Public Health Core Concepts Graduate Certificate

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The certificate program in Public Health Core Concepts is designed to give individuals, both working professionals and graduate students on campus with no formal public health education, a strong foundation of knowledge in the five core concept areas in public health: biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health sciences, health services administration, and social and behavioral sciences. The courses required for the certificate are the same ones required in the core concept areas for the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree program currently offered at Kansas State University. These five areas meet the Council of Education for Public Health (CEPH) program accreditation standards. The following are the basic or core competencies in each of the five discipline areas:

Biostatistics: collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, and interpretation of health data; design and analysis of health-related surveys and experiments; and concepts and practice of statistical data analysis.
Epidemiology: distributions and determinants of disease, disabilities, and death in human populations; the characteristics and dynamics of human populations; and the natural history of disease and the biologic basis of health.
Environmental Health Sciences: environmental factors including, biological, physical, and chemical factors that affect the health of a community.
Health Services Administration: planning, organization, administration, management, evaluation, and policy analysis of health programs.
Social and Behavioral Sciences: concepts and methods of social and behavioral sciences relevant to the identification and the solution of public health problems.

Enrolling in the Certificate Program

To apply for admission into the certificate program, students must have completed an undergraduate degree with a GPA of 3.0 or higher based on the last 60 credits of the bachelor’s degree AND be concurrently enrolled in a graduate program at K-State OR be admitted as a non-degree student. Acceptance into the certificate program does not automatically mean acceptance into the MPH degree program. The full sixteen hours in the graduate certificate, however, may be applied to the MPH degree upon application and acceptance into the MPH program.

Graduate students working toward advanced degrees may use any or all of the certificate courses in a program of study with the approval of the student’s supervisory committee. All students are required to fill out an enrollment form to maintain tracking of progress by the Master of Public Health Program Office. Completed forms should be signed, dated, and returned to the Program Director via campus mail or in person at 111B Mosier Hall. The Program Office will verify grades achieved prior to the expected date of graduation.

Required Courses

Coursework can be taken in a distance learning format or in the traditional on-campus classroom setting. The certificate program in public health core concepts requires a total of 16 credit hours taken from the following six courses:

DMP 708 - Principles and Methods of Epidemiology Credits: (2)
DMP 806 - Environmental Toxicology Credits: (2)
DMP 854 - Disease Epidemiology Credits: (3)
HMD 720 - Administration of Health Care Organizations Credits: (3)
KIN 818 - Social and Behavioral Bases of Public Health Credits: (3)
STAT 703 - Statistical Methods for Natural Scientists Credits: (3)

Notes:

STAT 702 may be taken in place of STAT 703. STAT 702 is currently available only on campus.
STAT 703, DMP 708, and HMD 720 are offered through distance learning.

If transfer courses are to be used to meet the certificate requirements, the student must furnish the program director with a certified university transcript and, in some cases, a copy of the course syllabus. A maximum of 6 transfer credit hours may be used to meet certificate requirements.

Upon approval by the program director, course credits earned before the student entered the certificate program may be applied to the Graduate Certificate in Pubic Health Core Concepts. Graduate students returning to acquire the certificate may be asked to repeat courses completed more than five years prior to the semester in which the certificate requirements are finished. Students in the certificate program will not have a supervisory committee to guide their program of study. All students admitted to the certificate program will take the same six required courses for a total of 16 credit hours. All courses applied toward the certificate must be completed with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher, with no grade lower than a B.

Program Administration

The Director of the Master of Public Health degree program will serve as the administrator of the Graduate Certificate in Public Health Core Concepts. The existing MPH Program is governed by a ten-member Coordinating Committee representing all five units participating in the program: Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology; Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics; Department of Human Nutrition; Department of Kinesiology; and the Food Science Institute. The Coordinating Committee meets once a month throughout the academic year. The Director of the MPH Program serves as the moderator at the meetings.