Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Getting the Best Education from an Accredited Masters in Public Health Program

There exist several hundred colleges in the US that provide masters in public health programs. The welfare and continued good health of the community is the primary intent of the training found in these masters in public health programs. If you are thinking of entering one of these courses, be sure to check for the accreditation of the CEPH.

What is CEPH? How can it benefit you to select exclusively form universities with accreditation? CEPH is an accrediting organization that focuses specifically on public health courses.

Public health graduate students must be careful in seeking out a course and be certain that accreditation has been granted to the one they are eyeing. For schools of public health, all degrees offered by the school must be accredited as a single entity. For graduate public health programs, the masters in public health degree is always accredited, but contact the program or school to know if MS, PhD or other degrees in public health are covered by the program’s accreditation.

Do not confuse CEPH accreditation with the regional one. More focused programs require the CEPH accreditation, while others may not; it is in fact possible to have accreditation of the regional type without the CEPH's to accompany it. There is a generalized perspective adopted by the accrediting committees for regional accreditation.

In contrast, the CEPH accreditation is meant to evaluate how well a course can "drill" the needed knowledge for this field into a student. It shall be observed that other accrediting bodies exist for specific fields. For public health, it is the CEPH that handles accreditation with approval of the USDE.

The body accredits both institutions and their programs, although not necessarily together. Obviously, the difference is in the fact that a college can have a lot of degrees offered and a program is the sole offer in itself. Your average public health academy will give you the choice of any of the primary focus areas for public health.

A single degree is the expectation with the program, on the other hand. Still, programs often offer students the choice of specializing in a number of areas. The college is also required to provide a doctorate level course.

The value of a degree that has CEPH accreditation on it is peerless. The major concentrations for the discipline are Biostatics, Behavioral Sciences, Epidemiology, Environmental Health and Health Services Administration. Those in universities offering doctorate classes even have the option of becoming true experts of their discipline.

The aid of a good academy is indispensable when you need to perform formal tasks or transactions between your current and former places of education. It is typical for colleges to accept the credits students have stacked up in other colleges, especially if the educational standards are equal. It is possible too to try out for the Public Health Certification exam once you complete your degree.

Those in masters in public health programs with accreditation also have the benefit of an edge over their competition in the job market. State bodies tend to prefer interns from such courses as well. The colleges with accreditation also tend to offer the best support systems for degree-takers.



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