The MPH Programme
Since its commencement in 2005 JPGSPH has a diverse student body with international and national students each year. In addition to Bangladesh, students are recruited from Asia, Africa, Australia and South America as well as countries from the North (Canada, Germany, Japan and USA). In the last six years, a total of 159 students joined the programme from 19 different countries: Afghanistan, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Liberia, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Pakistan, Phillipines, Singapore, Tanzania, Uganda and USA.Till fifth batch 136 students have graduated from the school [six batch on going]. Graduated MPH degree holders are now placed in reputed international & national NGOs and donor organizations. Some of them are PhD candidates in different internationally acclaimed universities such as: Columbia University, George Washington University, Harvard University, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of Adelaide, University of California-Davis, etc.
Comparative advantage of our MPH Programme
• Location in a developing country providing a social laboratory for public health teaching and learning;
• Emphasis on community-based experiential learning with the first six months conducted in a rural setting;
• Placement in a development organization (BRAC) with a track record of accomplishment in promoting social goals of poverty alleviation, which bridges
the artificial divide between health and development [www.brac.net];
• Partnership with International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) [www.icddrb.org];
• Partnership with BRAC International which offers opportunities for learning and career development;
• Partnership with other internationally recognized schools of Public health in both developed and developing countries that enables access to the rich academic resources of the collaborating institutions as well as exposure to the global health agenda.
The Teaching/Learning Approach
The structure of the teaching programme is problem-oriented employing a problem case study approach whenever possible, with a minimum of didactic teaching. Basic knowledge of a subject requires guided reading and thus extensive exposure to relevant literature is provided. The course work builds on significant health problems faced in Bangladesh and similar countries. The problems draw students into problem solving thinking and dialogue with peers. Numerous opportunities for presentation of problem analysis ensure that students are familiar and comfortable with various communication techniques.
Central to each and every course is exposure to field situations and people engaged in addressing the problem under study. Students are introduced to key concepts, scientific basis, social and cultural experience and relevant measurement techniques that underlie each issue to be considered before proceeding with the problem-oriented experiential process in the field. It is this constant interchange between the classroom and field realities that make the BSPH uniquely rich and formative. While guided by qualified faculty and structured programmes, extensive learning occurs from a bottom-up approach to education as students and faculty learn from peripheral development workers and the community.
Course work is modular, allowing for integrated team teaching and reinforcement with relevant field visits and projects. This approach enables visiting expert teaching faculty to provide intensive exposure to students with their expertise over a relatively brief period thereby enabling the School to call on partner institutions to participate in teaching. Teams for each module comprise of an experienced academician, with one or more counterpart teachers from BSPH, relevant adjunct faculty drawn from BRAC, ICDDR,B and other local institutions, and local practitioners of public health and development. Field trips during course work are frequent to local areas. Students work in small groups assuring fluency in language, orientation to culture and regular guidance visits by faculty.
New Elective Course Offered at the School
In the academic year 2007-2008, the School offered a new elective course on Monitoring and Evaluation concurrently with the course on Principles of Health Communication. The learning objectives of the course were the following: defining programme evaluation theory and practice; describing the history and evolution of the field of evaluation; describing major evaluation designs and methods, and their appropriate use and application; explaining the importance of evaluation in the current public health environment; describing and applying the steps in conducting programme evaluation, using the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) evaluation framework; explore and applying the four major standards for good evaluation and describing the guiding principles for evaluators.
Student Fieldwork Activities 2009
Fieldwork is a critical and integral component of the MPH programme. The students spent considerable time visiting a number of field sites in both Savar and Dhaka City during their coursework. Students were able to apply their coursework as well link their own experiences during visits to the field sites.
Kakabo village in Savar was one of the most important sites as students spent the first six months visiting households, learning public health in practice and employing qualitative and quantitative methods to improve their understanding of various concepts from medical anthropology, epidemiology and biostatistics courses as well as to gain further knowledge of health problems affecting the village population.
