ASPH Accreditation

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Robert_555, Sep 9, 2005.

Loading...
  1. Robert_555

    Robert_555 New Member

    Just recently, I graduated from Touro University International(TUI) with a double masters in public health and health education. However, since TUI has only a school of Health Science and not a school of public health, they are not eligable for a accreditation from Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH). Right now, I am an intern/volunteer to get some experience as a health educator with a private health clinic. Does anyone here work in the field of public health with an M.S. in Health Science (or related degree) or an have an MPH without ASPH accreditation? If so, has it made it difficult for you to find employment? It seems like ASPH accreditation from my research in most positions is not needed for employment at many private, local, state, and federal health agencies.
     
  2. Gregory Gulick DO

    Gregory Gulick DO New Member

    Great question, Robert. I'm glad to see you have done your homework. Before I started my MPH I did some homework on the different programs to see if ASPH accreditation was offered. At the time (and I don't know if it has changed), NONE of the 100% distance learning MPH programs were ASPH accredited. Furthermore, I looked at the listing of ASPH accredited schools and compared it to the total number of MPH programs in the country and it turned out that about 50% of the programs were ASPH accredited.

    So what did I do next? (please feel free to laugh) I contacted each and every dean of every non-ASPH accredited program (DL and B&M) and asked them why they weren't ASPH accredited. They were all very, very nice. And practically all of them were annoyed with the ASPH accreditation process. Some of the responses I received included:

    • The school had no desire to seek ASPH accreditation. One school, I think it was Drexel, wasn't accredited at the time and didn't care.
    • Some said that ASPH would raise their tuition because of the requirements that ASPH would place on their programs (I believe they had to offer multiple tracks, etc.)
    • One school (a medical school) only wanted to offer the MPH with an administrative focus. In order to receive ASPH accreditation they would have to offer concentrations in biostats, epi, community health education, etc. This would mean hiring more faculty, increasing costs to students, and they felt it wasn't worth it.
    • Some of the schools were not colleges of public health and therefore didn't qualify.

    I remember some of these programs were at medical schools and were taught through the colleges of medicine and not through a college of public health. I don't think this qualifies for ASPH accreditation. My MPH program, for example, was taught through a medical school - non-ASPH accredited (regionally/nationally accredited, of course).

    How will this affect you? Who knows for sure. Some people told me I would not be able to do a fellowship at the CDC if I so desired... (then they realized I was already a physician and said, "Oh yeah, nevermind.") One program director from a ASPH accredited school said I might not be able to enter a PhD program at an ASPH accredited school. One of the deans from a B&M, non-ASPH accredited school gave me several alumni contacts from their school who now work in public health departments. That school could care less that they weren't ASPH accredited.

    So in sum, when I started, half the programs in the country were non-ASPH accredited and no DL programs were ASPH accrdited. I saw hundreds of MPH graduates coming out of non-ASPH schools -- most of them physicians and probably none of them knew anything about ASPH accreditation. I decided that for me, ASPH accreditation didn't matter. Besides, it looked like I was going to be in the majority (a graduate of a non-ASPH school). The school I chose was regionally and nationally accredited and I didn't feel that lack of ASPH accreditation would hamper me at all since so many schools lacked it at the time... and many of these are big name schools.

    In my humble opinion (and I realize it does not count), the ASPH needs to get with the times and begin to modify their standards and work to improve ALL regionally and nationally accredited programs no matter where they are.

    I hope this helps.

    Please excuse the typos... I'm tired.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 9, 2005
  3. Robert_555

    Robert_555 New Member

    Dr Gulick,

    I have had several interviews after graduating from TUI with local county public health depts. and only one position (that of a health educator) required ASPH accreditation. It is some law in California that is silly. However this applies to only state, county, and city employment. The private sector is not required to follow this law. The place where I am interning( a private clinic), my boss also came from a school of health science and she had no problems with securing a position once she got experience.
    I would also agree that ASPH and other kinds of accreditation drives up the cost of an education substantially. I am not an expert in the realm of academia,but it is darned expensive to become regionally accredited then to obtain specialized accreditation? Good lord, no wonder one reason why educational costs are out of control. I will start a new thread on this topic. The responses should be interesting.
     

Share This Page