Global Health & Social Medicine

Global health and social medicine is a discipline that asks why health is distributed so unequally across and within societies, and what we need to understand in order to change that. Where clinical medicine focuses on treating individuals, global health and social medicine takes a population-level and structural view, examining how poverty, inequality, colonialism, political systems, trade, and cultural norms shape who gets sick, who receives care, and who lives or dies. It draws on epidemiology, sociology, anthropology, history, economics, and public policy to build a genuinely interdisciplinary understanding of health in its broadest sense.

At King's College London, this three-year, full-time programme invites you to engage with urgent questions about health and wellbeing disparities around the world, at both local and global scales. You will examine the social determinants of health, the politics of healthcare systems, the role of international institutions in shaping health policy, and the ethical dimensions of global health practice. The programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to study in a different health system and encounter the global inequalities you are studying in direct and concrete terms.

King's location at the centre of one of the world's greatest cities and a leading biomedical research hub provides an exceptional environment for this kind of learning.

A typical entry tariff of 136 points reflects a programme that expects serious academic engagement. Graduates from global health and social medicine programmes go on to careers in global health organisations, public health agencies, health policy, international development, the civil service, non-governmental organisations, journalism, and academic research. The degree is also an excellent foundation for postgraduate study in public health, epidemiology, global health, health policy, or social medicine, and for graduate entry to medicine or other health professions, particularly for those who want to combine clinical practice with a deep understanding of the social and political determinants of health.