Bachelor Degree in Global Governance

Learning Objectives
The course aims to train students from diverse pre-university backgrounds to identify the key basic health problems within the current social and financial context and understand the main elements of global health. Students will be encouraged to advocate for appropriate solutions to improve public health sustainability and will gain a basic understanding of the economic issues related to public health.

Learning Outcomes
The course contributes to the achievement of the objectives of the degree program in line with the expected professional profiles and career opportunities, providing students with essential knowledge on current global health debates and prevention strategies.

• Knowledge and Understanding: By the end of the course, students will understand definitions of health, key demographic indicators, and the natural history of acute and chronic diseases. They will be able to differentiate between communicable and non-communicable diseases and comprehend risk factors and health determinants. Students will also grasp the challenges posed by demographic and epidemiological transitions, as well as key health economics concepts (Daly, Qaly, Global Burden of Disease).
• Applying Knowledge and Understanding: Students will be able to apply their knowledge to critically analyze global health challenges, including the burden of infectious and chronic diseases, and assess the impact of public policies and the role of international institutions (e.g., WHO) in managing pandemics and health emergencies.
• Judgment Skills: Students will develop independent judgment skills regarding the economic impact of pandemics and social inequalities on health, and critically assess health promotion policies.

No formal pre-requisites

Three interconnected modules (6 CFU, 42 hours).
1. Natural History and Global Burden of Diseases - F. Ciccacci (1 CFU, 7 hours): health definitions
and indicators; demographic determinants; acute and chronic, communicable and
non-communicable diseases; causation, risk factors and health determinants.
2. Global Health, Prevention and Promotion - S. Orlando (3 CFU, 21 hours): demographic and
epidemiological transition; global burden of disease; HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and epidemic threats;
DALYs and QALYs; health promotion and protection; economic evaluation; epidemic preparedness,
WHO and governance; warfare and health.
3. Environmental Epidemiology, Social Determinants and the Exposome - P. Vineis (2 CFU, 14
hours): population thinking, risk and causality; bias, confounding and uncertainty; lifetime exposures;
health inequalities; cohorts, monitoring, biomarkers and omics; air pollution, climate and chronic
diseases; EXPOsOMICS and LIFEPATH; evidence, prevention, ethics and policy.

Attending students: slides, handouts and readings selected by the lecturers; WHO, WHO
Europe, World Bank and OECD reports; papers for the Vineis module.
Non-attending students: one of the following manuals: Routledge Handbook of Global
Public Health (1st ed.); Guest and Ricciardi, Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice.
Other materials: https://economia.uniroma2.it/corso/materialidoc/1764/

OECD (2025). Health at a Glance 2025: OECD Indicators.
WHO (2026). World health statistics 2026: monitoring health for the SDGs.
Guinness L., Wiseman V. (2011). Introduction to Health Economics, 2nd ed.
Vineis P. (2018). From John Snow to omics: the long journey of environmental epidemiology. European Journal of
Epidemiology 33:355-363.
Vineis P. et al. (2020). What is new in the exposome? Environment International 143:105887.
Vineis P. et al. (2020). Special Report: The Biology of Inequalities in Health: The LIFEPATH Consortium. Frontiers in
Public Health 8:118.

In-person lectures, seminars and guided discussion of papers, reports and cases.
Exercises, quizzes and real-world examples consolidate concepts and interpretation of
evidence for public policy. Epidemiological measures, biomarkers and omics are
introduced conceptually, without requiring medical training. Preparation and active
participation are expected. Students missing classes within the permitted limit may be
assigned short essays based on readings recommended by the lecturers.

Common assessment across all three modules. Attending students: attendance, exercises and active participation 20%;
written test with closed and open questions or oral examination 80%. Non-attending students: oral examination on course
topics. A midterm assessment for attending students will be scheduled at the beginning of the course; short papers may also
be assigned.
Assessment covers preparation, integration of knowledge, reasoning, analysis, independent judgement and clarity, in
accordance with the Dublin descriptors. Criteria: knowledge 70%; expression and independent critical judgement 30%. Pass
mark: 18/30. Results via Delphi; students may take all available examination sessions.
Fail: major gaps or inaccuracies, limited analysis and synthesis, inconsistent presentation.
18-20: barely sufficient knowledge, analysis and autonomy; presentation sometimes inconsistent and language inappropriate.
21-23: basic knowledge, correct analysis and synthesis, sufficiently coherent arguments.
24-26: fair knowledge, good analysis and synthesis, rigorous arguments; language not always appropriate.
27-29: complete knowledge, considerable analysis and synthesis, good autonomy; rigorous presentation.
30-30L: thorough knowledge, excellent analysis, synthesis and independent judgement; original arguments and appropriate
technical language.

Attendance is required from the very first lesson and it is necessary to attend at least 80%
of the course to be considered an attending student.

The objective of the course is to provide students with diverse backgrounds in pre-university curricula with the following:

1. The ability to identify key basic health problems arising from the current social and financial landscape.

2. A comprehensive understanding of the fundamental components of global health.

3. The skills necessary to advocate for appropriate basic solutions aimed at advancing the sustainability of public health.

4. A foundational understanding of the economic challenges and issues related to public health.

In essence, the course aims to equip students with the knowledge and tools to recognize, analyze, and address critical health issues within the context of global health, taking into account both the social and economic factors that influence public health outcomes.

Learning Objectives
The course aims to train students from diverse pre-university backgrounds to identify the key basic health problems within the current social and financial context and understand the main elements of global health. Students will be encouraged to advocate for appropriate solutions to improve public health sustainability and will gain a basic understanding of the economic issues related to public health.

Learning Outcomes
The course contributes to the achievement of the objectives of the degree program in line with the expected professional profiles and career opportunities, providing students with essential knowledge on current global health debates and prevention strategies.

• Knowledge and Understanding: By the end of the course, students will understand definitions of health, key demographic indicators, and the natural history of acute and chronic diseases. They will be able to differentiate between communicable and non-communicable diseases and comprehend risk factors and health determinants. Students will also grasp the challenges posed by demographic and epidemiological transitions, as well as key health economics concepts (Daly, Qaly, Global Burden of Disease).
• Applying Knowledge and Understanding: Students will be able to apply their knowledge to critically analyze global health challenges, including the burden of infectious and chronic diseases, and assess the impact of public policies and the role of international institutions (e.g., WHO) in managing pandemics and health emergencies.
• Judgment Skills: Students will develop independent judgment skills regarding the economic impact of pandemics and social inequalities on health, and critically assess health promotion policies.

No formal pre-requisites

The course is divided into two interconnected modules:

1. Definition of Health and Health Indicators
• Definitions of health, health indicators, and main demographic determinants.
2. Natural History of Acute and Chronic Diseases
• Main differences between communicable/infectious and non-communicable/non-infectious diseases (causes, trends, consequences).
3. The Concept of Cause in Medical Sciences
• Causes, risk factors, and health/disease determinants (lifestyles, education, inequalities, social isolation, etc.).
4. Demographic and Epidemiological Transition
• Challenges and opportunities posed by the new scenario (enhanced lifespan, disabilities, migrations, etc.).
5. Global Health
• Challenges posed by the increasing burden of chronic diseases on healthcare systems and new challenges from both new and old infectious diseases (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, SARS-CoV-2 and future pandemics); the urgent need for a global and planetary approach.
6. Health and Economics
• The need for measuring health (DALY, QALY, Global Burden of Disease, etc.).
7. Health Promotion and Protection
• Impact of public policies on health; an interdisciplinary approach.
8. Economic Evaluation in Health
• Preparedness for epidemics and economic issues: the role of WHO and other national and international institutions in managing pandemic diseases; best practices and lessons learned from pandemics (HIV/AIDS, Ebola, SARS-CoV-I and II).
9. Warfare and Health
• Health impact of war, prevention, and containment.

Attending students:
1. Slides of the course.
2. Reading material distributed by the lecturers

Non attending students (below 80% attendance): will study ONE of the following textbooks:

Main referral readings for attending students:

• OECD, (2019), Health at a Glance 2019: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/4dd50c09-en.
• World Health Statistics 2020: Monitoring Health for the SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
• The World Health Report 2013: Research for Universal Health Coverage. WHO, 2013.
• Guinness, L., Wiseman, V., Introduction to Health Economics – Understanding Public Health, McGraw Hill, Open University Press, second edition, 2011.

Main referral readings for non-attending students:

• Routledge Handbook of Global Public Health, 1st Edition.
• Guest, C., Ricciardi, W., Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice.

Additional materials:

• Required readings, handouts from the teacher, readings from online sources such as www.who.int, www.euro.who.int, www.worldbank.org, etc.

The course combines different teaching methods: lectures; seminars; student presentations. The lectures will provide the students with the necessary information and reading guidelines on the phenomena under study, while seminars will see students critically engage with this knowledge and encourage/participate in class debates. Students are expected to attend each class, to come to class prepared and to participate in discussions.

Students will agree the topic of their presentations with the lecturers and give assessed Power-point presentations in which they will critically evaluate the content and argument of a chosen topic and introduce related questions for the class discussion.

Course assessment
The (default )verification of learning takes place exclusively through a final examination which consists of an individual or group presentation as discussed below. The objective of the final examination is to verify the achievement of the course learning outcome. In particular, the examination assesses the student's overall preparation, ability to integrate knowledge of the different parts of the programme, consequentiality of reasoning, analytical ability and autonomy of judgement. In addition, ownership of language and clarity of exposition are assessed, in adherence with the Dublin descriptors.

Minimum score for passing the written test 18 out of 30.
After listening to the presentations, the lecturers communicate the results to the students registered for the examination via the Delphi system.
Students may take the examination on all available dates. there is no roll-call jump.

The examination will be assessed according to the following criteria:

• FAIL: important deficiencies and/or inaccuracies in the knowledge and understanding of the topics; limited ability to analyse and synthesise, frequent generalisations and limited critical and judgemental skills, the topics are set out inconsistently and with inappropriate language;
• 18-20: Barely sufficient knowledge and understanding of the topics with possible generalisations and imperfections; sufficient capacity for analysis, synthesis and autonomy of judgement, the topics are frequently exposed in an incoherent manner and with inappropriate/technical language;
• 21-23: Routine knowledge and understanding of topics; ability to analyse and synthesise correctly with sufficiently coherent logical argumentation and appropriate/technical language
• 24-26: Fair knowledge and understanding of the topics; Good analytical and synthetic skills with arguments expressed in a rigorous manner but with language that is not always appropriate/technical.
• 27-29: Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the topics; considerable capacity for analysis and synthesis. Good autonomy of judgement. Arguments presented in a rigorous manner and with appropriate/technical language
• 30-30L: Excellent level of knowledge and thorough understanding of topics. Excellent analytical and synthetic skills and independent judgement. Arguments expressed in an original manner and with appropriate technical language.

Course evaluation for attending students:
• In-class presentations (100 %)
• Rules for the presentation: Students can work on their presentations alone or in groups. A group may comprise 2 to 4 students. The students agree on the topic of the presentations with the lecturers, individually or in groups. Each student/group prepares its presentation and emails it to the lecturers at least one day in advance of the day scheduled for class discussion. In the case of group presentations, each group member receives the same final grade.

Course evaluation for non-attending students:
• Final oral exam (100%).
• Rules for the oral exam: the final exam consists of an approximately 20-minute oral test with questions on one of the textbooks indicated above,

Attendance is required from the very first lesson and you
need to attend at least 80% of the course to be considered an attending student.

The Course is divided into two modules:

1st Module, Title: Changing health in a changing world, 4 CFU
2nd Module, Title: Diagnostic, Prevention and Health, 2 CFU
The objective of the course is to train students with different background in pre-university curricula to identify some of the key basic health problems involved in the current epidemiological, social and financial situation and to understand the key elements of the global health approach. In addition, students have to try advocate appropriate basic solutions for the advancement of public health sustainability. Students in the course will have some basic understanding of the economic problems related to public health.