Health Promotion Maastricht University

Overview

Our world is facing serious problems such as climate change and increasing poverty and inequality. Ensuring health and well-being is complex, which makes promoting them fundamental. The starting point to promote health is human behaviour and the environments in which that behaviour occurs.

You are equipped with important tools for understanding human behaviour and leveraging a comprehensive planned and systematic approach to the development, implementation and evaluation of health-promoting interventions. 

This programme is for you if:

• you have a keen interest in understanding (un)healthy behaviours and how environments impact health;
• you are passionate about developing health-promoting interventions and policies;

• you want to make an impact and address complex societal challenges and the wicked problems we face in our current society.

Intervention Mapping

Maastricht University is a world-renowned expertise centre for Intervention Mapping, which is the most comprehensive approach for changing behaviours and environments for health. By learning the ins and outs of Intervention Mapping, the Health Promotion programme aids you in:

• acquiring a thorough understanding of why people engage in (un)healthy behaviours;
• developing interventions and policies to promote healthy behaviours and beneficial environmental conditions;
• ensuring adequate implementation of health education and promotion interventions;

• executing rigorous evaluations of the process, effect, and outcomes of (existing) interventions and policies.

A socio-ecological approach

Health behaviours do not happen in a vacuum. They are influenced by, and in turn influence, the environment in which they occur. This is the fundament of a socio-ecological approach to understanding and changing behaviour and promoting health. As a future health promotor, you learn about a wide range of determinants of health at various levels – from the intrapersonal level through to the community, organisational, and societal levels. You gain a deep and unprejudiced understanding of a wide range of determinants from individual perceptions and motives to the physical, social, and economic environments in which people live. The continuous changes in, and interactions, between these aspects are part of the complexity that we as health promotors embrace.

Our focus on theory and practice

Health Promotion has a strong focus on both theory and practice. Each course has substantive content complemented by practice-based skills training. This means that you learn how to formulate communication strategies and how to develop, implement, and evaluate health promotion interventions. Within the Health Education and Promotion master’s programme, we do not focus on one specific health problem or behaviour specifically. Rather, you have the freedom to engage with the health promotion topics that interest you most and are taught the skills to address those. With practical skills training embedded in each course and possibilities to conduct the research for your master’s thesis in various (practical and academic) organisations, this programme provides you with the theoretical, practical and intercultural toolbox you need to launch your career.

Career opportunities:

After you’ve completed the master's programme in Health Promotion, you'll be an expert in promoting health and well-being. You could pursue a career at health institutes, consultancies, insurance companies, governments and academia. Experience shows that all students rapidly find good jobs, sometimes even before graduation.

Career paths:

• Health institutes
• Consultancy
• Governments
• Academia