Graduate Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Take the next step in your health career with the Graduate Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Be equipped to address pressing medical and public health issues relevant to tropical Australia and the Asia-Pacific. Gain an in-depth understanding of the urgent problems facing vulnerable communities and learn how to develop strategies for addressing current and future challenges at individual, community and policy levels.

JCU’s Graduate Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene degree has a strong focus on the prevention of disease and the control of communicable diseases in tropical contexts. You will study an advanced body of theoretical and technical knowledge in the disciplines of tropical medicine and hygiene, particularly in the areas of epidemiology, pathogenesis, differential diagnosis, and the investigation and management of tropical diseases.

Throughout your studies, you will learn about the importance of reconciliation, diversity and sustainability in relation to the socio-ecological nature of public health in Indigenous, tropical, rural and remote contexts.

This one-year degree includes five core subjects: Tropical Medicine; Tropical Public Health; Human Parasitology; Epidemiology for Public Health; and Medical Entomology. You can tailor this public health degree to suit your interests by choosing three elective subjects that cover a broad range of topics such as infection prevention and control, health promotion communicable disease control, social science in public health, travel medicine, biostatistics and health economics. Subjects are offered as flexible delivery, which includes online mode, limited attendance mode, and block mode/intensives.

Upon completion of the Graduate Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, you will be ready to enhance your career and undertake leadership roles in the health sector. You will be able to apply specialised human, project and organisational management skills within a medical and policy context. Your knowledge, skills and training in professional health and tropical medicine practice will enable you to make ethical decisions and practise with an evidence-based approach to health informed by recent developments in the field.

Consult the handbook for requirements further information.

Inherent requirements

Inherent requirements are the identified abilities, attributes, skills, and behaviours that must be demonstrated, during the learning experience, to successfully complete a course. These abilities, attributes, skills, and behaviours preserve the academic integrity of the University’s learning, assessment, and accreditation processes, and where applicable, meet the standards of a profession. For more information please review the inherent requirements for the Graduate Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

International students must attain an IELTS Academic with an average level of 7.5 or more, across the four components of listening, speaking, reading and writing; no score below level 7.0 in any of these components; and a score of 8.0 or more in the components of speaking and listening. Internationally schooled applicants may also be required to meet this requirement.

English competency requirements may also be satisfied through completion of one of the following:

• Bachelor degree or master degree from Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK or the USA, or
• Undergraduate degree taught in English from a South African University.

JCU Tropical Medicine and Hygiene graduates are equipped with the expert knowledge and practical skills necessary to pursue work in tropical environments.

Graduates specialise in travel medicine, infectious diseases, and remote practice.

You could find employment in State and Commonwealth Government organisations, health care and community settings, nonprofit and international organisations. Work in roles to control disease, protect the health of people living in tropical areas, and promote health and wellbeing.

You could also undertake aid work in areas such as the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Graduates may continue on to study the Master of Public Health or the Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.