Global Women's Health (Taught)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.

The MSc in Global Women's Health is a two-year, part-time course, taught online with two one-week residentials in Oxford.

The MSc in Global Women's Health is is delivered online on a part-time basis and is intended for clinicians and non-clinicians, including policymakers, researchers, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and programme managers from donor organisations working in the field of women’s health.

It provides a comprehensive understanding of the practical and theoretical aspects of global women's health ensuring high-quality, person-centred and intersectional approaches to women’s health in line with the United Nation's Goals for Sustainable Development.

Women experience specific biological and gender-related challenges that can impact on their health, including sexuality, pregnancy, menopause chronic diseases, cancers and their socioeconomic and cultural development. Historically, women have been under-represented in drug-development, clinical trials, large-scale databases powering artificial intelligence algorithms, and policymaking. Collectively, this has resulted in widening health and social inequalities on a global scale. The strategies and methods that could be used to improve the health of women and achieve gender equity in health, span several disciplines, and are not usually taught in a systematic manner.

The MSc in Global Women's Health is innovative, multidisciplinary and utilizes an online and blended learning approach. Modules are led by Oxford and international experts, ensuring that the course has a specific global outlook on how we can tackle the major current issues in global women's health. The course is delivered on a part-time basis over two-years, allowing those working in low-, middle-income and high-income settings to study flexibly alongside their work and family commitments.

The overall aim of the MSc in Global Women's Health is to provide in-depth training in the principles and practice of women's health in a variety of global contexts, to nurture an interdisciplinary forum to develop future leaders in global health. The course will equip students with research, advocacy, leadership and policymaking skills so that our graduates can implement and effect local change, ultimately improving health outcomes for women globally.

Course structure
Details of the core and option modules, and other compulsory elements of the course, are provided in the Course components section of this page.

The course is completed over a 24-month period and consists of five core compulsory modules. In addition, you will select two optional modules from a list of six for further study. The modules vary in length from between 4 weeks to 11 weeks.

The course is designed to support you with flexible part-time study; therefore, lecture delivery will consist of pre-recorded lectures that introduce and explore important concepts and current literature. 'Live' online sessions which will take place, typically at weekly intervals during taught modules to allow engagement. This will be supported by one-week residential courses in Oxford at the beginning of both years 1 and 2.

The course will be taught by a multi-disciplinary team of Oxford staff and international co-leads to fully encompass the global context of women's health. Teaching will include recorded lectures, live discussions, problem-based learning in groups and individually as well as personal reading time.