Bachelor of Arts (Joint Honours) in Philosophy and Political Science

at University of Ottawa Canada

The MPH is a course-based program with an experiential learning component (Public Health Practicum) and a culminating experience (Applied Public Health Capstone Project) which demonstrates integration and synthesis of public health skills and knowledge. It is to be completed full-time over 4 terms.

The MPH builds on SEPH’s existing strengths in global health, population health risk assessment, and empirical public health sciences. The content and structure of the program are also consistent with the Canadian Guidelines for MPH programs developed by the Network of Schools and Programs of Public and Population Health, the entity which represents the professional and academic public health community in Canada.

Areas of Focus
Students will opt into one of four areas in which to focus their learning:

• Public Health Practice
• Public Health Policy
• Global Health
• Population Health Risk Assessment.

Enhanced Policy Training
We are partnered with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs so that the MPH program can offer enhanced policy training to all enrolled students, and a policy stream that is unique in Ontario. This program will create leaders in the practice of public health and in public health policy analysis.

Program Goals
The MPH program will produce professionals who are competent, flexible, and ready to respond to diverse and changing population, disease, and political contexts in Canada and globally. In short it will prepare candidates for meaningful professional careers in the field of public health. 

The program has three goals:

• Prepare leaders for strong and professional public health practice and policy work in Canada and globally.
• For graduates planning a professional public health practice career, ensure a superior understanding of the policy perspective
• For graduates planning a public health policy career, ensure a superior understanding of the scientific evidence perspective.

Healthcare systems are undergoing unprecedented transformation fuelled by the digitization of services and investments in health information technologies. Our option in Healthcare Analytics is a field built on the crucial role that data, systems engineering, management, and organizational innovation play in improving the quality and timeliness of service delivery in a high performing healthcare system. This field answers a need to develop expertise to create the research and training capabilities required for transforming healthcare into a system that adheres to the principles of patient-centered care and participatory medicine.

Mathematics and statistics are not only powerful problem-solving tools, but also highly creative fields of studies that combine imagination with logic, and precision with intuition. 

Mathematics is much more than numbers! Its basic goal is to reveal and model general patterns to help explain our world, whether they be found in electrical impulses in the human nervous system, the evolution of animal populations in their habitats, fluctuations in stock-market prices, or electronic communications. Mathematics reaches far beyond science and engineering into medicine, business and the social sciences. 

Advances in mathematics and statistics lie behind many discoveries that are now part of our daily lives, such as MRI scanners, digital compression of music and video, secure electronic communications, data mining, genomic algorithms, futures pricing, and many other innovations. 

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics offers Honours, majors and minors both in mathematics and in statistics. Our Honours program in statistics is accredited by the Statistical Society of Canada, allowing graduates to earn the A.Stat. professional designation. Moreover, the Department offers a joint honours program in mathematics and economics, a joint honours program in mathematics and computer science, as well as a multidisciplinary program in financial mathematics and economics. All our honours programs also include the co-operative education option.

The BA in Interdisciplinary Studies program is meant for you. It is flexible and provide you not only with a solid general education in a setting known for its vibrancy, but also with the opportunity to take a range of courses in Arts-specific fields (fine arts, humanities, languages and literatures) or even in other faculties. You can also do a minor – but it is not compulsory – in a specific subject, like foreign languages, art history, music, theatre, communication, history, geography, religious studies, linguistics, etc.

Environmental Science is the interdisciplinary study of the environment, its functioning and its relationship to human activities. 

The Environmental Science program at the University of Ottawa focuses on the integration of traditional science disciplines (e.g. biology, earth sciences, chemistry, physics) to study the natural environment and the impact of human activities. The program consists of a core of basic science courses complemented by courses in various disciplines that address the scientific and societal aspects of environmental problems. In addition, the program offers three areas of specialization: conservation and biodiversity; global change; and environmental geochemistry and ecotoxicology. The final year entails an independent research project or equivalent units in advanced courses in the specialization.

Journalism is currently undergoing a digital shift (Internet, mobile and tablet technology, data journalism), driving change in journalistic practice and forcing practitioners to develop new skills techniques and approaches. Today's journalists need to fill a diversity of roles, requiring not only a good understanding of emerging social trends, but also specialized expertise and knowledge. 

With this program, students (future digital journalists) will better understand the challenges related to journalism in the Digital Age, in order to help them enter the fast-changing media industry. Upon graduation, you will be qualified for an exciting career as a journalist, researcher, presenter, media analyst, producer, etc. 

The Department of Communication offers the Honours Bachelor in Digital Journalism jointly with Algonquin College (in English) and with La Cité (in French). Courses at the Department of Communication will provide theoretical, analytical and critical foundations, while courses at the College will focus on practical training. Combining both theory and practice, this training is bound to give you a head start.

Politics is omnipresent in our lives. Political science seeks to describe, analyze, understand and assess the principles and power relations that govern social life. It revolves as much around the structures and institutions that define these relations and principles as around the ideas and practices that drive them. It studies everything that influences political life and institutions (ideologies, groups, social movements, etc.) on a local, regional, national and international scale.

Our programs offer in-depth training in political science and encourage critical reflection on pivotal issues like citizenship, identity, political participation, globalization and development, governance and the state, and ethics and democracy. A discipline open to many theoretical and methodological approaches, political science constantly exchanges and shares with other fields. At the University of Ottawa's School of Political Studies, you build your knowledge in four subfields of political science: political thought, Canadian and Quebec politics, comparative politics, and international relations and global politics.

Communication
Ours is the communication and information age. Analyzing how information is gathered, produced and distributed today helps us understand the communication processes that drive a variety of settings: social, cultural, political, organizational, economic and legal. In this program, you will develop critical and analytical skills in order to evaluate the nature and impact of technology and media on society, organizations and interpersonal relations. You will have the opportunity to be exposed to the latest developments in the field of communication (communication strategies, digital media, evolution of the media industry, advertising, crisis communications, negotiations, etc.). The Department of Communication offers courses in two main areas: media studies and organizational communication (internal and external communication in public and private organizations, health communication, organizational change, etc.). Combining theory and practice, our programs develop your critical and analytical skills and prepare you either for a professional career or for advanced studies.

Sociology
Sociology involves the study of societies, specifically their institutions, cultures, and transformations. Sociologists seek to uncover the processes, rules, and norms that govern social relations. They seek to understand issues such as the origins and consequences of social inequalities and collective behaviours. In our programs, students have the opportunity to apply theoretical approaches to real-world cases and learn how to use research tools such as interviewing, discourse analysis, surveys, and statistical analyses. The connection between theory and research enables students to understand a range of contemporary social issues, such as poverty, ethnic relations, deviance, gender relations, international development, power, and technology.

Philosophy
Since it deals mainly with issues that have no simple solutions, philosophy emphasizes the exchange of ideas and debate, and thus cultivates an appetite for deep and serious reflection. By reading and discussing the works of the world's great thinkers on fundamental topics like truth, justice, morality and existence, you sharpen your own ability to think clearly, critically and independently. The Department's curriculum has a twin approach, historical and analytical, and covers political and social philosophy, ethics, philosophy of science, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and logic. 

Political Science
Politics is omnipresent in our lives. Political science seeks to describe, analyze, understand and assess the principles and power relations that govern social life. It revolves as much around the structures and institutions that define these relations and principles as around the ideas and practices that drive them. It studies everything that influences political life and institutions (ideologies, groups, social movements, etc.) on a local, regional, national and international scale.

Our programs offer in-depth training in political science and encourage critical reflection on pivotal issues like citizenship, identity, political participation, globalization and development, governance and the state, and ethics and democracy. A discipline open to many theoretical and methodological approaches, political science constantly exchanges and shares with other fields. At the University of Ottawa's School of Political Studies, you build your knowledge in four subfields of political science: political thought, Canadian and Quebec politics, comparative politics, and international relations and global politics.

Building on a solid foundation of traditional engineering skills, this program covers many different aspects of computer software and hardware design, and allows for more specialized studies in microprocessor-based systems, computer architecture, programming concepts, real-time operating systems, software engineering and robotics. This program provides multiple paths to a variety of careers.