Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics

Work within this theme includes the organisation of the health care system across primary, secondary, tertiary, and social care, including the roles, responsibilities and linkages between local, state and national health bodies – and participation of consumers and citizens.

This theme also includes how health is financed and the relationships between public and private actors in health. Our aim is to achieve transparency, responsiveness and integrity in health systems, and improve efficiency by closing responsibility gaps and reducing overlaps.

Theme Lead

Dr Carmen Huckel Schneider

Work within this theme focuses on developing and analysing how information is gathered and flows throughout health systems and in health policy making processes. It incorporates novel methods for data collection and analysis, and the development of new systems to hold, regulate and govern health knowledge. 

This theme also includes research into how knowledge is found, interpreted and utilised in health systems and policy.  Our aim is to achieve intelligent systems of knowledge generation and utilisation in health policy that incorporate the complex mix of factors that need to be understood to make wise decisions.

Theme Lead 

 Dr Sarah Norris

Work within this theme analyses the relationships between global health policy systems and local policy action.  It includes the development of global-level policy as well as how global health goals are interpreted and enacted at local levels.

This theme also includes the interactions and relationships between global and intersectoral forces of change and health policy, including trade and investment, global politics and social and cultural movements. Our aim to strengthen health policy globally by enhancing policy learning across sectors, countries and in international institutions.

Theme Lead 

Associate Professor Anne Marie Thow

Work within this theme includes the analysis of how health services are constructed and delivered within the broader health and social systems. We analyse how and why key health goals such as access, equity, and experience can be achieved by analysing models of care at a system level.

This theme includes evaluative research of novel models of care and new health technologies, and how their success, or failure, can be explained. Our aim is to develop comprehensive system-level models of health care that increase access, equity and quality.

Theme Lead

Dr Amber Willink

Work within this theme includes analysis of how value (cost-effectiveness), and values (preferences) are determined and integrated into decision making and policy.  It answers technical questions around the efficient provision of health services in different contexts, explores the application of distributional efficiency approaches, and answers broader questions around the notion of ‘value’ from a decision maker, community, and patient perspective.

This theme also applies quantitative economic methods to understand community preferences for how health services and systems are delivered/provided and how health outcomes are valued. Our aim is to achieve sustainable health care systems and delivery that prioritise outcomes of value for the community.

Theme Lead

Professor Kirsten Howard

Why study health policy with us?

• Study with Sydney School of Public Health, a global leader in research and education.
• Learn how to develop and implement health policy.
• Analyse current health policies and policy processes.
• Learn about how the Australian and international healthcare systems work.
• Develop applied skills in policy analysis, economic evaluation, health financing and budgets.
• Understand emerging issues from international trends.
• Identify and analyse politics and power in health policy.
• Gain key skills in systems thinking and critical appraisal of evidence for health policy.
• Graduate with professional confidence to work in leadership and strategy across the health sector.

Course options

• Graduate Certificate in Health Policy
• Graduate Diploma in Health Policy
• Master of Health Policy

Scholarship options

Two scholarships are available for the Masters of Health Policy at the University of Sydney. The Stephen Leeder Health Policy Scholarship and the Ruth Colagiuri Health Policy Scholarship will be valued at $10,000 and will be tenable for one full-time semester only. 

Visit our scholarships website to learn more.

For further information on these courses please contact:

• Dr Carmen Huckel-Schneider
  carmen.huckelschneider@sydney.edu.au
• Associate Professor Jim Gillespie
  james.gillespie@sydney.edu.au

Degrees by research are available across all the research areas of the Sydney School of Public Health and the Faculty of Medicine and Health.

Research options include:

• Master of Philosophy (Medicine) (MPhil)
• Doctor of Philosophy (Medicine) (PhD)

Learn more current research opportunities or about postgraduate research in medicine and health.

The Menzies Centre for Health Policy and colleagues deliver regular seminars that address contemporary health policy issues.

Please join our mailing list to receive notifications when the next seminar is scheduled.

Visit the Sydney eScholarship Repository for recordings and resources from past seminars.

The Emerging Health Policy Research Conference showcases emerging health policy research of academic researchers, health policy professionals and higher degree research students.  Participation in the Emerging Health Policy Research Conference provides an opportunity to:

• discuss health policy responses to current local, national and global health challenges
• present in progress health policy research to a wide audience of students, academics and practitioners
• discuss new ideas and identify opportunities for collaboration across disciplinary boundaries

Please join our mailing list to receive notifications when the next Conference is scheduled.

Visit the Sydney eScholarship Repository for recordings and resources from past conferences. https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/8697

The University of Sydney, by way of a gift, established the S.T. Lee Lecture Fund in 2008 to invite a distinguished scholar and/or practitioner on the subject of contemporary health policy to deliver an annual lecture. The S.T. Lee Lecture is named for Seng Tee Lee, a business executive and noted philanthropist. Dr Lee is director of the Lee group of companies in Singapore and of the Lee Foundation.

Please join our mailing list to receive notifications when the next S T Lee Lecture is scheduled.

Visit the Sydney eScholarship Repository for recordings and resources from past conferences. https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/8696

• Professor Andrew Wilson, Co-Director and Professor of Public Health
• Professor Kirsten Howard, Co-Director and Professor of Health Economics
• Professor Shaun Larkin, Professor of Health Policy 
• Professor Penny Hawe, Professor of Public Health 
  
• Associate Professor Amber Willink
  
• Associate Professor Anne Marie Thow
• Associate Professor Jim Gillespie
• Dr Simone De Morgan, Research Fellow
• Dr Victoria Loblay, Postdoctoral Research Associate 
• Dr Carmen Huckel Schneider, Master of Health Policy Director 
• Dr Samantha Rowbotham, Lecturer 
• Dr Helen Trevena, NHMRC Early Career Research Fellow 
• Dr Sarah Norris, Senior Research Fellow 
• Dr Christopher Harrison, Research Fellow 
• Dr Alice Gibson, Postdoctoral Research Associate
• Penny Farrell, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
  
• Clare Bayram, Senior Research Assistant
• Georgina Mulcahy, Research Assistant
• Diana Freeman, Administration Manager
• Pippy Walker, Research Officer
• Leah Marks, Research Assistant

• Emeritus Professor Stephen Leeder AO
• Honorary Professor Farhat Yusuf AM 
• Honorary Professor Sallie Pearson
• Honorary Professor Luis Salvador-Carulla
• Honorary Associate Professor Ruth Colagiuri 
• Honorary Associate Professor Paul Lancaster AM
• Honorary Associate Professor Thomas Astel-Burt 
• Honorary Lecturer, Dr Julie Schneider
• Honorary Senior Research Fellow Milton Lewis 
• Adjunct Professor Abby Bloom 
• Adjunct Associate Professor Anne-Marie Boxall 
• Adjunct Associate Professor John Eastwood 
• Adjunct Associate Professor Christine Giles 
• Adjunct Associate Professor Mary Haines 
• Adjunct Associate Professor Megan Keaney 
• Adjunct Associate Professor Lesley Russell 
• Adjunct Associate Professor Annette Schmiede 
• Adjunct Associate Professor Frederic (Freddy) Sitas 
• Adjunct Associate Professor Lennert Veerman 
• Adjunct Lecturer Dr Jo-An Atkinson 
• Adjunct Lecturer Amanda Dominello
• Adjunct Lecturer, Dr Andrey Zheluk 
• Clinical Senior Lecturer, Dr Cathie Hull
• Research Fellow Dr Shauna Downs
• Research Fellow Dr Jennifer Hunter
• Research Affiliate Dr M Rabiul Hasan 
• Research Affiliate Dr Lori Littlejohns
• Visiting Fellow Tara Boelsen-Robinson
• Visiting Researcher Professor Jafar Tabrizi

• Ahmed Hazazi
• Brendan Clifford
• Claire Pearce
• Deborah Schaler 
• Jason Soon 
• Mohammed Senitan Alharbi
• Moira Dunsmore 
• Richa Jaswal
• Samantha Acopian 
• Sarah Mounsey 
• Selvanaayagam Shanmuganathan 
• Susan Clarke
• Xiaoqi Feng