Environmental Health / Sláinte Comhshaoil

Leaving Certificate Requirements

QQI/FET Requirements

In addition to the QQI minimum entry requirements, QQI quotas and QQI points apply. The max QQI points awarded is 390. Further details at www.tudublin.ie/qqi

Mature Applicants

Applications from mature students (23+) are welcome. Further details at www.tudublin.ie/mature

Additional Requirements

TU Dublin students must undergo Garda Vetting. They must complete the required documentation, including a full list of all previous addresses, in order for clearance checks to be made. Currently, Irish addresses are vetted by the Garda Vetting Bureau at no cost to the student.

English Language Requirements

If English is not your first language you will need to provide evidence of your English language proficiency as detailed on our website. Applicants for this course should have a minimum IELTS (Academic Version) English Proficiency of 6 overall (or equivalent) with nothing less than 6 in each component.

The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, our homes and workplaces all can influence our state of health. Businesses and individuals must comply with a range of health & safety standards, in food, occupational and environmental areas.

In this course, you’ll study issues such as food safety, environmental pollution, occupational safety and health risk management, and how these should be managed.

The course is applied in nature, but has a strong scientific underpinning, especially in Years 1 and 2. In Years 3 and 4, you’ll expand into applied areas of environmental health and examine current and developing issues.

Areas of study include environmental health, microbiology, building technology, ecology and entomology, food and water chemistry, noise and radiation, occupational safety and health, food safety, health promotion, air quality, housing policy and defects, and environmental health protection.

Work Placement

In the period of professional practice (placement), you’ll learn how to apply your knowledge of environmental health.

Graduates go on to work in private and public sectors in areas such as environmental management, health and safety, food safety and health promotion, as well as Environmental Health Officer (EHO) in the state sector. Environmental Health Officer, Health and Safety Inspector.

Employers need qualified staff to steer them through their responsibilities in environmental health. You can go on to work in private and public sectors in areas such as environmental management, health and safety, food safety and health promotion, as well as Environmental Health Officer (EHO) in the state sector. State sector EHOs are normally responsible for monitoring and enforcing standards (through advice, education and regulation) in a wide range of areas such as food safety, air and water quality, and tobacco policies (see Environmental Health Officers’ Association).

Advanced Entry applications are accepted to this course. For further information on how to make an Advanced Entry application, please visit our CAO Hub. A full list of courses open for Advanced Entry are listed on the CAO website.

The course was wide-ranging, with a wonderful basis in a range of disciplines. I then decided I wanted to be a specialist in one particular discipline and returned to do a two-year research master’s in health and safety. I am now managing the Health and Safety Department in a large teaching hospital.

Health and safety practitioners come from a variety of backgrounds, which can include engineering, science, law and environment. No one individual would possesses all of these qualifications, but Environmental Health certainly provides you with a good grounding in each of the disciplines. It’s a course I would highly recommend.

Our student Sean tells us about his experience studying Environmental Health (TU869) at TU Dublin.

On graduation, you may proceed to postgraduate studies leading to the award of MSc, MPhil or PhD at research institutes and universities worldwide. There’s a range of taught postgraduate courses (in Ireland and abroad) on aspects of environmental health, and there may also be research opportunities for graduates on specific environmental health topics.