About
The School
The James P Grant School of Public Health (popularly known as BRAC School of Public Health or BSPH) at BRAC University was established three years ago. The flagship programme of the School is the Master of Public Health (MPH) course that it's been offering since February 2005. With this batch of 26 students, three batches of 77 students have received their MPH degrees. They came from 14 different countries representing the continents of Asia, Africa, and North and South America. Almost half of them have medical degrees and half are women thus ensuring great diversity. All the graduates of the past three batches are now employed in government, national and international NGO's, UN agencies, and universities. Some of them have started their PhD's in European and North American Universities.
The School is unique in many different ways. The Bulletin of the World Health Organization has featured the School as one of the six schools in the world promoting and practicing innovative higher public health education. The School has earned a name for its emphasis on community-based experiential learning. This has been made possible by the determination to pursue problem-based learning and the very fact that the School was set up by BRAC with active support from ICDDR,B. The access that the School has to BRAC and ICDDR,B and their facilities make it a real unique experience, which is hard to find anywhere else in the world. Its formal links with several of the top schools of Public Health in Europe and America has increased our credibility to a great extent. The links it is creating with several Southern institutes will truly make it an example in South-North and South-South collaborations.
Apart from the MPH programme, the School in the past year has initiated several short courses. In collaboration with the World Bank Institute, the School organized two short courses on health equity. Over 70 participants from the Government, NGOs, donors, universities and the media attended these two courses. This year has also seen the establishment of a formal link with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW). In collaboration with the MOHFW, the School organized two short courses on health sector financing for Upazilla Health and Family Planning officers. All these courses have proved to be highly successful giving the School encouragement to initiate more such courses in the future.
From the outset the School has been promoting not only the art of public health through education but also the science of it. Research is an integral part of life at the School. The School has already initiated several researches projects and many of these are done in collaboration with universities in the North and the South. Through such research, the School faculties are involved in the generation of knowledge - the science of public health. The School is trying to promote and nurture research culture in the University, which is unfortunately absent in many of the universities in Bangladesh.
The School's faculty has also been quite productive in terms of research publications. They published several articles in world class journals during 2007. A research monograph series has also been started. This year the BRAC School became a full member of the Asia Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health which is dedicated to improving professional Public Health education in the region.
One of the challenges faced by private universities in Bangladesh is the shortage of trained faculty. The School of Public Health is trying to develop its faculty in different ways. The School was fortunate to be able to attract four non-resident Bangladeshis to join the School. The School also recruited three of its own graduates as lecturers. The ICDDR,B is providing major support in terms of faculty. The School has recently won a European Union grant that will help train its faculty through co-teaching with three European Universities. The School will continue its efforts to recruit new faculty so that its dependence on external faculty is minimized. As of now the School has a team of 7 full time faculty. The BRAC School believes that a major aim of any school of public health should be to work to improve public health, and one of the ways to achieve this is to advocate for good health. A group of civil society institutions in the country has set up the Bangladesh Health Watch and the BRAC School is fortunate to act as the Secretariat for the Watch. The first report of the Bangladesh Health Watch on 'Equity in Health' was published last year. This year's report is looking at the issue of Health Human Resources. The Bangladesh Health Watch has already attracted a lot of attention in Bangladesh and abroad.
Financing of the School remains a challenge, although in recent times the School has seen more success in attracting donor funds. All the research programmes are well funded by the DFID, AusAID and WHO. The short courses are funded by development partners such as the World Bank and WHO.
The MPH programme is primarily being run with student's contribution through part or full payment of tuition and other expenses, along with a grant from CIDA via ICDDR,B which is providing critical support for the School. BRAC still remains the major contributor directly and through an endowment fund that it created with Gates Award money for the School.
During 2007, the School organized a major international conference on gender and sexuality. Participants from Asia, Europe, Africa and North America attended it. Another major accomplishment in the past year was the creation of an Ethical Review Committee. This is the first ethical committee for any university in Bangladesh.
