It seems that almost every month we read about the creation of a new school of public health or about plans to establish such a school in yet another jurisdiction. The number of accredited schools of public health has exploded from 32 at the beginning of this century to a total of 50 today. To better understand this phenomenon and its relationship to epidemiology, we contacted Allison Foster and her colleagues with the Association of Schools of Public Health. Below are the responses we obtained from the interview questions we posed:

Epi Monitor: The number of new schools accredited has increased from an average of five to six in the three decades between 1970-1999 to 13 schools in the subsequent decade, 2000-09.  So far, the rate of new approvals since 2010 is on a pace to surpass the previous decade. Why the big increase?

Foster: The growing number of schools of public health is due, in great part, to increasing student interest in population health and wellness, not just at the graduate level, but down into undergraduate and even in high schools.  Many university leaders and state governing bodies also see the establishment of schools of public health as a way to improve their constituent’s health, from the new knowledge stemming from research to providing training to the public health workforce in their city, town, state, and region. Lastly, there has been a general trend of professionalizing the public sector workforce by requiring a master’s-level degree for advancement in the field, and in some cases for entry into the profession. A general undergraduate degree is often limiting when entering the increasing complex and ever-growing health sector.

Epi Monitor: What has happened to the number of applicants for schools of public health over similar time periods? Has there been an increase in applicants to match the increase in the number of accredited schools?

Foster: Applications at schools of public health have increased by an average of nearly 10% each year over the past decade.  At this point, we would say the increase in applications has at least kept up with the increase in CEPH-accredited schools. It should be noted, however, that number of applications is different than numbers of applicants. The development of the SOPHAS common application system has made it easier for students to apply to multiple schools. By any standard, however, there has been an increase in the number of students applying for and enrolling in graduate programs at accredited schools of public health.
 

Epi Monitor: Has the number of employment opportunities kept pace with the number of graduates or is there a surplus of MPH graduates now?

Foster: ASPH would like to have more robust data on employment of our graduates. Anecdotally, schools report a very healthy market for new graduates but such data has not been collected at a national scale. This is an issue which ASPH hopes to address in the near future. We do know more definitely that recent graduates have found a very receptive job market compared with many other fields. According to our most recent survey of calendar year 2011 graduates of ASPH member schools, 53 percent had jobs at the time of their graduation and 85 percent were employed within four months.
 

Epi Monitor: Has any public health discipline attracted more of the new students in the new schools than before the increase of the last few years? I am wondering if epidemiology fits this bill. 

Foster: The proportion of applicants per area of study has remained relatively stable over the past decade. In 2000, 19% of applications were for epidemiology.  The percentage in

2010 was 18%.Environmental health and health education are also very popular majors at our schools.  For the future, we anticipate that there could be less attention on the specific discipline and an increased emphasis on cross-cutting knowledge, skills, and attitudes in such areas as systems thinking, innovation, the evidence base for public health interventions, and multidisciplinary approaches to problem-solving.  See an interview from earlier this year by the president and CEO of the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) on this topic (here).

Epi Monitor: What are you identifying as some of the more interesting or significant new developments in public health education now? 

Foster: The increase in undergraduate public health programs is changing the landscape of public health education.  There are hundreds of colleges and universities offering majors and minors in public health which will impact the professional perspective of these students, no matter if they continue on in graduate school in public health, continue on to study another health career or simply enter the workforce.

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