Published: 04-09-2023 13:43 | Updated: 05-09-2023 13:15

KI’s only Erasmus Mundus Master programme will continue to teach students public health in disasters

Two students, a man and a woman, sit with their backs against the camera, looking at a white board that their teacher is pointing at
Erasmus Mundus Master Public Health in Disasters Photo: Åsa Svensson

KI’s only Erasmus Mundus Master programme, the Master programme Public Health in Disasters, will continue, following a renewed agreement between the three collaborating partners; KI, Universidad de Oviedo and the University of Nicosia. Course leaders look forward to continuing to provide students with the latest tools to work with public health in disasters and advance research in the field. And the new format of the programme allows for all students to come to KI.

The programme was set up in 2013 and is currently managed by a partnership between the Centre for Research on Health Care in Disasters at KI, Unit for Research in Emergency and Disaster at Universidad de Oviedo and the Department of Primary Care and Population Health at the University of Nicosia. Across the three universities the Master programme delivers a unique high quality education public health in disaster. The programme provides students with an understanding of how to reduce disaster risks and contribute to a better and more targeted public health-based interventions following disasters and in disaster preparedness. It sets them up work in a number of professions, as well as to go on a do further research in the field.

– One of the greatest pleasures of working with the programme is to see how it has fostered so many students that have gone on to work with disaster relief in their home countries or abroad, and that have also continued to do research and thus advance the field itself. It shows the applicability and relevance of what we teach, says programme director Anneli Eriksson.

New format will see all students coming to KI

As part of the renewal of the programme, the format of it will also be slightly restructured. Instead of first attending the Universidad de Oviedo and then splitting the rest of the time between either KI or the University of Nicosia, the students will now attend all three universities. Students studying according to the incumbent format are currently attending KI, where some will also continue to write their thesis next year. The first batch of students studying according to the new format will arrive at KI in 2025.

Anneli Eriksson looks forward to welcoming all students in the programme to KI and to continue the collaboration with the partner universities.

– To ensure that the content we teach in programme remains relevant and we teach it in a way that maximises the skillsets at the three partner universities, we decided to conduct this restructuring, which we are all pleased with.

The Erasmus Mundus Master programme in Public Health in Disasters is open to eligible candidates from all over the world.