About

The Department of Environmental Health is under the Faculty of Applied Sciences. It was founded on 1st September 1995 after the re-organization of the then Mathematics and Science Department, where it existed as a Section offering a Diploma in Public Health, a programme that had been in existence since the Polytechnic opened its doors in 1965. At present, the Department offers an undergraduate degree and several post-graduate degrees. 

What We Offer

The Bachelor of Science Degree in Environmental Health is the flagship programme of the Department. The programme demands a high level of theoretical engagement and intellectual independence and aims to foster deepened, comprehensive and systematic expertise in the major cognate area of learning, i.e. environmental health. Students will be equipped with cognitive and intellectual skills, key transferable skills and professional/technical/practical skills that would enable them to promote and maintain a healthy environment within working, living and recreational contexts.  Students will be able to practice professional behaviour within the scope of practice of the environmental health practitioner, participate in the implementation of the core package of environmental health in the delivery of environmental health services as determined by the Ministry of Health, and manage required activities in the application of the defined scope of practice. The programme includes a substantial element of work integrated learning, especially in meat science, and requires conducting and reporting supervised research in order to adequately prepare students for entry into the profession. Graduates will be able to function as members of multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral teams.

The MPhil in Applied Sciences – Environmental Health aims at developing the candidates’ scientific competencies and research skills to enable them to identify critical issues in public and private sector requiring science research-based solutions, and, ability to carry out complex scientific research to completion that effectively informs policy and develop solutions for emerging challenges in environmental health. 

Relatedly, the MPhil in Applied Sciences – Environmental Sanitation aims at developing the candidates’ scientific competencies and research skills to enable them to identify critical issues in the public and private sector requiring science research-based solutions, and, ability to carry out complex scientific research to completion that effectively informs policy and develop solutions for emerging challenges in environmental science.

Together with the Department of Language and Communication, the Department of Environmental Health also offers the Master’s in Health and Behaviour Change Communication (MHBCC). 

Both the PhD in Applied Sciences – Environmental Sanitation and the PhD. in Applied Sciences—Public Health Engineering aim to develop the candidates’

scientific competencies and research skills to enable them to identify critical issues in the public and private sector requiring scientific research-based solutions and the ability to carry out complex scientific research to completion that effectively informs policy and develops solutions for emerging challenges in environmental science. 

Other Ventures

The academic members of staff in the Department are among the most professionally active at Poly. Besides teaching, they also carry out consultancies and research. Moreover, their research is very relevant and applicable on the ground where it matters. In this vein, they work in collaboration with researchers at the Centre for Water, Sanitation, Health & Appropriate Technology Development (WASHTED), also based at the Polytechnic.