School of Public Health

Profile
The Bielefeld School of Public Health is dedicated to identifying the physical, mental and social factors related to health and disease, systematically documenting the distribution of health disorders in the population, and addressing questions around the organization and management of healthcare systems. The School engages in interdisciplinary collaborations with the aim of analyzing the conditions necessary for health and disease, and to develop approaches to improving healthcare.

Structure of the Faculty
The Bielefeld School of Public Health was founded upon the model of independent Schools of Public Health, which focuses on an interdisciplinary and problem-oriented approach. The School was founded in 1994 and incorporates all scientific disciplines relevant to public health. The School is organized into several departments, each of which is engaged in specific tasks of teaching and in the acquisition for and conducting of research projects, often in collaboration with other departments, Schools or partners outside the University of Bielefeld.

Research Profile
Maintaining and promoting the health of populations and population subgroups is one of the most important societal challenges today. Insights from public health research help to quantify health risks and to develop evidence-based interventions for health promotion and prevention.

Bielefeld School of Public Health lives up to this challenge. It is organized as a professional School of Public Health with a particular focus on interdisciplinary, problem-oriented, basic research. This is a consequence of the nature of the study subject "population health" which defies monodisciplinary access, both at the level of analysis and at the level of necessary interventions. Based on its interdisciplinary culture, our School analyzes and tackles pressing public health challenges in Germany, in Europe, and world-wide. These include, for example, the demographic transition which is associated with a growing importance of chronic diseases and an increasing need for nursing care, the persisting social inequality in health nationally and internationally, and the analysis of health and health care provision against the background of a progressive diversification of society (e. g. because of migration).

These and similar societal challenges constitute the background for the research orientation of our School. Our research interest includes the analysis of the physical, psychological and social conditions which determine health and illness in different population groups, as well as the analysis of the consequences for health care systems, health policy, health management and health system design. The researchers of our School use various theoretical, paradigmatic and methodological approaches from the various disciplines of Public Health in their analyses. Of particular relevance for our research is the combination biomedical and social-behavioral traditions of scientific thinking.

Degree programs
The School of Public Health offers a consecutive (follow-on) degree program, encompassing a Bachelor of Science Health Communication (BHC), a Master of Science Public Health (MPH) and a Doctor of Public Health (Dr PH). The MPH can be expanded into a European Master of Public Health.

The School also offers numerous advanced training opportunities, as in the specialized degrees Master of Health Administration (MHA) and Master of Work Place Health Management (MWPHM), as well as the distance learning certification Applied Health Science (FAG)

Beyond these, the School has developed an e-learning program for all University members interested in training in SPSS and Excel.