Bielefeld School of Public Health celebrates 10th anniversary

Abstract

The only fully established School of Public Health in Germany, the SPH at Bielefeld University, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary in a festive ceremony. The School looks back over 10 very successful years in teaching and research best described by the growth in student numbers, chairs and extramural research grants. From a modest starting position in 1989 when teaching staff from various university faculties together with experts from a range of collaborating institutions first offered a Master of Public Health course, the School as an independent university faculty was inaugurated in 1994 when the University and the Government of NorthrhineWestphalia where Bielefeld is situated realized the obvious developmental potential in this field. Until today more than 800 students have successfully graduated from the School, which is currently staffed by 10 professors and 75 scientific staff in 8 departments. Apart from the highly successful MPH course, the School now offers a new Bachelor degree in health communication (BHC) with an annual number of 75 students, a PhD programme and a correspondance distance learning course in applied health sciences. In addition a Master of Science in epidemiology (MSE) is offered for those wishing to specialize in quantitative research. MPH students can obtain an additional degree of European Master of Public Health since Bielefeld is actively involved in the respective ASPHER activity. The Bielefeld School offers a range of scientific disciplines to its students and research partners. The departments comprise social epidemiology and health systems research, public health medicine, epidemiology and international public health, prevention and health promotion, health economics and management, nursing sciences and healthcare research as well as environment and health. Recently the new department of demography and health was opened, thus adding a highly relevant research field to the portfolio of the School. In terms of research activities the SPH has been able to attract more than 30 million Euros extramural research funding in the past 10 years, both from national and international sources. The research interests center around issues of health care research, child and youth health, quality in health care and environmental and infectious health hazards to name only a few. Reflecting public health as an interdisciplinary science the different departments aim at close collaboration in research and teaching. Internationally, the SPH is a WHO collaborating centre for child and adolescent health promotion, and the school also hosts several regional research co-ordination centers. For the future the Bielefeld School of Public Health will focus on the consolidation and further development of its now well established teaching programme and a decisive strengthening of research capacities. Closer ties with international partners are at the core of ongoing and future developments and grant-supported university partnerships with institutions in India and Turkey are currently being established. In this line Bielefeld SPH also looks forward very much to hosting the ASPHER Deans and Directors’ meeting in 2005.