95739 Sustainability in Public Health
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · Spring 202695739 Overview
- University of Technology Sydney
- Spring 2026
- Health and Medicine
- Online modules with weekly tutorials
- Three coursework assessment tasks
What the subject is about
Sustainability in Public Health at the University of Technology Sydney is designed to equip you to create sustainable public health systems.
- Assessed by Four case study quizzes (40% together), an individual Research Paper (30%) and a group presentation with an abstract (25% and 5%).
- Hardest step Moving from describing a topic to analysing it: the Research Paper rubric rewards synthesis of trends and gaps, and proposals backed by evidence.
- Do first Learn the SDG targets, the four Sendai priorities and the five transdisciplinary principles well enough to apply them to a new case.
- Watch the clock You need attendance at 80% or more of tutorials to pass, and the group handouts and abstract are due the night before the Week 12 presentations.
How 95739 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment Task 1: Case Study Analyses (Tasks A to D) | 40% | Four ten-question multiple-choice quizzes on case studies. Tasks A, B and C are each worth 10%: Task A in class in Week 2 (Orlundia maternal health case), Task B in class in Week 5 (an epidemiology diversity paper), Task C online with a 60-minute limit by the end of Week 8 (the Libyan floods). Task D runs in Week 11 on two video case studies. |
| Assessment Task 2: Research Paper | 30% | Individual essay of up to 1,000 words, excluding references, on one prescribed topic for a region or country outside Australia: introduction, literature review, innovative approaches and conclusion. The Canvas page shows 11.59 pm on 21 September; the brief text says Friday 11 September (Week 7). |
| Assessment Task 3A: Group Presentation | 25% | Groups of 3 to 4 propose a sustainable initiative for one listed health issue: a 10-minute presentation plus 2 minutes of questions in the Week 12 tutorial on 22 October, with handouts (slides and speaker notes) due 11.59 pm on 21 October. |
| Assessment Task 3B: Abstract | 5% | Group abstract of no more than 200 words, with no references, for a hypothetical global public health convention. Due 11.59 pm on 21 October. |
Weights come from the assessment overview and each task’s Canvas page: 40% for the four case study analyses, with Tasks A, B and C each at 10%, 30% for the Research Paper, and 30% for the group project, split 25% presentation and 5% abstract. The Task D quiz page was not available here, so confirm its timing on Canvas, and check the Research Paper date there too, since its page shows 21 September on the submission panel and 11 September in the brief. To pass the subject you also need attendance at no fewer than 80% of tutorials. The Week 1 page warns that missing the Task A quiz brings a Fail (Z) grade unless special consideration is approved.
Assessment structure
Current 95739 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| 6 August, 9.00 am | Assessment 1 Task A quiz | Week 2, in class; you may bring a printout of the case with handwritten notes. |
| 27 August, 9.00 am | Assessment 1 Task B quiz | Week 5, in class, on the Week 3 epidemiology case. |
| 14 to 25 September | Assessment 1 Task C quiz (online) | Opens 12.00 pm on 14 September and closes 11.59 pm on 25 September; 60-minute time limit. |
| 21 September, 11.59 pm | Assessment 2: Research Paper due | Date on the Canvas submission panel; the brief text says Friday 11 September (Week 7). |
| 21 October, 11.59 pm | Assessment 3: handouts and abstract due | Slides with speaker notes as PDF or .doc, and the 200-word abstract. |
| 22 October | Assessment 3A group presentations | In the Week 12 tutorials. |
Dates are as published in the Canvas assignment and quiz pages and the Week 1 and Week 11 module pages for the Spring 2026 offering. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What 95739 covers
95739 runs across the Spring 2026 weeks as a sequence of modules, each written by a different UTS academic.
Weeks 1 and 4 set out sustainability, the SDGs and the history and theory behind them, Week 2 turns to globalisation, Week 3 to biostatistics and epidemiology, Week 5 to wokeness and politics, Week 6 to the Research Paper, Week 7 to Indigenous knowledges, Week 8 to disaster preparedness and Week 9 to transdisciplinary problem solving.
The mark comes from four case study quizzes worth 40% in total, a Research Paper worth 30% and a group project worth 30%.
Sustainability, the SDGs and Public Health
sustainability and its three dimensions, the SDGs as interconnected goals, universality and equity, how the public health profession advances the goals (Week 1)Sustainability in this subject
Week 1 defines sustainability as meeting present needs without compromising future generations, across environmental, social and economic dimensions, and treats human and planetary health as interdependent.
The goals as a system
The 17 SDGs, adopted in 2015 for 2030, come with targets and indicators and rest on universality and equity.
- Three dimensions of sustainability
- Human and planetary health as interdependent
- The 17 SDGs with targets and indicators
- Universality and equity
- SDG interconnections and leverage points
- Roles of public health practitioners
From Silent Spring to the SDGs
early civilisations, the post-war boom, Silent Spring, Stockholm 1972, the Brundtland Commission, the MDGs and why the SDGs replaced them (Weeks 1 and 4)Practice before the word
The Week 4 lecture shows early sustainable practice among the Aztecs, in Buddhist and Jain conservation and in African land management, alongside the deforestation and soil loss of ancient empires.
The modern path
Post-war growth brought environmental damage; Silent Spring, environmental movements, the 1972 Stockholm conference and the 1983 Brundtland Commission led to the definition of sustainable development and Agenda 21.
From MDGs to SDGs
The Millennium goals of 2000 were criticised for gaps and a narrow focus; the 2015 SDGs set 17 goals and 169 targets for every country.
Why the history matters
Knowing which earlier frameworks stalled, and why, gives you a test for any new plan: who it covers, who shaped it, and what it leaves out.
- Sustainable practice in early civilisations
- Unsustainable practice in ancient empires
- The Golden Age of Capitalism
- Silent Spring and environmental movements
- Stockholm 1972 and the Brundtland Commission
- MDGs, their critics and the SDGs
Maternal and Child Health and SDG 3 Targets
the Orlundia case, Targets 3.1 and 3.7, links to poverty and gender equality, mobile clinics and antenatal care, progress data (Assessment 1A)The case
Assessment 1A sets a fictional country, Orlundia, where rural and marginalised women lack prenatal care and trained staff.
- The Orlundia case and Sarah’s barriers
- Targets 3.1 and 3.7
- Mobile clinics, antenatal care and education
- Emotional support and peer groups
- Links to SDG 1 and SDG 5
- Global maternal and child mortality data
Globalisation, Migration and Health Partnerships
globalisation as a determinant of health, migrant health and the Global Compact for Migration, SDG 17 and global partnerships (Week 2)Globalisation and health
Week 2 uses Huynen and colleagues’ framework: globalisation works at the contextual level and reaches health through distal and proximal determinants.
Migration
More than 258 million people live outside their country of birth.
- Globalisation as a determinant of health
- Contextual, distal and proximal determinants
- Migration benefits and harms
- The Global Compact for Migration
- Culturally accessible health messaging
- Low-wage migrant workers and social determinants
Co-design and Intersectionality in Epidemiology
sustainability in biostatistics and epidemiology, co-design with communities, workforce diversity, whom epidemiologists count, imputation and weighting (Week 3, Assessment 1B)Sustainability inside the discipline
Week 3 argues that epidemiology and biostatistics must account for environmental change and integrate social determinants with ecological factors, which most benefits vulnerable populations.
Co-design
Co-design involves affected communities in every stage of research, as the oral health study with Aboriginal communities did through consultation, adapted surveys and yarning circles.
Whom and which epidemiologists count
Doan and colleagues show how fixed categories, additive interaction terms, imputation and weighting can hide people, and how a narrow workforce shapes what is studied.
Why it matters for practice
Research that counts people accurately, and is shaped by them, produces interventions that fit their lives; the Task B quiz tests exactly these arguments.
- Sustainability as a framework in epidemiology
- Co-design across the research process
- The Aboriginal oral health study
- Workforce diversity and sustainability
- Predetermined categories and nonresponse
- Intersectionality and the interaction term
Wokeness, Politics and Public Health
where the term woke comes from, the case for and the case against in public health practice, politics and evidence (Week 5)Where the term came from
Week 5 traces woke to 20th-century African American usage, its adoption by activists in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and its recent export from American politics to Australia.
Two cases
The case for links it to structural inequality, social determinants and culturally competent care.
- Origins of the term woke
- Its spread into Australian debate
- The case for in public health
- The case against in public health
- Evidence, politics and population practice
- Shared ground between the two cases
Indigenous Knowledges and Sustainable Health
social and emotional wellbeing domains, Brewarrina fish traps, the Tiwi consultation case, Martuwarra, sustainable self-determination, NHMRC core values (Week 7)A holistic view
Week 7 presents Indigenous sustainability as reciprocal relationships with all life, and social and emotional wellbeing as connection to body, mind, family, community, culture, country and spirituality.
Knowledge in action
The Brewarrina fish traps, the Fitzroy River Declaration and the Tiwi consultation case show sustainable practice, cultural governance and the cost of failing to consult.
Moving forward
Corntassel’s sustainable self-determination, the NHMRC core values and Indigenous leadership on climate guide professional action.
- Indigenous peoples and the planetary health crisis
- Social and emotional wellbeing domains
- Brewarrina fish traps
- Martuwarra and the Fitzroy River Declaration
- The Tiwi consultation case
- NHMRC core values for ethical action
The Research Paper: Literature Review to Innovation
prescribed topics, narrowing a research question, search terms, synthesis of trend, difference and gap, innovative approaches, the rubric (Week 6, Assessment 2)The task
An individual essay of up to 1,000 words on one prescribed topic for a region outside Australia, moving from a literature review to innovative, evidence-based approaches.
The method
The Week 6 workshop narrows a topic into a bounded question, uses AI to support thinking, records sources in a table, and turns summary into synthesis of trends, differences and gaps.
The marks
The rubric weights reasoning and contribution at 30 of 100 points, and markers praised critical comparison, equity and sustainability carried throughout.
- Prescribed topics and the outside-Australia rule
- Guiding structure and word budget
- Rubric criteria and bands
- Narrowing a research question
- Using AI to support thinking
- Synthesis: trend, difference, gap
Climate Disasters, Preparedness and the Sendai Framework
health impacts of climate change, disasters and emergencies, the prepare and respond cycle, the four Sendai priorities, Hurricane Katrina, the Libyan floods (Week 8, Assessment 1C)Climate and health
Week 8 shows climate change driving extreme weather that harms health directly, through deaths and disease, and indirectly, through conflict and migration, with vulnerable communities hit hardest.
Preparedness
Disasters and emergencies differ; preparedness, mitigation and risk reduction are built before an event, yet most money still goes to response.
The Sendai Framework
Four priorities, understanding risk, governance, investment and preparedness to Build Back Better, frame the analysis of Hurricane Katrina and the Libyan floods.
- Health impacts of climate change
- Disaster and emergency defined
- Preparedness, mitigation and risk reduction
- Spending on response versus prevention
- The four Sendai priorities
- Build Back Better
Transdisciplinarity, Complex Systems and Design
five transdisciplinary principles, simple and complex systems, emergence, problem and solution spaces, divergent and convergent thinking (Week 9)Transdisciplinary work
Week 9 defines transdisciplinarity as reflexive, problem-driven collaboration across disciplines and with people outside research, guided by five principles.
Complex systems
In complex systems cause and effect are clear only in retrospect, patterns emerge and shift, and the whole cannot be read from its parts.
Design thinking
The double diamond explores the problem space and the solution space in turn, moving between divergent and convergent thinking, as in the module’s obesity example.
Where it leads
The same process supports the group project: define the problem with the people affected before choosing an initiative, and keep testing it as you learn.
- Defining transdisciplinarity
- Five transdisciplinary principles
- Simple and complex systems
- Emergence
- Problem space and solution space
- Divergent and convergent thinking
Designing a Sustainable Public Health Initiative
choosing an issue, reviewing interventions, proposing and evaluating an initiative, the 200-word abstract, presentation criteria, AI and ethics (Week 11, Assessment 3)The brief
Groups of three to four propose a sustainable initiative for one listed global health issue, review the literature and existing interventions, justify a better-suited approach and plan its evaluation.
The deliverables
A ten-minute presentation with two minutes of questions and a final reference slide, handouts with speaker notes, and a 200-word abstract without references.
The marks
Presentation content earns 15 points, presentation skills 10 and the abstract 5, making up the 30% weight.
- The list of public health challenges
- Reviewing the population and the issue
- Reviewing existing sustainable interventions
- Proposing and justifying an initiative
- Planning evaluation
- Presentation content and skills criteria
Interview Skills, Career Pitching and Reflection
researching a role, first impressions, the career pitch, the STAR method, Gibbs reflective cycle and good time journaling (UTS Careers module)Preparing
The UTS Careers module asks you to research the job description, skills, role and culture, and to manage first impressions in person and online.
Answering
Introductory questions open the interview and call for a career pitch; behavioural questions form the bulk and are best answered with STAR stories from real experience.
Reflecting
Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle and good time journaling turn experiences, including interviews and work placements, into learning you can describe to employers.
Why it sits in this subject
The module prepares you to describe your public health skills to employers, and its reflection tools also help you learn from assessment feedback during the session.
- Researching the job and organisation
- First impressions in person and online
- Introductory questions and the career pitch
- Behavioural questions
- The STAR method
- Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle
It builds on what you already know from biostatistics, health promotion, epidemiology and health psychology, and asks how sustainability principles can be applied in practice.
Sustainability here means meeting today’s needs while leaving future generations able to meet theirs, across three linked dimensions: a sustainable environment, equity in society and an economy that remains viable.
How the weeks build
The subject is taught in blended mode, with self-directed online modules on Canvas and weekly on-campus tutorials rather than scheduled lectures, and each module is developed by a different UTS academic.
Week 1 introduces the Sustainable Development Goals and the role of the public health profession, and Week 4 returns to the history and theory of sustainability, from early civilisations to the Brundtland Commission. Week 2 considers globalisation, migration and international partnerships. Week 3 looks at sustainability in biostatistics and epidemiology, including co-design and the question of whom epidemiologists count.
Week 5 examines the debate over wokeness and its place in public health, and Week 6 is a workshop for the Research Paper. Week 7 centres Indigenous knowledges and sustainable health systems, Week 8 covers climate disasters and the Sendai Framework, and Week 9 introduces transdisciplinary work, complex systems and design thinking.
Week 11 looks ahead to emerging trends, including artificial intelligence and ethics, and a UTS Careers module covers interview skills and reflective practice.
How you are assessed
Assessment Task 1 is a set of four case study analyses worth 40% together, each a ten-question multiple-choice quiz on a case introduced in class.
Assessment Task 2 is an individual Research Paper of up to 1,000 words worth 30%, combining a literature review with innovative approaches for a region outside Australia. Assessment Task 3 is a group project worth 30%: a ten-minute presentation of a sustainable public health initiative, worth 25%, and a 200-word abstract, worth 5%. To pass, you also need attendance at 80% or more of tutorials.
Worked example · free
Sort a flood town’s failures into the four Sendai priorities
- 1Outdated flood map: Priority 1, understanding disaster risk, which asks for data on flood plains, vulnerable people and access to services.
- 1Agencies unsure who orders evacuation: Priority 2, strengthening disaster risk governance, which covers emergency response coordination and who leads.
- 1Unrepaired levee: Priority 3, investment that reduces risk and builds resilience, including upkeep of the infrastructure that protects critical facilities.
- 1Hospital with no backup plan and an unplanned evacuation: Priority 4, enhancing preparedness for effective response, since the response was improvised.
- 1Build Back Better: rebuild the levee and the hospital’s power supply to a higher standard during recovery, and move new housing off the mapped floodplain.
Key terms
- Sustainability
- Meeting what people need now while leaving future generations able to meet their needs, across environmental, social and economic dimensions.
- Sustainable Development Goals
- The 17 linked goals the United Nations adopted in 2015, covering social, economic and environmental challenges, with 2030 as the deadline.
- Health Equity
- The principle that every person deserves a fair and equal chance to be healthy and well.
- Health Disparities
- Patterned gaps in health between groups of people, usually produced by their social, economic and environmental conditions.
- Resilience
- The ability of people, communities and systems to take a shock, adjust and recover while keeping their essential functions.
- Co-design
- A collaborative research approach in which the people affected help shape the design, data collection and interpretation of a study.
- Intersectionality
- The idea that overlapping identities such as race and gender produce experiences greater than the sum of each category.
- Disaster Risk Reduction
- Actions taken before a hazard event to reduce its impact and avert disaster, such as building codes and flood diversion.
- Preparedness
- The knowledge and capacities that governments, organisations, communities and individuals build to anticipate, respond to and recover from disasters.
- Sendai Framework
- The 2015 to 2030 United Nations framework for disaster risk reduction, with four priorities for action.
- Transdisciplinarity
- A reflexive approach to real-world problems that integrates academic disciplines with the knowledge of stakeholders outside research.
- Emergence
- The way interactions among parts of a complex system produce structures and behaviours that the parts alone do not show.
- Social and Emotional Wellbeing
- A First Nations understanding of health as connection: to body and mind, family and community, culture, land and spirit.
95739 FAQ
How is Sustainability in Public Health assessed at UTS?
Three tasks make up the mark. Four case study quizzes, held in Weeks 2, 5, 8 and 11, are worth 40% together. An individual Research Paper of up to 1,000 words is worth 30%. A group project is worth 30%, split into a ten-minute presentation worth 25% and a 200-word abstract worth 5%. A pass also requires attendance at 80% or more of tutorials.
What happens in the case study quizzes?
Each quiz has ten multiple-choice questions on a case you prepare beforehand: a fictional country’s maternal and child health challenges for Task A, a paper on diversity in epidemiology for Task B, and the 2023 Libyan floods for Task C, which runs online with a 60-minute limit. Task D draws on two video case studies released in Week 11.
What does the Research Paper ask you to write?
You choose one prescribed topic, such as active transport, sustainable food systems or water conservation, and write up to 1,000 words on a region or country outside Australia. The structure runs from introduction to literature review, innovative approaches and conclusion, and the rubric gives its largest share, 30 points, to evidence-based reasoning and contribution.
What should the group presentation and abstract include?
Groups of three to four review the literature on a population and health issue, review existing sustainable interventions, propose and justify a better-suited initiative, and explain how they would evaluate it. The talk lasts ten minutes with two minutes of questions, ends with an APA reference slide, and is paired with a 200-word abstract that contains no references.
Is tutorial attendance compulsory?
Yes. The subject pages say a pass requires attendance at 80% or more of tutorials. If illness or other circumstances outside your control stop you, you may attend the other class once or twice or complete make-up work that week, and missing more than two tutorials needs approval, such as an Application for Special Consideration.
What are the four priorities of the Sendai Framework?
Priority 1 is understanding disaster risk. Priority 2 is strengthening disaster risk governance to manage that risk. Priority 3 is investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience, such as maintaining critical facilities. Priority 4 is stronger preparedness, so the response works and recovery and rebuilding can Build Back Better; this is the frame used for the Libyan floods quiz.
Why does the subject spend a week on Indigenous knowledges?
The Week 7 module argues that Indigenous peoples hold knowledge and skills for caring for land, air and waterways, and that sustainability rests on reciprocal relationships with all life. It uses examples such as the Brewarrina fish traps and the Tiwi consultation case to show how Indigenous leadership offers sustainable approaches to health for everyone.
Questions students ask in each 95739 chapter
- What does sustainability mean in a public health context?
- It means building the principle of meeting today’s needs without harming future generations into practice, policy and interventions. Week 1 links it to equitable outcomes, resilience and action on root causes, and treats people’s health and the planet’s health as one shared task. Chapter 01 · Sustainability, the SDGs and Public Health
- What did the Brundtland Commission contribute?
- Created in 1983, it aimed to protect the environment while preventing the decline of economic and social development. Its report, Our Common Future, introduced the term sustainable development, the definition this subject still uses as its starting point. Chapter 02 · From Silent Spring to the SDGs
- Which SDG targets does the Orlundia case focus on?
- Target 3.1 on the health of mothers and children, and Target 3.7 on sexual and reproductive health services for everyone. The case also says progress on poverty, SDG 1, and gender equality, SDG 5, is critical even though their effect on maternal health is indirect. Chapter 03 · Maternal and Child Health and SDG 3 Targets
- How does globalisation affect population health?
- Huynen and colleagues argue it reshapes four groups of health determinants: institutional, economic, social-cultural and ecological. It works mainly at the contextual level, so its influence reaches people only through more distal and then more proximal factors, bringing opportunities as well as risks. Chapter 04 · Globalisation, Migration and Health Partnerships
- What is co-design in epidemiological research?
- A collaborative approach in which stakeholders, especially the people affected, take an active part in designing and running the research rather than researchers making every decision. Week 3 stresses that it applies from planning and data collection through to interpretation and translation of the results. Chapter 05 · Co-design and Intersectionality in Epidemiology
- Where does the term woke come from?
- The module explains that stay woke emerged in African American Vernacular English in the 20th century, meaning staying alert to social and political issues affecting African American communities. Activists adopted it more widely in the late 2000s and early 2010s, before it became politically contested. Chapter 06 · Wokeness, Politics and Public Health
- What are the domains of social and emotional wellbeing?
- Gee and colleagues describe seven areas of connection, from body and mind through kin and community to culture, land and spirit, set within social, historical and political determinants. Disrupted connections, many caused by colonising policies, are linked with poorer wellbeing, while restoring them supports better wellbeing. Chapter 07 · Indigenous Knowledges and Sustainable Health
- What topics can the Research Paper cover?
- One topic from the prescribed list: active transportation, sustainable food systems and nutrition, water conservation, technology and telemedicine, or integrating Indigenous knowledge. Disaster preparedness was not permitted this session. The paper must refer to one or more regions or countries outside Australia. Chapter 08 · The Research Paper: Literature Review to Innovation
- What is the difference between an emergency and a disaster?
- UNDRR describes a disaster as a serious disruption of a community or society from hazardous events interacting with exposure, vulnerability and capacity. An emergency can involve hazards that do not seriously disrupt a community, and may precede a disaster when the response is poorly prepared. Chapter 09 · Climate Disasters, Preparedness and the Sendai Framework
- What are the principles of transdisciplinary work?
- The module lists five: integrating and transcending academic disciplines, involving diverse stakeholders, focusing on real-world problems, recognising complexity, and building explicit reflexivity so that mutual learning and knowledge integration happen. Practice-based knowledge and equal partnership with participants are part of it. Chapter 10 · Transdisciplinarity, Complex Systems and Design
- How is the group project marked?
- It is worth 30%: the presentation is marked out of 25, with 15 points for content and 10 for presentation skills, and the abstract is marked out of 5. The brief describes the task as group work that is group assessed, so plan the work as one team product. Chapter 11 · Designing a Sustainable Public Health Initiative
- What is the STAR method?
- A way to structure answers to behavioural questions: describe the Situation, the Task you faced, the Actions you personally took and the Results. The module advises choosing recent, relevant and specific examples, avoiding hypothetical answers, and preparing more than one example for each likely question. Chapter 12 · Interview Skills, Career Pitching and Reflection
How to prepare for the assessments
Treat 95739 as a subject where you apply frameworks to cases, because every task asks you to do exactly that. For each week, write a one-page summary that pairs a framework with a case: the SDG targets with the Orlundia story, the Doan paper’s arguments with a research design, the four Sendai priorities with the Libyan floods, and the five transdisciplinary principles with a complex problem such as obesity.
Before each quiz, reread the preparation questions on the task page and answer them in your own words, since they show what the questions will test. For the Research Paper, narrow your topic to a question you can answer in 1,000 words, keep a table of sources with their country, main finding and limitation, and plan paragraphs that compare studies rather than summarise them one by one.
For the group project, agree the health issue early, divide the literature between members, and rehearse the ten-minute talk with a timer and likely questions. Keep your attendance at tutorials at 80% or higher. When a framework will not stick, ask Sia to quiz you with a fresh case and explain each step of your reasoning.
Your AI Health tutor for 95739
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