Hilary Awuah MSc Public Health , 2013

MSc student, Commonwealth Shared Scholarship Scheme

Hi, I'm Hilary Awuah and I studied MSc Public Health within Health Sciences at the University of Southampton.

Studying here has been a wonderful experience so far. I’ve gained a lot from the course and the NHS about social policy. I hope to take this knowledge back to Ghana where I work as an NGO to affect policy in health and social care.

It was the prestige as well as the quality of education that first attracted me to the UK.  I'd read a lot about the University of Southampton in particular before researching the modules on offer here.

In my home country of Ghana I work for an NGO educating the many poorer people about good health practice such as sanitation.  It was working in this role when I realised we could do so much more for the population with the right knowledge.

I am fortunate to have been assisted by a Commonwealth Shared Scholarship scheme to help me study this year-long masters degree.  The scheme helps outstanding academic students from developing Commonwealth countries develop vital expertise.  

My purpose whilst I'm here is to learn more about the UK's health systems and social policy, with the aim of returning to Ghana with structured and sound ideas on how to affect policy within health.

So far it's been an incredibly worthwhile experience. My tutors are fantastic, and teach with real passion, and my programme leads are incredibly helpful.

I'm learning a huge amount from the NHS organisational structure as it's so unique and has a very different set of social policies to those in my home country.