Health Policies at EU Level and Global Health Europe
Full course description
Policies – defining aims, objectives and means to reach them – significantly impact the health of populations. This course will focus on EU and international health policy making, priority setting, and the role of partnerships and networks in a multilevel decision-making process. The perspectives of evidence-informed policymaking and Health in All Policies will be followed in this module. The students will learn to assess public policies relevant to health using qualitative and quantitative methods in policy analysis.
The policy cycle and the policy triangle frameworks inspire the course structure. Each week of the course will focus on a different facet of health policy:
- the concept of policy and the context of policymaking;
- policy problems;
- actors and stakeholders;
- agenda setting and advocacy;
- the content of policies;
- policy implementation;
- policy evaluation.
We will learn that policy problems must be carefully defined and that problem perceptions and problem framing influence decision-making. We will closely examine the role of scientific evidence in policymaking. Finally, we will reflect on the fact that policy analysis is always normative and that the interests and power of actors, institutions, and developments in the broader environment frame policymaking.
Supported by sessions from the four specialised competency lines, the course will develop your ability to work with policy documents, analyse existing policies, and draft policy recommendations. We expect that many of you will go on to work in policy-intensive environments, guiding policy development in or outside government. Beyond providing a primer in policy analysis, the course will also develop your ability to investigate and solve complex problems and write persuasively.
Course objectives
Expert
By the end of the module, the student:
- Tests and defends the use of health status measures in policies and written scientific output
- Evaluates and advances proposals to reduce inequalities in health status
- Evaluates and critiques health-related public policies at Member State and EU levels
- Compares and selects methods and theories for the evaluation of public and organizational policy processes and outcomes
- Recommends changes to public and organizational policies based on scientific, grey, and other relevant literature
- Investigates, analyses and compares policies that give structure to public health and health care systems in Europe
Investigator
By the end of the module, the student:
- Synthesizes the implications of findings from secondary research for practice and policy contexts
- Estimates the impact of interventions based on insights from scientific literature
- Evaluates the quality and relevance of scientific evidence for public health policies and practice
- Argues coherently using a range of academic thinking skills and philosophical and ethical concepts
- Critiques EU research priorities in light of theoretical perspectives on public health policy processes and practices
- Synthesizes very new (i.e. just-in-time) information into work process
Communicator
By the end of the module, the student:
- Writes a policy brief on an issue of relevance for EU policy and health
- Extrapolates research findings to an applied setting
- Adapts models of public health causality and promotion to specific needs of diverse populations
- Analyses policy advocacy case studies based on major theories of policy change and social entrepreneurship
Professional
By the end of the module, the student:
- Reflects critically on strengths and weaknesses in his/her personal learning process and study performance
- Behaves in a respectful, professional and reliable manner in tutor groups, practicals and group work
- Recognizes and interrogates ethical dilemmas that are relevant to European Public Health
- Acts according to ethical standards and norms
- Contributes actively and positively within tutor groups and training tutorial groups
- Contributes actively and positively within autonomous project teams
- Synthesizes learning in the Bachelor programme with vision