UMB has got its professor of public health science
Janne Brodin (English translation Ane Skjelfjord)
Camilla Ihlebæk, one of those responsible for the very successful Master degree in public health science at UMB, has been promoted from assistant professor to professor. A staggering 199 prospective students had applied for this study as their first priority.
This makes the 35 seat programme the most sought-after Master study at UMB in 2010. This was also the case in 2009.
Health UMB (Helse UMB) and the Master study in public health science was started for a 5 year test period, and has been so successful that it is now a permanent study programme. Since the start, the number of students has skyrocketed.
Camilla Ihlebæk
Photo: Janne Brodin
Interdisciplinary background Camilla Ihlebæk is a cand.scient of biology from the University of Bergen (UiB), where her focus was on insect studies. “Chance” got her involved in research on human health issues at the UiB faculty of psychology.
In 2002, she defended her doctoral thesis, “Epidemiological studies of subjective health complaints”, and was subsequently employed as a researcher at Uni research/Uni health (previously Unifob). She still holds a secondary 20% position there.
Ihlebæk has also worked for 5 years at the University of Oslo, Department of health and society, before she came to IHA/UMB as an assistant professor in the spring of 2008.
Draws on UMB’s wide expertise Health UMB has two research groups: “Food and health” and “Nature, health and quality of life”. Ihlebæk heads the second group, which is composed of about 30 researchers from various UMB departments.
Animal – human interactions, environmental psychology (how nature and natural elements affect human beings) and land use planning to foster physical activity are the three main themes of “Nature, health and quality of life”.
Photo: Bente Berget
- There are other educational institutions in Norway which offer education within environment and the outdoor life, but the research that is carried out at UMB on the themes of “Nature, health and quality of life” are at the forefront, among other reasons because of the wealth of experience we have on animal-human interactions, says Ihlebæk.
She believes that UMB has a large potential for amassing more knowledge related to human beings and their health.
- This is the idea behind Health UMB, and there is a lot of competence here which is important to public health. The programme is still young, but we are developing fast, and our aim is to become an international center, says Ihlebæk.
A “green” public health Master The new Master programme is a relatively traditional public health science programme, but as is reflected in the subtitle “Nature and environment, health and quality of life”, it keeps a firm focus on UMB’s “green” sciences.
- This means that we strive to incorporate “green thinking” in our public health thinking.
The students find us by themselves With 5 to 6 applicants for each seat, Ihlebæk considers it a privilege and very rewarding working on the Master programme.
- With this kind of competition for the seats, we get very good, highly qualified and highly committed students. We are also lucky in that health is a “hot” issue these days. It is obvious that there is an unmet demand for this knowledge and that word of the study programme is spreading, says Ihlebæk.
The students’ backgrounds are varied. Some are relatively fresh from school, whereas others have been working for some time and are ready for more education. When the students start the Master, they already have a background as e.g. nurses, physiotherapists, ergo therapists, teachers, social workers, social scientists, within sports, or they have a relevant bachelor’s degree from UMB.
- With students bringing so many different viewpoints and work experience, it is a lot of fun and very exciting to be a teacher, Ihlebæk concludes.
Besides teaching, supervising students working on their Master theses and heading the research group “Nature, health and quality of life”, Ihlebæk participates in several of the group’s research projects.
PhD in public health science There is work underfoot at UMB to establish a PhD degree in public health science. With the new professor, yet another building block in this project is in place.
