Sudeepa Khanal
MSc in international Health 2010-11
Nepal
I am Sudeepa Khanal, a Nepalese citizen currently working as a senior officer-Health System
Development at Health Research and social development Forum (HERD), in Kathmandu, Nepal since
April 2012.
I am a graduate of Masters in International Health (Dec 2011) from University of Leeds, UK. The MSc
International health from University of Leeds has provided me a comprehensive and well-rounded
education in all facets of public from policy and practices to monitoring and implementation. It has
enabled me to gain a broad understanding of the areas of knowledge that are central to public health
practice. Having come from a paramedical background, core modules like ‘Challenges and Opportunities
in International Health’ provided me with a good background of the opportunities and challenges in
public health. Furthermore, the elective modules offered provided me with the opportunity to tailor the
degree to best fit my career goals.
Having been working in a research based organization in Nepal, I reflect on the learning from Leeds in
many spheres of my work, especially in the research methods, mainly qualitative researches. My
interest in qualitative research specifically began while doing the academic project titled “Smoking
Cessation – knowledge, attitudes and barriers as perceived by the Pakistani men to access the smoking
cessation services”, where I did extensive work on searching the various studies conducted so far in the
topic. My growing interest in the research made me pursue my career in that direction. Also, the field
work in the MSc International Health program (i.e. Research part II) gave us an opportunity to work with
a senior faculty and helped build up a network with expertise in the field working in other countries. My
association with Leeds not only advanced my research knowledge and skills, but it also helped me get
my job and enter the public health workforce in Nepal too. While there is much to learn with HERD, I
reflect on some or the other knowledge gained when doing my Masters’ program. For instance, one of
the researches of HERD that I am working on needed to develop a behavior change intervention to
implement at the Health Facility level. The theory knowledge gained at Nuffield, along with evidence
based teaching, helped me understand this better and contribute more in the intervention designing.
There have been several other incidences where I have reflected on the knowledge and experience of
Nuffield in my everyday work.
I am thankful to the faculty and expertise at Nuffield who have been the key in providing me with the
guidance I needed to go ahead in my career in my desired field of interest.