Course syllabus
MPH212 - Health equality and the right to health
Course dates: 5 November 2025 - 18 January, 2026
Course registration (via Ladok): 29 October - 12 November
Remember to activate your student account: Student account activation.
Welcome to the course Health Equality and the Right to Health!
This 7.5-credit course explores how health inequalities arise, persist, and can be addressed – with a particular focus on human rights and the right to health.
Our ambition is to give you:
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A critical understanding of the complexity of health inequalities.
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Insight into how concepts, theories, and frameworks shape both understanding and action.
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An introduction to the right to health as a legal and public health concept, including its opportunities and challenges.
The course does not aim to make you an expert in all areas. Instead, it provides a foundation and critical lens to build on in later courses and in your future public health career.
Course overview
The course examines key public health concepts – vulnerability, power, health behavior, politics, gender, and commercial determinants of health – and how they affect both outcomes and possible interventions. We also explore human rights and the right to health: what this means legally and politically, and how it may support or complicate efforts to reduce inequalities.
Teaching and learning
The course is built on student-centred learning (SCL):
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Active participation is essential.
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You are expected to read, reflect, and connect theory with your own experiences.
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Much learning happens in in your own reading and note taking, joint discussions, workshops, and reflections.
More details on pedagogy and structure are in the module Course information.
Course themes
Based on the learning objectives (see syllabus), the course has three interconnected themes:
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Conceptual and theoretical perspectives
– Power, vulnerability, behavior, politics, gender, and commercial determinants of health.
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Human rights and the right to health
– Legal standards, non-discrimination, rights of specific groups, and tensions between human rights and public health goals.
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From theory to practice
– Translating concepts and rights into public health policy and interventions.
Contact information
Course leader: Jesper Löve jesper.love@gu.se
Course administrator: Teresa Petersson publichealth@medicin.gu.se Please write the course code in the subject line when sending an e-mail!
Course information
- Course syllabus
- Literature list
- Course schedule (subject to change, please pay attention to announcements on Canvas)
MPH212 is a required course as part of the Masters in Public Health Science, and is also available as a stand alone course. To make it possible for program students to also follow MPH213 these courses will run in parallel every second week (see preliminary schedule above but also the "Weekly timetable in the module "Course information").
Use of Generative AI
The Programme recently adopted a policy on the use of generative AI. It is very important that you carefully read this document to understand what applies.