Health Promotion (BHP)
In one of Canada’s few dedicated Health Promotion degrees, learn to improve community well-being through prevention, education, programming, research, and policy, guided by a social justice and equity lens and a population health approach.
Why choose this program?
Health promotion is about strengthening the health and well-being of people and their communities. In our program, unique in Canada and accredited by the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE), you'll learn to change the conditions that shape health, not just treat their consequences, before illness or injury occurs.
We accept only 50 students each year, so from day one you'll form close ties with your professors and classmates in small, collaborative classes.
You’ll learn alongside students in other health programs through interprofessional health education, and connect and collaborate with experts in the field and community agencies. You can also shape your degree around your interests by adding a global experience through study abroad, or by completing a minor or certificate.
In your final year, a 14-week internship takes you out of the classroom and into a real workplace. Our students have completed placements with agencies around the world.
Prefer research? Our honours option pairs you with a faculty mentor to research and write a thesis. Past honours students have tackled topics from e-bike use to gambling to teenage pregnancy.
Careers
As a health promotion promoter, you'll build the field's core competencies: enabling change, advocating for health, mediating through partnership, communication and leadership. You'll learn to assess a community's needs and assets, plan and implement health promotion programs, and evaluate what works.
You can put those skills to work wherever health is shaped: government and public health agencies, community organizations, non-profits, research institutes, and private industry. Because health promotion crosses sectors, your career can move between local, national, and global settings or continue into graduate study in health, policy, or administration.
What you will learn
Your four years start with the foundations, how health systems work, what determines health, and how to communicate about it, alongside anatomy, physiology, and sociology. After first year, required courses mix with a wide range of electives so you can shape the degree around the health issues you care about. Your final semester is spent in your internship, applying it all.
Sample courses
- Introduction to Health Promotion
- Introduction to Health Systems
- Determinants of Health
- Human Anatomy and Physiology
- Health Promotion Policy
- Human Growth and Development
- Program Planning and Evaluation
- Environmental Health
- Mental Health Promotion
- Human Nutrition
- Community Health Promotion Strategiest
- Human Sexuality
- Critical Approaches to Health Promotion Comprehensive School Health Promotion
A semester in the field
Your final year includes a full-semester, 14-week internship with a health organization, a government agency, community group, school board, non-profit, or research team. Our students have completed placements with agencies across Nova Scotia, Canada, and around the world, applying their classroom knowledge and building the professional networks that often help launch a career in the field. Throughout your degree, you'll also take part in interprofessional learning experiences with students from across the Faculties of Health, Dentistry, and Medicine.
Customize your degree
After first year, electives let you tailor the degree to your interests, where you can select courses in areas from mental health promotion to environmental health to substance use policy. You can add an optional minor or certificate from across Dalhousie, apply for the honors option in your third year to research and write a thesis with a faculty mentor, and take your learning around the world through a study abroad semester.
Choose the option that’s best for you.
- Psychology and Environment
- Sustainability and Society
- Medical Humanities
- Disability Management
- Entrepreneurship & Innovation
- Emergency Health Services Management (or Planning)
- Environment, Sustainability & Society
- Intercultural Communication
Required, a 14-week placement in your final year.
Join graduates who are making a difference in the health of communities locally, nationally, and globally. You’ll be ready to reduce health inequities and launch your career or further studies in health promotion or other allied health fields.
Admission requirements
Minimum admission requirements
To be considered for admission to this program, you must meet minimum academic criteria:
- Completion of secondary school (Grade 12)
- Achievement of the minimum average for your program of choice.
- Completion of Grade 12 English (or equivalent course).
Admission to many Dalhousie programs is competitive. This means that meeting minimum requirements does not guarantee admission.
Program-specific admission requirements
Minimum overall average: 70%
Academic English 12 (min. 70%)
Four additional academic subjects
Need Pre-Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, or another admission requirement? Our online, self-paced UPrep courses can help you earn the prerequisite you need, upgrade your marks, and build confidence before starting your degree at Dal. Explore UPrep courses.
