Global Health.
As part of Boston University’s on-campus Master of Public Health (MPH) degree, you have the option to add a Context Certificate to your functional area of concentration, deepening your knowledge in an area or population of greatest interest to you.
This MPH certificate program considers new approaches and delivery systems to improve health behaviors around the world. MPH students are prepared to become researchers and work in global health administration and management.
Global Health Context Certificate
The mission of the Department of Global Health is to improve the health of underserved global populations through policy-relevant research; empowerment of citizens, governments, and organizations; and education of future global health leaders. We focus on the world’s three overriding health problems: poverty, disease, and inequity. The department focuses on infectious diseases (including HIV/AIDS), maternal and child health/reproductive health, noncommunicable diseases, access to medicines, health systems strengthening, and economic and policy analysis. Practice-based education is an area of particular focus, with coursework that teaches skills relevant to running programs to reduce disease and inequality in lower-middle and low-income countries. Our faculty have major research programs in South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and India, and other research in Mexico, Ghana, the Gambia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Lebanon. Faculty in the Department of Global Health mentor students in the MPH degree and interdisciplinary master’s and doctoral degrees across SPH.
Upon graduation, students will be able to:
- Describe health challenges faced at global, national, regional, and community levels, including major causes of morbidity and mortality, and context-specific reasons for geographic variation in population health and well-being;
- Analyze a health system and its component elements in order to examine performance, identify strengths and weaknesses, and compare it to health systems in other countries;
- Explain the ways in which culture, social norms and institutions, laws, gender, economic status, access to education and health care, and other factors influence health;
- Conduct a situation analysis across a range of cultural, economic, and health contexts; and
- Demonstrate ability to access, summarize, synthesize, analyze, and communicate background information and public health evidence.
Sample Course Titles
- Foundations of Global Health
- Managing Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Emergencies (4)
- Confronting Non-Communicable Diseases in the Developing World
- Global AIDS Epidemic: Social and Economic Determinants, Impact, and Responses
- Global Mental Health
View the BU Bulletin for Course Requirements
Sample Practicum
- Brookline Sister City Project (Nicaragua) – Analyzing childhood malnutrition, sexual education, and contraceptive availability
- Calmette Hospital (Cambodia) – Conducting acute kidney injury research
- Lesotho-Boston Health Alliance (Lesotho) – Conducting root cause analysis for home deliveries in Lesotho
- Mildmay (Uganda) – Evaluating the effectiveness of the Wisepill among pregnant and postpartum women
- Intern/Secretariat, People that Deliver Initiative at the UNICEF Supply Division (Denmark)
- World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Western Pacific (Philippines) – Improving the accessibility of Hepatitis medicine
- World Vision USA (Washington D.C., USA) – Coordinating research efforts related to social services from the perspective of para-social workers in Sub-Saharan Africa
