Abstract
The rapid development of the undergraduate major in public health over the past 15 years has led to a debate about the most appropriate framing for the degree. Should it be viewed as a liberal education degree (akin to academic disciplines such as psychology and political science) or as a professional training degree (akin to disciplines such as nursing and management)? This paper presents an overview of both the liberal education and the professional training degree approaches to the undergraduate public health degree. The reality of public health work in the modern era and the constraints on undergraduate-level training lead to our conclusion that the liberal education framing is a more optimal way to design the degree program. Such a framework optimizes career opportunities, especially long-term opportunities, for graduates, acknowledges the reality of the complex and diverse career paths that one can take under the general umbrella of public health, and accounts for the important role of critical thinking skills in undergraduate education. Ultimately, the distinction between liberal education and professional training may be fuzzier than the debate often highlights—an intentional, well-designed, and thoughtfully implemented undergraduate public health curriculum can address the range of student needs underlying both the liberal education and professional training approaches to the degree, thus optimizing both learning goals and career outcomes for undergraduate public health students.
Highlights
The landscape of public health education has changed dramatically in recent years
The expanded range of career options that influence the health of communities discussed earlier means that identifying and targeting clear professional skills at the undergraduate level is complicated and perhaps requires a narrowing of focus too soon in an undergraduate’s education to truly meet the needs of a new public health workforce. Where does this analysis leave us? What practical take aways should those running undergraduate public health programs or developing future undergraduate public health programs take from our analysis of the liberal arts and professional education perspectives? At the most basic level, we hope that this analysis of the implications of these two guiding frameworks highlights the critical need to be intentional in selecting a framework, developing desired learning outcomes, and shaping a curriculum based on those decisions
When designing a liberal education curriculum, there is nothing to stop the educator from selecting disciplinary material with an eye toward initial professional roles—teaching problem solving skills using problems curated to match those that will be encountered in initial professional positions, addressing critical thinking by selecting information and arguments relevant to job roles, and establishing internship opportunities in targeted areas for students planning direct workforce entry provides the potential to maintain a core focus on the higher order liberal education skills while still enhancing job transfer and professional applicability of the public health education
Summary
The rapid development of the undergraduate major in public health over the past 15 years has led to a debate about the most appropriate framing for the degree Should it be viewed as a liberal education degree (akin to academic disciplines such as psychology and political science) or as a professional training degree (akin to disciplines such as nursing and management)? The reality of public health work in the modern era and the constraints on undergraduate-level training lead to our conclusion that the liberal education framing is a more optimal way to design the degree program.
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