Graduate Certificate or Diploma of Environmental Health

Graduate certificates and diplomas provide the means to gain a succinct understanding of environmental health in various ways. Graduate certificates from Murdoch University, for instance, take six months of full-time study to complete, or up to one year part-time. These focus on clean and renewable energy through units in climate science policy, energy policy and more. Other institutions will offer graduate certificates in different, specialised areas.

Graduate diplomas differ in two distinct ways. First, they’re longer, taking one year of full-time study to complete or up to two years part-time. Second, they tend to provide a broader knowledge of the discipline. Take Queensland University of Technology’s offering as an example. In this course, students learn about population health, environmental health law, risk assessment, food safety and others for the sake of a well-rounded understanding. So, students with a clear career vision in mind ought to benefit most from a graduate certificate, whereas those with less specific ambitions are well-advised to pursue the diploma.

Employment options

The range of employment options specified here is great for graduates from these programs. From consulting firms like HighEHS to the World Health Organisation, a great deal of public and private institutions require the learned opinion of an environmental health professional. Seeking and joining organisations like Environmental Health Australia is a great way to learn more about the field and meet like-minded professionals.

Scholarships and funding

There are several high-quality scholarships available to students of environmental health, some general and others more specific to the field. Most are available at the master level, but there are still some accessible to students in graduate certificates and diplomas. Some of these include:

• Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships are valued at $69,500 pa. They’re for ANU students and have no subject discipline requirements. This makes them exceptionally competitive, but potentially worth the effort.
• General Sir John Monash Scholarships are similar, offering $65,000 pa to students planning to commence postgraduate study overseas. Entry requirements are similar to Endeavour, with the same level of competition. They require students to argue for why their overseas institution of choice is worthy of their attention.
• The Westpac Future Leaders Scholarship is enormous, providing $120,000 to students directing their studies toward one of three areas
  • Technology and innovation
  • Strengthening Australia-Asia ties
  • Enabling positive social change

Students of environmental health can easily make a case for the third option, as their current or future careers will be dedicated to this purpose. Few things are as powerful at exacting social change as clean living environments.

To browse the full directory of environmental health postgraduate scholarships, click here.

Prerequisites and selection process

These courses merely require students to have completed a prior bachelor degree in any discipline, with no GPA prerequisites commonly attached. Some courses will prefer a GPA of 5/7 (65%), which equates to credit, but this is rarely a stern requirement in this field.