Evaluating Indigenous public health competencies in a Master of Public Health

The Melbourne School of Population and Global Health (MSPGH) offers postgraduate qualifications that enable a highly skilled public health workforce. Through the university’s Master of Public Health (MPH) program, students gain comprehensive skills and knowledge, with specialist fields that include biostatistics, gerontology, global health, health economics, health policy, Indigenous health, infectious disease epidemiology and sexual health. While Indigenous health is a specialist area that students can choose to study, this evaluation, led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander academics, examined the degree to which Indigenous health-related competencies are embedded across the core, capstone and Indigenous Health specialisation units. The review identified strong horizontal integration of teaching Indigenous public health competencies as topics across the core, capstone and Indigenous Health specialisation units. However, inclusion within capstone units was variable and often opportunistic, resulting in inconsistent student exposure to Indigenous public health learning. While it also identified a diversity of learning opportunities to engage with Indigenous knowledges, the evaluation highlighted ongoing gaps in systematic embedding of Indigenous leadership, governance and accountability within curriculum design. Overall, embedding a dedicated Indigenous public health unit as a core subject is recommended to ensure all MPH graduates develop deeper, critically informed competencies.