Graduate Certificate in Public Health

Courses are offered 100% online in 8-week and 16-week sessions. Students typically take up to 2 courses per semester.

The certificate is comprised of five courses (3 credits each):

• BACH 5300 Theoretical Foundations of Individuals and Community Health (3 SCH): Introduction to theoretical approaches used in facilitating behavioral, social and cultural changes needed for improving population health. Students learn the importance of integrating multidisciplinary perspectives- behavioral, social, cultural, political, and economic- to address health disparities and assess impacts of health policy. The course will rely on an ecological framework to examine theories of individual and community health at multiple levels.
• BIOS 5300 Principles of Biostatistics (3 SCH): Basic knowledge and skills to effectively use biostatistics in research design and data analysis and to understand articles in related professional journals. Topics include choosing appropriate research designs and statistical methods in public health research and practice; descriptive statistics; probability and probability distributions; estimation and hypothesis testing; simple linear regression; introduction to analysis of variance and an introduction to the use of statistical software packages.
• EOHS 5300 Environmental Determinants of Health I (3 SCH): introduction to the environmental (physical, chemical, biological) determinants that influence human health and means of controlling these determinants. This course will discuss municipal water supply and disposal, ambient and indoor air quality, solid and hazardous wastes, food protection, vector control, pesticides, occupational safety, toxicology, risk assessment/risk communication and genomics.
• EPID 5300 Principles of Epidemiology (3 SCH): Introduce public health students to epidemiology so that they understand how epidemiology contributes to (1) identifying factors that cause diseases, (2) assessing the public health importance of diseases, (3) describing the natural history of diseases, and (4) evaluating procedures for preventing diseases.
• HMAP 5300 Introduction to Health Management and Policy (3 SCH): What is “population health” and why does it matter? How does the U.S health care system compare to health systems in other countries? Why are U.s health care costs so high? How is the U.S health system financed? What are the basic principles of health insurance?  Who are the uninsured?  What is the state of U.S health care reform? It is critical that public health professionals be able to answer these questions and understand the components of the U.S health care system. This course will answer these questions through an introduction to the areas of Health Management and Health Policy concerned with the delivery, quality and costs of health care for individuals and populations. The course will examine the structure, processes and outcomes of health services, financing, organization, outcomes and accessibility of care. This course will give an overview and prepare you for future study in health management and policy. This introductory course is introduced for MPH students and serves to fulfill a core course requirement in Health Management and Policy.

• A maximum of 15 semester hours may be taken.
• Completion of departmental graduate courses by certificate students does not obligate the School of Public Health to grant admission to a degree program at a later date unless all general and specific requirements for admission to that program have been met.
• Financial aid (loans) is not available in this status. Private/alternative loans and alternative payment options can be discussed with the Office of Financial Aid.  Estimated cost $5,250 for Texas Residents. $12, 500 for Non-residents.