Journal of Community Health

, Volume 38, Issue 2, pp 357–359 | Cite as

Alumni Evaluation of a Community-Oriented Master of Public Health Program

Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

Health workforce development is a public health priority for the World Health Organization. Public Health training programs need to be relevant in a public health perspective and efficient in and educational perspective. This implies evaluating the programs: in this regard student’s perception might be interesting, or the opinion of external experts, or the experience of alumni. To study the perception of alumni of a master’s program in public health in order to reevaluate the goals and objectives of the program, a cross-sectional survey through a self-administered questionnaire among former students that graduated from the Geneva University Master in Public Health program was done. This self-administered questionnaire included closed questions on a Likert five-point scale for regarding the use at work of tools acquired during the course, as well as open questions. Overall the alumni gave a positive evaluation of the course. As strong points were mentioned: networking opportunities, student-centered approach and multi-professional background of the student body. More critically judged were: tutorship, time constraints and costs. As most useful tools in their professional settings alumni mentioned: communication skills, project evaluation competencies and literature search strategies and again networking which in this case seemed to be quite active. Evaluation surveys among alumni allow reevaluation of the program’s goals and objectives in the light of their professional needs.

Keywords

Training program evaluation Master in public health Graduates Public health competencies 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  • Emilien Jeannot
    • 1
    • 3
  • Beat Stoll
    • 1
  • Philippe Chastonay
    • 1
    • 2
  1. 1.Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, IMSP-CMUUniversity of GenevaGeneve 4Switzerland
  2. 2.Unit of Development and Research in Medical Education, Faculty of MedicineUniversity of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland
  3. 3.University of Applied Sciences Western SwitzerlandGenevaSwitzerland

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