Columbia Master of Public Health (MPH)

Core Curriculum

The Core curriculum, taken by all incoming students in their first semester, consists of six broad areas of study known as “studios.” These studios, which are broken down into 16 modules, build on each other to provide a broad, interlocking foundation of knowledge essential for a career in public health.

Your cohort will move together through the Core during your first semester, and faculty will help you make connections across the studios by exploring questions like What factors underlie the patterns of disease and premature death in the United States and around the world? What role do environmental factors play? What accounts for health disparities within nations and around the world? And what values come into play in designing interventions to prevent illness and systems to promote health?

The six studios that comprise the Core:

1. Foundations of Public Health examines public health history, ethics, and health and human rights and serves as a stepping stone for understanding patterns of health disparities and domestic and international policy.
   Modules: Ethics of Public Health, History of Public Health, Human Rights.
2. Research Methods and Applications provides an introduction to scientific inquiry and evidence, their relationships to public policy, and an integrated approach to the disciplines of biostatistics and epidemiology. Students gain an introduction to measurement, inference, and the language and tools of science, views on the differences between scientific and other types of inquiry and knowledge, classical models of how science and evidence can inform policy, and sources of tension at the science-policy interface.
   Modules: Qualitative Foundations, Quantitative Foundations.
3. Determinants of Health examines the fundamental biological concepts and environmental factors that impact health status.
   Modules: Biological Basis of Public Health, Environmental Determinants of Human Health, Social Determinants of Health.
4. Public Health Interventions introduces students to the key drivers of population health that arise from features of the social environment. The SBSA multi-disciplinary approach is situated at the intersection of the social and behavioral sciences and exposes students to major theories of both disease etiology and intervention. The studio focuses on multiple crosscutting themes and introduces frameworks to address the complexity inherent in complex public health problems.
   Modules: Applying Theory to Interventions, Program Planning and Evaluation, Systems Thinking.
5. Global and Developmental Perspectives consolidates and extends students’ analysis of the field of public health through the exploration of global and developmental perspectives on challenges and strategies to address them.
   Modules: Globalization and Global Health, Life Course.
6. Health Systems delves into the workings of the United States healthcare system, comparing and contrasting it to those of other nations. This studio includes modules on health economics and healthcare systems throughout the world.
   Modules: Comparative Healthcare Systems, Health Economics, United States Public Health and Healthcare Systems.

Work Commitments

During the first semester of the Columbia MPH, while engaging in the integrated core, students are strongly advised against extra-curricular work commitments. In the second, third, and fourth semesters of the program, schedules are more flexible, and students may engage in some part-time work.

Practicum

The practicum—essentially an internship in the field—is both a required component and a highlight of the MPH experience. You will work alongside public health professionals, experience the day-to-day realities of the field, and apply what you’ve learned in class to advance the cause of public health.

You will be supported before, during, and after your practicum. Introductory workshops orient you to fieldwork and prepare you for professional practice. In collaboration with a faculty advisor, you will select a site, project, and plan for your practicum experience. Faculty at the Mailman School has well-established relationships with government agencies and healthcare institutions in New York City and around the globe—offering you many options for completing your practicum. Once deployed in the field, you will receive support as needed from your onsite supervisor and departmental advisor. Upon completion of the practicum, you will formally present your work at departmental or school-wide events. Many students use the data from their practicum experience as a component of their Master’s thesis or capstone paper.

Leadership

Even though public health is a field of collaboration and teamwork, formal coursework in teamwork and leadership skills was not always a required element of public health education. Recognizing these as essential competencies, the new curriculum incorporates a leadership and innovation program unique among schools of public health into the second semester of the MPH.

This course aims to develop and improve abilities in three key areas: leading teams in a variety of settings, working effectively as a team member, and implementing fresh, innovative ideas within an organization or larger community.

Leadership education is experiential and participatory. Working in small teams, students engage in role-play, simulations, group work, and case analysis, sometimes using video and online tools, and receive systematic feedback from faculty and students that mirrors the 360° assessments that students will encounter in the workplace.

Along the way, students learn team management, negotiation, effective communication, and conflict resolution strategies. Hands-on workshops and lectures by invited public health leaders provide opportunities to collaborate with working professionals in hospitals, research centers, public health organizations, and NGOs—wherever the career path may lead.

Integration of Science and Practice

Integration of Science and Practice (ISP)—small group sessions that are an integral component of the MPH curriculum—bridge the gap between traditional classroom education and the real-world experience of working as a public health professional.

The curriculum consists largely of case studies drawn from recent history and current events, providing opportunities for students to apply facts and information to solve complex problems and gain important professional skills like negotiation, persuasion, team thinking, public speaking, and critical judgment in the process.

Small interdisciplinary teams analyze cases under the guidance of a faculty member and teaching assistant. Over the course of three semesters, students build relationships with their ISP professor, teaching assistant, and other teammates as they grapple with challenges and dilemmas that have challenged practicing public health professionals.

Through these cases, students confront the tough questions of public health: What happens when programs intended to improve the health of a community conflict with local values and traditions? Where does state control end and individual liberty begin? In a world of ever-evolving scientific knowledge, when do we have adequate evidence to recommend policies that keep people safe?

Assignments come in the form of collaborative labs that hone problem-solving skills and the ability to apply public health theory to professional practice. Students may be asked to write a policy brief, identify what evidence is missing or necessary to make a decision, plan a media briefing, find citations in the scientific literature relevant to a case study, or identify the key aspects of an effective health intervention program.

Upon completion of the first-semester Core Curriculum, you are able to:

Evidence-Based Approaches to Public Health

• Apply epidemiological methods to the breadth of settings and situations in public health practice
• Select quantitative and qualitative data collection methods appropriate for a given public health context
• Analyze quantitative and qualitative data using biostatistics, informatics, computer-based programming , and software as appropriate
• Interpret results of data analysis for public health research, policy, or practice

Public Health & Health Care Systems

• Compare the organization, structure, and function of health care, public health, and regulatory systems across national and international settings
• Discuss the means by which structural bias, social inequities, and racism undermine health and create challenges to achieving health equity at organizational, community, and societal levels

Planning & Management to Promote Health

• Assess population needs, assets, and capacities that affect communities’ health
• Apply awareness of cultural values and practices to the design or implementation of public health policies or programs
• Design a population-based policy, program, project, or intervention
• Explain basic principles and tools of budget and resource management
• Select methods to evaluate public health programs

Policy in Public Health

• Discuss multiple dimensions of the policy-making process, including the roles of ethics and evidence
• Propose strategies to identify stakeholders and build coalitions and partnerships for influencing public health outcomes
• Advocate for political, social, or economic policies and programs that will improve health in diverse populations
• Evaluate policies for their impact on public health and health equity

Leadership

• Apply principles of leadership, governance, and management, which include creating a vision, empowering others, fostering collaboration and guiding decision making
• Apply negotiation and mediation skills to address organizational or community challenges

Communication

• Select communication strategies for different audiences and sectors
• Communicate audience-appropriate public health content, both in writing and through oral presentation
• Describe the importance of cultural competence in communicating public health content

Interprofessional Practice

• Perform effectively on interprofessional teams

Systems Thinking

• Apply systems thinking tools to a public health issue