MPH education for the 21st century: design of Columbia University's new public health curriculum

Abstract

Because public health challenges are changing rapidly, over the past 3 years, we have turned a critical eye to the master of public health program at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Under a process dubbed "curriculum renewal," we engaged more than 170 faculty, staff, and students (and hundreds of alumni and employers of our graduates) in an initiative to develop a completely new design for master of public health education that launched in fall 2012. We have described its design and structure and presented some preliminary evaluation data.

FIGURE 1—

Components of the Columbia Master of Public Health (MPH) core curriculum.

FIGURE 2—

Schematic diagrams of 4 versions of the Columbia Public Health Program: (a) the Columbia MPH (2-year program; 45–60 credits), (b) the accelerated MPH (1-year program for professionals; 42 credits), (c) the global MPH (2-year program with 6-month practicum; minimum 45 credits), and (d) the health policy and management model (16-month program; minimum 45 credits). Note. MPH = master of public health.

FIGURE 3—

Preliminary evaluation data from students and faculty of the Columbia MPH program: (a) student responses on the quality of the experience, the courses, and the teaching; (b) students’ self-evaluation of their ability to integrate concepts across classes (core modules and the Integration of Science and Practice course); and (c) faculty assessment of student levels of academic preparation, professionalism and maturity, and intellectual engagement. Note. MPH = master of public health. Data from students were measured 1 month after the end of the fall term, and data from faculty were measured at the end of their teaching assignments. For Figure 3c, the faculty sample size was n = 29.