Postgraduate Certificate in Primary Health Care

The Postgraduate Certificate in Primary Health Care (PGCertPHC) is an interprofessional distance-taught programme available for health, social care and management professionals engaged in the delivery of primary health care (e.g. medicine, nursing, paramedicine, pharmacy, physiotherapy, primary health care management). It provides a formal nationally recognised primary health care qualification.

The programme is designed to provide a deeper understanding of evidence based and translational primary health care practice taught by active practitioners and research academics in an interprofessional Primary Health Care and General Practice Department. Interprofessional teaching and learning will equip you to understand the key principles and major primary care issues facing you and your workplace or community today: you will cover the policy context of primary care today within the Health and Disability sector, population health, equity and ethics, collaborative care and leadership, quality and safety. You will take way with you the following skills: oral and written presentation, critical thinking, communication, applying evidence, information and research literacy and principles for team working.

Students are encouraged to seek course programme advice from the postgraduate coordinator or director at an early stage. The PGCertPHC is constantly updated to keep pace with an ever-changing health care landscape to be sure to meet the needs of the current and future workforce: busy professionals who combine work with personal life.

At the completion of this qualification, graduates are able to continue to the Postgraduate Diploma in Primary Health Care (PGDipPHC), and then become eligible to apply to continue to the Master of Primary Health Care (MPHC).

Postgraduate entrance requirements

Entrance requirements for postgraduate study vary by programme with most requiring a minimum bachelor-level qualification in the same field, and some having additional requirements such as relevant work experience and/or professional registration in New Zealand.

A postgraduate certificate or postgraduate diploma can usually be taken at any time after the completion of your bachelor's degree.

If you hold an honours degree or postgraduate diploma you may be able to eligible for master’s study by thesis only. In some cases if you hold a bachelor’s degree you may apply for a coursework master’s degree or for master’s study by coursework and thesis.

To study a PhD you usually require the completion of a master’s degree, or a first-class or upper second-class honours degree in the same area of study, or a related discipline, as your intended area of research.

Check the postgraduate students pages for specific information on the entrance requirements of the programme you are interested in.

IELTS (Academic module) (including IELTS Online) : Overall score of 6.5, no individual band below 6.0

TOEFL iBT : Overall score of 90 and a writing score of 21 The University of Otago TOEFL institution code is 9483 (Please note we do not accept MyBest TOEFL scores)

Pearson Test of English ( PTE ) Academic : Overall score of 58 with no communicative skills score below 50

Duolingo English Test : Overall score of 120 (with no Individual Subscore below 95)