Federal Support of Schools of Public Health

Abstract

T HE UNITED STATES has 12 accredited schools of public health, 6 public and 6 private. Each is part of a university that operates a medical school. The six public schools are at the Universities of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles and the Universities of Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico>. The six private school's are at Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Pittsburgh, Tul,ane, and Yale Universities. All six of the private schools were included in this study but only five of the public schools. The school of public health of the University of California, Los Angeles, was not included because it first became a separate, accredited school during the period covered by this study and its sources of support were not comparable to those of the other schools. Schools of public he.alth have a unique public service function in that their major responsibility is to give advanced training to physicians, nurses, and other health workers who are preparing for or are engaged in public service in Federal, State, and local health agencies, or in public health services in other countries. Since the number of schools is so small, each of the 12 accredited schools has a regional, or indeed a national, role. In addition to training students for work in many geographic areas', the schools through their faculties perform a variety of advisory and service functions for public healtl and related agencies. Enrollment in the schools of public health has increased substantially in the past 4 years. Between 1957 and 1961 enrollment increased by 13 percent, with a rise in graduate enrollment of 28 percent. Despite this increase, however, output of the schools falls far short of meeting the demand for trained public health workers. As new areas of public health responsibility emerge, the problem of providing adequate training to meet the manifest public need increases in urgency. The major teaching emphasis and operational cost in these schools relate to graduate education of professional personnel-the most costly level of education. In 1961 the 11 schools in full operation had 1,257 full-time equivalent graduate and special students, of whom 751, or 60 percent, were federally sponsored (table 1). Two part-time students are counted as equivalent to one full-time student. The figure 1,257 was derived from the total of 1,489 full-time and part-time graduate and special students reported by the schools of public health and is very close to the number of equivalent full-time students reported in computations for formula grants from the Public Health Service. Seven percent of the graduate and special students were sponsored by international agencies and foreign governments. These proportions were much the same in the public and private schools. In addition to the training of graduate students, the five public schools provide undergraduate training which is largely public health training for nurses. About a quarter of the undergraduate students were federally sponsored. Of the total enrollment, 52 percent were sponsored by Mrs. West is chief of the Health Service Requirements Branch, Division of Public Health Methods, Public Health Service. Dr. Gooch and Miss Raup are members of the staff of that branch. Data on students and sources of funds were obtained from the schools of public health in November 1961 by means of a mailed questionnaire.