sydney. We have research and evaluation on indigenous public health and public health practice for indigenous health. There are three electives you have available to you, and you can choose population health, for example, all communication and technology.
Daniel: We then have the major of global health, which is about the health of individuals and populations in a global context. So you heard about the health of different groups of these are interrelated and which factors we have to take a global stage to ensure a healthy future for everyone. You will begin to study subjects in a major from second year and these include diversity in culture, global population health, global sexual health, strengthening global health systems, and you have one elective as well, and you could choose from a whole array of electives, for example transnationals management or introduction to strategy.
Daniel: Finally, we have the major of human structure and function. This major, is about getting an in-depth understanding of the human body and the interaction between physiology, anatomy and neurosciences. As with the previous major are seven major subjects. These include structure and functional anatomy, introduction to digital health, exercise, physiology and neurosciences. And you have one of these electives and you also have a whole array of the factors that are relevant to this major. For example, sport, exercise, psychology, or managing people and organizations. As part of this major, you also have to do a professional placement of at least 140 hours usually in the final year of your degree. We have a dedicated UTS internship officer who will support your placement within an organization that matches the company interests. There are a couple of examples on the screen right now where people actually have done their placement in the past. And, for example, at the Heart Foundation, the medical director, which is an app that actually looks at how we can get the best health advice until we can connect individual health providers with people. And there are also a lot of international opportunities for you available. Health students have travelled for example, in the past tpo India, in the cultural and health emerging problem or to Indonesia on the public health study. You are usually free to choose the official placement in any area of health sciences or public health that interests you. However, there may be restrictions depending on the major issues. For example, if you do the major of health promotion, you have to do your professional placement within the area of health promotion. In the past, we had a few people who actually got paid as during as part of their professional placement. And we also have a few people who did the professional placements on it and then actually did find a job in that particular organization after they graduated.
Daniel: As a health science student, you’ll learn in a number of different ways. We do have lectures as part of obviously studying, but there are very few lectures, and most of them are very short to actually help you with. You know, instead of sitting in front of the screen for two hours listening to and talking to you. It is only you listening, talking to me for 10 minutes. And in a much more engaging way, we focus a lot on tutorials which are designed to be as interactive and collaborative as possible and there are tutorials for every subject. What you do in exactly in these tutorials and organized, how long they are depends on the subject, because we are really making sure that we are focusing on what students need and what we need to offer them as part of that subject to ensure that people are learning in a sustainable and engaging way.
Daniel: We have the practical experience with the professional placement, as I’ve just told you. We are focusing on group work, but in a sustainable way, because we do know that public health and health sciences is an area that often focuses on multidisciplinary teams. So working with nurses, doctors and other clinicians, working with statisticians, working with a lot of different people. And we just want to prepare you for actually working with these teams, using group work. Obviously, there’s also going to be some independent studies here often with flip learning, where you are learning a lot of concepts before we are entering a tutorial, and that includes podcasts and obviously also have readings, but also got a lot of other various different resources to ensure learning is as interactive is possible at every stage of your degree. And obviously, when you’re studying not only to go to lectures and tutorials, but there’s also the campus life, which is such an inherent part of your culture and of what it means to be a student. And I really assume that we’re going to get back to that amazing campus life very soon. We have a lot of clubs, societies and parties on campus. I’m not sure if it still exists, but we did have a Taylor Swift Appreciation Society at some point. But if that is your thing the n go there. But otherwise, we have a lot of other things, whether that is a Arabic society, there is a food appreciation society as a society that focuses on comics or on K-pop or whatever floats your boat so there’s a lot of information.
Daniel: We know that not everyone can come to university and meet some of all coming from different places. For example, when I went to school, I actually got kicked out of school because I failed in both English and mathematics and now I teach by statistics in English and I needed a little bit more support than other people and probably than a few others. And we do have the student centre that is there to help assist you with everything you need. We have higher education, language and presentation support to help me with assessment and language like the presentation styles. We have the timetable planner. Often you will know what you actually are doing and when you expect tutorials a year in advance that will help you with if you have a job and you have other things to organize and take care of in your life. We have UTS online which is our online learning management software, which allows you to engage in a whole array of services. And they also have available actually 24/7, even on a Saturday night. You will, rarely wait for more than a minute if you need something, anything that’s related to that system.
Daniel: And obviously, we also have the library and we have some amazing librarians there that will help you to find everything you need, whether that is a book from the 16th century or to an article that has been published in a newspaper somewhere in regional when it’s sort of 20 years ago. So they will actually be amazingly helpful and an enormous help.
Daniel: At the end of this there a couple of things this unit should be and we hope it should be after learning all those amazing subjects we have and we are told most of records and treatments. And these include that you have skills and advocacy and social justice, that you have adaptive thinking, as well as critical thinking and practice that can have an understanding of diversity and what that means for the of public health practice, but also, obviously indigenous cultural aspects, as well as communication, collaboration and leadership.
Daniel: Now to something that obviously is of interest to a lot of people. Once you’re done with this, what is going to happen? So there actually is a whole range of careers you can choose. Health sciences and public health is an extraordinarily flexible field. You do not have like this thing where you do the same job over your lifetime. You can go into various different fields. And that was put in motion because the education plan and policy of project management or research consultancy, we have a lot of students who are working for pharmaceutical companies, for example, looking at consumer engagement in or working and to organize a clinical trials. We have people who are working for Apple or Google looking at health care apps and testing them, making sure they are reliable for people to use them. So there’s so many different options and the majors and the professional help will help you gain an understanding of what you want to do. And we have very regular engagement with professional professionalism with employers as part of on subjects such as career days, for example, a lot of them art subject in the first year, but also throughout of law degree to really help them understand what career options there are and also to help you with gaining an understanding of what you want to do.
Daniel: If you don’t want to immediately know where to go, you obviously can also use the honorary degree to prepare for a master’s degree. We have a few students who have used this in the past to study medicine, but also there are a lot of other further degrees available for you, both at UTS and other universities. That includes health and management, further specializing in public health or epidemiology, orthoptics, physiotherapy and speech pathology. Now, while health sciences can prepare you for a master’s degree in those areas, it is also important to note that the commission, to any master’s degree or further studies, is often competitive and based on academic merit, meeting the subject prerequisites and completing an interview in some cases, that is, for example, the case for most UTS Master’s degrees. If you’re really interested in any of those pathways, we really recommend you to looking to your options and get admission criteria for your designed masters degree, which by the time we start the second degree of your lecture from the bachelor of health sciences, and to really just talk to us because we are available for it. Remember, we are professionals as well so we have an idea. Most of us actually work out there in the industry so we have an understanding of how those things work and what you need to do. And so you have all options available to you.
Daniel: So how do you apply if you are a year twelve school leaver and any students who have gone on a gap year, you are assessed solely on your selection rank and the selection rate is equal to your Atar and any points you qualify for through our UTS admissions schemes. For example, you get extra points for things such as mathematics or English as part of your subjects. If you’re a none-recent school leaver or a mature age student, you compete for paid space based on academic merits from your previous qualifications. Applicants 20 years of age or over at the time of applying, can also opt to sit a certain special tertiary admission test, as such, you can find detailed information on submission criteria on the UTS website where you can also find much more detailed information about the subjects that I included in this degree, for example. You can apply online via the university admission centre at UAC.edu.au or if you are a year 12 applicant you also may be eligible for our early entry program and you can find out more about that at UTS.edu.au/early-entry.
Daniel: Now to something much more spectacular and exciting. It is time for the amazing Q&A session so we will now we answer all of the questions you have typed in and I can see there quite a few of them already, as I said in the beginning you might receive your answer in text reply for one of the panellists or from the Faculty of Health marketing team who are there to help you. So first up, we are going to have Emma, and we actually wanted to ask Emma. Why did you choose to study health sciences and why did you choose study health sciences here at UTS?
Emma: Well, I am a bit of a interesting one, because I actually started my university life at a different uni and went for two weeks doing a science maths double degree and was there five days a week for days and hated it and I was just not enjoying it. So I had a gap year accidentally. And then I wanted something that kept my options open because I finished, when I withdrew from that course, I was very confused. I didn’t know if I wanted to do radiography or medicine or teaching or anything, anything under the sun I thought about doing. And so I wanted health science to be like my answer, because it just covered such a wide variety of career paths and opportunities. And if I wanted to do a master’s after, I could. And I fell in love with every single subject I’ve had so far. And I’m looking at doing a Master’s of Public Health because I just feel so where I’m supposed to be, which I never thought I would. I thought I’d end up transferring or doing a master’s in something else. But I’ve just absolutely fallen in love. And it’s just. I’m lucky, but I also feel like once you enter and you actually experience it and you know what it is and you learn that there’s a whole field out there of jobs that a lot of people don’t even know exist. Then you see your potential and you say, oh, I can actually pursue this as a career. I can do this, I can do that. And it’s so flexible and it just suited me rather nicely. So, yeah.
Daniel: Thank you so much Emma. OK, now maybe we are going through some of the questions we were asked in the Q&A. One of the questions is, is it possible to do a double major? No, we actually only allow you to do one major. The purpose of that is because we really want you to have an in-depth understanding of that particular part. And for that, we just really need that time to actually do that. If you are interested in aspects of other things. We actually give you the option to do that via the electives. And that is really helpful to start.
Bernard: I might just add to that, Daniel, students who are thinking of two different majors, what you can choose is to do no major, which gives you flexibility to choose from a wider range of electives so that you can tailor your degree to your interests, but you can’t choose two different majors at the same time.
Daniel: Klaus. What do you think are the career options that are following this?
Klaus: Oh, they are very, very wide ranging, as Daniel and Emma already alluded to. I always say that the problem is if you study something like occupational therapy or physical therapy, what are the career options you have if you study OT? You can become an OT and that’s it. If you study physiotherapy, you become a physiotherapist and that’s it. If you study health sciences, there are countless options that are available to you. And as Emma said, she she likes. Well, Emma actually says she likes all of the subjects, which is great to hear. But usually students will say, well, there are some subjects that are particularly liked and they develop an interest in a particular field, and then they really think, OK, this is the direction that I want to go in. But the beauty, as I see in this degree, is that it just opens up so many options. And I think from my own experience, if you’ve just finished high school, it’s really hard, if not impossible, to know exactly what you would like to do later on in your life. But here it just offers you a lot of potential pathways to choose from. Once you finish your degree.
Daniel: Thank you Klaus. Bernard, what pathways can schools lead people to? And what can they become once they finish this course?
Bernard: So on top of what Klaus’s already mentioned, if you choose to go into the workforce immediately after graduating, there’s plenty of options with either government or non-government health organizations as policy officer and health promotion officer. But if you do decide to go into a Master’s afterwards and go down the path of pathway toward something else you could do, you could you what this degree opens up opportunities for you is to be able to study things like health service management and Master in Health Service Management to do health information management of health data. Of course, similar to Emma, you can go down the path of a Master’s in Public Health so that you can get more senior roles, for example, after graduating from that master. You can go down the path of orthoptics. So if you wanted to look at slightly more allied health and on that allied health side, there’s also physiotherapy, speech therapy, speech pathology. But I think the the best thing to do is also look at what your end goal is and see what the requirements are, and then, yeah, but there’s plenty of options of pathways to go down after graduating from the Bachelor of Health Science.
Daniel: Thank you, Bernard. There is one question for Emma, which is very general about what subjects do you do and why did you choose those subjects?
Emma: Well, we my cohort at the moment are actually the last year of the old syllabus, so we had different majors. So I’m a little bit upset that I couldn’t do the major public health, but it’s fine. So I’m doing them majoring in pharmacology. So the first year was rather general for us. We did the introduction to health care systems and public health and interpersonal communication, which would be a big help for all those people want to do, like nursing and medicine and stuff. And we did a lot of there’s a lot more sociology, I guess you’d say, in the course than you’d think. And when we did it at the time, I was very like, what? Where does this come from? What is this leading to? But it’s literally been used in every most subjects I’ve had since, because it just is all about shifting your perspective of health and learning about all the different models and things. So it’s very eye opening the first year, and then you don’t actually start doing your major subjects into a second. So because I’m doing pharmacology, I did chemistry and cell biology. Last year, were my major subjects and then I did my cores and then this semester I’ve got three cores and then I’m doing another chemistry, and then next year there’s more major focus on doing actual pharmacology subjects and then more specific cores as well. They’re kind of scattered through. It’s not like some of the degrees that different uni’s can do that, if especially if doing double degrees like a big chunk of law or something, and than a big chunk of business. But it’s integrated throughout. So you use all your knowledge like cohesively at the same time sort of thing. It’s like building that picture up from base all the way up to actually having a full understanding of health science, basically.
Daniel: Thank you very much Emma. Bernard, what type of practicals are involved within in this course?
Bernard: So it ranges as well. So on top of the placement that the students do towards the end of their degree, there’s also plenty of opportunities to do what we call authentic assessment throughout your degree. So almost every subject that you do will have an assignment that is very much practical in the real world. So to give you an example of what the real world is like when it comes to working in the field of public health. So I’ll give you some examples. In one of the subjects I teach interpersonal communication, there’s a new assessment now where you get to record a podcast episode where you discuss a health topic on a popular podcast series, for example. Another one is where you write a letter to the minister about a particular health issue that you are, that you feel close to your heart and you’d like to change. Another one in health communication is looking at outbreak investigation and outbreak communication and what methods are the best ways to communicate an outbreak to the general public in a city like Sydney, for example. Another subject you get to design an app, you don’t actually have to design an app, but you just have to propose a new design for an app that improves the quality of life of people suffering from a health condition of your choosing. So there’s a lot of practical examples within the course where you get to kind of tap into the different real world experience when working in the field of public health.
Daniel: Thank you, Bernard. Klaus, do you need to study a postgraduate course to work in public health or can a bachelor’s degree do the same thing.
Klaus: That’s a very good question, Daniel. Now, I very frequently receive emails in my inbox from colleagues of mine who work in the fields with job descriptions that they then forward to their network and ask to further forward them. And yes, there are a lot of positions that more senior positions where they would rather want someone with a Master of Public Health. But there are a lot of positions where an undergraduate degree in the health sciences, such as the Bachelor of Health Sciences, that is, is sufficient to be eligible to apply for various positions, be it with the New South Wales Ministry of Health, be it with the Heart Foundation. As you said, it’s a range of, as Bernard said, can be governmental organization, NGOs. So there are a lot of positions where a Bachelor of Health Sciences is sufficient.
Daniel: Thank you so much Klaus. OK. Now I’m going to have a look at the more practical questions for a minute. Let me just have a look. So there are a couple of questions related to employment. We it’s kind of difficult to always measure that. We do a survey every year to have a look at what actually all students are, how much money they earn, how happy they were with the degree they did, and also for full time employment, as well as part time employment. And we do know that about a year after the degree that the vast majority of our students are employed full time or doing their postgraduate degree, that number is roughly comparable to other degrees, for example, in nursing and we reach about 75ish percent after a year of people being employed, which is actually quite good compared to degrees, for example, in business. And we also do know that we have enormously increasing number of people working in the health care sectors. So I think that actually the employment opportunities in the future will also improve by a lot. The average salary we also know it’s about 65 to 70 thousand dollars for most people once they are employed, straight out of the degree. However, that range quite dramatically, depending on where people work, was public sector versus private sector working with big companies, small companies, or working also in for example NGOs.
Daniel: Then there are quite a few questions about options that are very specific after their degree. So I’m just going to do them now one after another. So there’s one degree can you go from this into medicine? Yes, you can. So you can use that to get into postgraduate medicine. But everything that is related to postgraduate degrees that are not offered at UTS you need to make sure to look at the websites and actually have a look at what their entry requirements are because I cannot speak for other universities.
Daniel: There are also postgraduate dietetics and nutrition degrees you can get into after doing your postgraduate course and if you want to be a dietitian, that is a registered profession. So you need to make sure that you’re meeting the requirements for that. We do have a elective that is looking at healthy nutrition and diets in public health, so from health promotion point of view, you can also go into that degree. Then there is a question, I hope that this course is extremely helpful to pursue a nursing degree later as a possibility which provides the basis knowledge. You can do your Bachelor of Nursing results straight out when you actually start doing it. And there are some postgraduate and speed entry options if you have already another postgraduate, another undergraduate degree, like the Bachelor of Health Sciences. So you can also use that, obviously, as a starting degree. However, if you are reading interested in nursing, you can also join one of the nursing sessions and get more information about what it is like to actually go straight into the Bachelor of Nursing.
Bernard: Daniel might answer a couple of questions as well if you’d like? And feel free to jump in at any point. There’s a question that says, are there any options for psychology and philosophy at UTS? I can’t answer for the rest of the university, but I can tell you that although this program in particular doesn’t offer clinical psychology of counselling subjects, there are a number of subjects that incorporate theoretical frameworks around social, emotional, psychological well-being. These are centred on the social model and the social determinants of health. And of course, in terms of philosophy, not sure what you mean by that, but you can definitely consider doing an honours degree afterwards or getting to a Master of Philosophy like an NPHIL or a PhD at a later stage. I’d say that’s the answer to that one.
Bernard: Another one says, would you consider this degree more theory based than practical? I may have answered partially answered that question earlier when talking about the practicality of the assessments. There’s definitely, in my opinion, at least the subjects that I teach, probably a 50/50. So, there’s 50 percent theoretical frameworks and a 50 percent sort of assessment. So, I can just give you an example. The lectures that I recorded and delivered for my subject are theory based, and then I get the students to watch those before coming to the tutorial where we implement our knowledge into a practice-based activity. The practice-based activity can be something like a debate where we have two different sides competing against each other and arguing for or against the statement. We have a variety of activities where we practically where we put the theory into practice theory of the lectures into a practice of the tutorials.
Emma: Can I just jump in there as well? It was like Bernard. I’ve had him a few times and a lot of the classes we do, you kind of don’t realize that when you do the lectures and things, you get the understanding. But it’s not until you get in those two of the workshops or whatever is going on, even the assignments, especially like epidemiology, where you just get, like content like you try to absorb through the lectures and things, and then you go and actually have that experience and we’ve got really small tutorials sizes compared to the last uni I was at, I can speak for that, but it’s not like what you see in movies, how you’re in a big hall and everything, it’s really intimate and you get to know your tutors and everyone and we get so hands on and then like I was the person that would ask all the questions all the time, like you can just be as annoying as you want and just talk everything at them and be like, no, no, explain. I don’t know what’s going on. So even if you’re having trouble with the content, it’s not until you get in those shoots or workshops or anything where you can apply to be more in like synthesize the actual knowledge and understanding of it. It’s like it doesn’t sound as like, chem lecture or chem prac sort of thing. But it’s our tutes are a lot more hands on than what you might think they are basically.
Bernard: Thanks Emma.
Daniel: OK, so now we have a few technical questions. And what’s the intake for the course, how many many positions and is there a high demand? We have about 150 Commonwealth supported places each year. We take on additional students with our own costs so you still don’t have to pay more. And it is then based on how many people actually apply. So the Atar can slightly increase depending on how many people there are. Last year, we did see a rapid increase in demand for public health intake, which probably this relates to the current situation. And that might also be the case for next year. But generally, we are able to attend to many, most people who want to study this degree and actually give them a chance.
Daniel: Would you have to choose two majors, if you’re doing a double degree? That actually depends on the government, each double degree is slightly different. In some double degrees, you actually do both degrees and there’s just like a way you actually then do a major in both of them, if they have some. And other double degrees is where one degree is preserved exactly how it is. For example you do the Bachelor of Health science, you would do the major in there but from the other degree, you would only do the core subjects. So it really depends on which degree you are choosing.
Daniel: Can this course lead into radiography and to be quite frank. I don’t know, I don’t really know much about what the um.
Bernard: I think with that, Daniel, this the person who asked the questions best course of action is to check the requirements for radiography. We have a lot of students who are thinking about doing a more allied health qualification after the degree, and that’s very much possible. But it does also depend on like, for example, with physiotherapy, you have to have done the human structure and function major to get into physiotherapy. And we know this because that’s what physiotherapy has told us they need. So my best answer for that would be to check what radio radiography requires before making any of these decisions. And I think that the same sort of applies for the question on medicine and feel free to interrupt anybody. I think my understanding and medicine of the medicine question is that if you wanted to do medicine after a degree, it doesn’t really matter which degree you’ve done, as long as you achieve a certain credit point average. And as long as you pass their entry test, which I think is called again the GAMSAT. The Bachelor of Health Science, does give you maybe a little bit more of a background knowledge compared to, let’s say, if you do an engineering degree beforehand or if you do an arts degree. But again, you would need to check what the requirements of medicine before making any of those decisions.
Daniel: Thank you, Bernard. Then we have a question related to assessments within the course. Klaus is this a test-based course, are there more tests or are there more assignments?
Klaus: Ah, that’s a good question. I can only speak for those subjects in our Bachelor of Health Sciences in which I have taught myself, where we don’t have exams, where the assessment is based on assignments. But I think you’re in a better position to answer that question, Daniel.
Daniel: Emma what is your experience so far?
Emma: Well, I that was one of the reasons I picked the course, because in the open day, Bernard was standing on a stage and said the whole first year you don’t have one exam. I don’t know if it’s still the case with the updated curriculum, but I’m assuming it would be. And it is I it’s cements your knowledge a lot more than you think. When you have a test, you just fill your brain up and then chuck it on a page. But when you have the assignments you, that’s kind of what I was talking about with the tutes and stuff. You apply all of your workshop knowledge and everything into the assignment. And that’s what Bernard was saying when he was saying it’s kind of theory and practical can get sort of blurry, because when you do your assignment, you are that is in a way like your practical like you’re using all your theory to actually answer the questions and do like we had an assignment. We had to write a letter to a minister and try and rally for like a public health campaign we were proud of and everything like it’s very hands on and then the only exams I’ve had personally from my major, so from chemistry and cell bio and stuff. So I think depending on your major as well, it would change assignments versus tests. But yeah, no, it’s definitely more assignments than tests so far.
Bernard: And I’ll just add to that. Some subjects do have small mini quizzes, and that’s just as a way of checking in with your knowledge throughout the semester. These are usually not worth more than five percent per quiz. And overall, that they tend to not be worth more than 10 or 15 or 20 percent of the entire subject. But these are very small quizzes, and it’s mostly just to ensure that you understand the content of the lectures.
Klaus: I would I would like to make one more comment. I haven’t seen that question yet, but we usually get this kind of question, be it for the Bachelor of Health Sciences or for the Master of Public Health. A lot of people always ask us about a subject like epidemiology, whether you have to be very, very good at mathematics to do well, to pass an epidemiology. And my answer to that is, first, epidemiology, yes, is a quantitative science. So, yes, we have to deal with numbers, but actually not all of it around half of what you do in epidemiology is only about calculating things, the other half is about other aspects of epidemiology. And the part that is about calculating things and I hope Emma will agree when I say this, the mathematical skills required for epidemiology are about what you did in school in year seven or eight. It’s really just multiplying, dividing numbers, adding subtract subtracting numbers and you don’t even need to learn formulas by heart. You get a few formulas that you will need to apply, you get an overview of the sheet, you’re not expected to know them by heart. So I would really say. In case you have math, anxiety or something like this, you really don’t have to be worried about epidemiology, but maybe Emma can from her own experience add a couple of words about that.
Emma: Yeah, I was I’m a bit of a maths brain. I did four unit at high school. So I was really excited to get up to do some math. And then I got there and it was literally like fractions and multiplication and division and that was it. But it was like it’s still good because when you’re doing the analysis, then you use your skills from like, OK, this is the situation in this setting. But why sort of thing, it’s melds into a lot of other subjects, even the analysis that isn’t like scary data analysis it’s just a lot of cementing, your other subjects together. It’s not scary at all. It’s really the. epidemiology was one of my favourite subjects. Sorry, Daniel and Bernard. But it like its really interesting. That’s what I mean. You don’t know what you’re getting into unitl you’re there sort of thing. So don’t try and make any assumptions about, oh, that’s scary, this is going to be about that, because when you get in there, it’s so different to what you think about anything. But that goes for uni in general as well, not just that degree. It’s very like you’ve got to know once you’re in the then you’ll know what you’re doing, basically.
Daniel: I think that actually is something a lot of people also find when they hear the word statistics and we do have an introduction subject to statistics, and what we actually have is we have computer programs that do a lot of the mathematical work for you. It is really about understanding what those numbers mean and how you actually then use them and apply them in public health practice and for policy and research.
Daniel: And then we have one final question. If I study a Bachelor of Health Science Bachelor of Sustainability, double degree, what are the possible job opportunities. On the website the careers listed seem predominantly environmentally focused. If I wanted to do this degree and work in the health sector, will I have to do further studies such as a Master in Public Health? No, you don’t have to do further studies, you can actually go straight into appointment and basically when you do a double degree, you have all the job opportunities you have for the individual degrees, as well as then the degree and the job opportunities that actually have further specialization. And for example, if you work in environmental health. Obviously, you have a degree that includes both health science as well as sustainability and environment. You would actually have a much higher quantification and much more knowledge regarding that, particularly field. And often when you do apply for other jobs, you can actually then always give it like this painting when saying, OK, I want to work in health promotion, but I want to work in health promotion, looking at it from the environmental perspective or from a sustainability perspective. So, there are all of those options you can do. Obviously, when you have a look at the website, that’s going to be the ones that are very specific and uniquely related to this stuff. But you still have all the job opportunities of the individual degree still for you.
Daniel: If there are still spots left in this course, can you offer it to students that do not meet the cut off mark. As I said the cut off mark we actually are having is related to how many people are also applying to that year. There’s a hard one that is related to this is what we what people need to have to ensure that they can actually do or really succeed in the schools. Otherwise its just strongly related to how many people apply versus how many spots we have available. And there’s also a lot of adjustments you can get depending on, for example, which school you went to, which subjects you did, where you can get an adjustment to your Atar as well.
Daniel: If you have any further very specific questions about how you make sure they can actually get into the program and how you can get a spot, really contact us via the email address that is on the website, and we can have a look at your individual situation in much more detail.
Daniel: Okay, so I think we know at the end of today’s session, we have answered all of the questions we have. I would like to really thank you again for joining us today, and we’ll try to get through some of the more specific questions once they actually send them to us. You can also now ask current students, as well as the UTS admissions your questions on live chat that is available until three p.m. and then again on Tuesday. So just go back to the open day website and you can actually add or join all of these chats.
Daniel: If you do have any further questions that are just popping into your head after you’ve heard our amazing presentation today and the wonderful, amazing comments from Emma, Klaus and Bernard. You can obviously also contact us again using the details on the screen. We are always happy to answer those questions. If you do decide to go into the Bachelor of Health Sciences, which will probably be one of the most amazing decisions you have done in your life. Then we are going to see you at UTS next year. Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your Saturday and the weekend as far as we can during the lockdown. And we are going to switch gears. Thank you so much.