Important MPH Program Update from MPH Director

Over the 2017-2018 academic year, the Master of Public Health (MPH) program has worked to update our curriculum in order to better prepare our future public health practitioners.  This effort was in part preparation to submit our application for the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) accreditation and in part response to feedback from our stakeholders.  The priority of the Master of Public Health program is to advance public health practice across the globe, and with these improvements, we are now more capable than ever to meet this goal.  Beginning spring semester of 2019, the updated curriculum will be required of all new Master of Public Health students. 

There are three new aspects to the curricular updates:

  1. We have updated the requirements for graduation from 42 to 43 credits, including the additional requirements of taking a health equity framework course, a public health leadership course, as well as your choice of one of the three practical public health methods courses.
  2. We have categorized our required courses into foundational, core, electives, and culminating experience.
  3. We have limited the number of electives offered each semester in order to allow for increased diversity of topics covered over the course of the program. Currently, electives will run on an odd/even semester schedule and will fit into the categories of policy/administration, global/cultural health, nutrition, infectious disease, and epidemiology/biostatistics/surveillance.

The foundational courses provide students with the information that encompasses the root values of our program: leadership, health equity, and practical application.  This category of courses includes something new: the student’s choice of one of our three selectives.  These courses cover the breadth of practical methodology utilized by public health practitioners, including systematic review, program evaluation, and study design.  It is our intent that these selectives will provide our graduates with practical tools that can be immediately applied to their chosen field of public health.

The core courses provide students with knowledge in all core areas of public health.  There are now course chairs for each of these core courses, and these faculty members are responsible for ensuring their core course is relevant and innovative.  Additionally, these faculty members will be the point of contact for any student wishing to know more about these areas of public health.

Thank you for your dedication to public health!

 

Elizabeth Hamilton, MPH, PhD
Interim Director, Master of Public Health
Michigan State University