PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCES AND CONTENT OF THE UNDEGRADUATE PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAMMES IN EUROPE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35120/kij5404707aKeywords:
competences, content, undergraduate programmes, public healthAbstract
Sufficient number of competent public health professionals are an important prerequisit for the normal
functioning of the health systems. At present, the number and type of institutions carrying out undergraduate education
and training in public health varies broadly both in Europe and the USA. There is a lack of clarity on how much the
requirements for professional public health competencies are covered by the content of undergraduate public health
programs in Europe. Purpose: To analyse the content of Bachelor Public Health programmes in Europe, in relation to
the requirements for professional competences introduced by ASPHER in 2014 (Association of Schools of Public
Health in the European Region). Methods: An online questionnaire was developed and distributed via the Internet
platform Google Forms to 214 universities in Europe. The electronic survey included 50 questions clarifying
availability of study subjects and topics from 7 main areas of competences proposed by ASPHER: Methods in Public
Health; Population Health and Determinants; Health Policy; Economics and Management; Health Education and
Health Promotion; Interdisciplinary subjects; Practical Training and Others. Similar information was extracted from the
educational documentation accessible from the web pages of 74 higher educational institutions offering undergraduate
programs in public health from 19 European countries. Results: Information for 59 undergraduate public health
programmes was retrieved, 45 from west and 14 from east Europe. Subjects related to “Health Inequalities”, “Global
Health”, “Information Technologies”, “Ageing”, “Leadership”, “Genomics” are available in less than 50% of the
programmes in both west and east Europe. There is a clear difference between west and east programmes in some
aspects. In the central focus of training in PH in Bulgaria and the countries from Eastern Europe are the specialized
prevention disciplines related to hygiene and epidemiology of communicable diseases and a considerable number of
clinical disciplines. The latter are less presented in the training in Western European programmes, which are more
oriented towards health policy and management. Conclusions: There is a significant variation in the content and as a
result the professional competences provided by the undergraduate PH education programmes in Europe. Both west
and east European undergraduate PH programmes fail to address adequately the present global challenges in the area
starting with existing health inequalities. Recommendation: There is an urgent need for regulation of public health as a
basic regulated health profession in the European Union, which will entail standardization of the content of the
bachelor education and will stimulate the recognition and the importance of the profession across Europe as well.
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