The University of Liberia (UL) Faculty Senate has approved a proposal for the establishment of three Public Health Programs, pending approval by the Board of Trustees of the Institution, under the administration of current UL President Dr. Ophelia Weeks.
The programs include a Certificate in Heath Management, a Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BScPH), and a master of Public Health (MPH) with five focal areas, according to the University of Liberia Relations Office.
The MSc Public Health program will bring to four the number of professional schools at the University of Liberia. It currently runs the Achelle Mario Dogliotti College of Health and Life Sciences, the School of Pharmacy and the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law.
According to UL authorities, the School of Public health will provide students with a foundational understanding of core public health concepts and skills, as well as in-depth learning in a concentration area. Students will engage in practicum experiences across multiple levels of the health sector as well as on-campus research with motivational seed funding for projects that demonstrate strong innovation and problem solving.
On March 29, 2018, the University of Liberia Faculty Senate approved the curricula for the establishment of the health programs at an ‘Academic Coordination Committee’ (ACC) meeting, held in the conference room of the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
The curricula reflect an assessment of public health workforce needs in Liberia and an in-depth analysis of well-established programs globally and is being conducted under the leadership of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia and collaborators.
The UL Fendall campus outside Monrovia
Under the programs, the BScPH will prepare high school graduates with sufficient knowledge and training to enter into the public health workforce in entry-level positions and function effectively in those roles. The BScPH Degree will also serve as a bridge program for middle level health professionals who have not completed Bachelor’s degree, thus providing opportunities for them to complete undergraduate education and prepare them for graduate level programs in the University of Liberia MPH program.
The Masters of Public Health program will run for two years (4 semesters) plus one intersession period for full-time students. The program is designed to accept students with BSc in Nursing, Environmental Health, Public Health, Management, Sociology, Social work and other related areas. The curriculum of the program places emphasis on balancing both classroom-based training andpracticl training experiences embedded within actual workplaces involved in Public Health.
For concentration selection, students will undertake a core curriculum followed by concentration in one of four specific areas: Applied Epidemiology, Environmental Health, Health Systems Management and Public Health Laboratory.
MPH will also be offered in the Advanced Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP). The Advanced FETP MPH curriculum is modeled after internationally recognized programs and is currently being utilized at several institutions in the region, including the University of Ghana and the University of Ibadan and Amadou bello University in Nigeria.
Established programs for the Advanced FETP degree typically involve limited didactic teaching, with the majority of the program spent on field experience, research activities, seminar presentations, and thesis writing. The Advanced FETP program is expected to enroll students at a later date than the BScPH and the MPH programs. Students applying to the University of Liberia will be able to specify their interest in the public health program during the entrance exam process. The entrance exam for the BScPH will be the same as for all intended majors at the first degree level.
At a stakeholder meeting held in the conference room of the vice president for Academic Affairs on Thursday, June 28, 2018, to present the final draft to UL Administration for onward submission to the Board for approval, the president of the University of Liberia, Professor Dr. Ophelia Inez Weeks expressed joy for the proposal to establish the public health programs at the university.
“I’m very excited about the process and the people that are here today”. “I am very excited that people have spoken about the curriculum, potential finance and sustainability and I can’t think of any place for any program that is more sustainable than to be in a university campus”, Dr. Weeks expressed. She noted that although institutions may come and go, higher institution of learning in an institution is one of the most stabled. She hoped to be around to see the program moving.
The appeared to be very enthusiastic president could not hold her joy about the program, “I feel so optimistic about this program and again to see the cross session of people here because we have this feeling at the university that we are just about to take off; this is just another brick to that building that will take us to another set of level that we can’t wait to get to”, the president concluded.
In remarks, the vice president for Health and Life Sciences Dr. Z’Sherman Adams des cribbed the establishment of the programs at the University of Liberia as a great history for the university and the health sector of Liberia. He recalled for decades the University of Liberia, through the schools of medicine and Pharmacy has trained health practitioners of the country and with the recent addition of the Nursing and Midwifery programs, the establishment of the School of Public Health will expand the university’s role in training another level of health care professionals for the nation.
Dr. Adams said the UL Administration was happy to be a part the training of public health professionals, whom he said have a responsibility to make sure that the public is saved.
“Those in public health are making sure that those who are well do not get sick, they are caring on the bulk of the health care delivery system and the University of Liberia is about to train people for that workforce in public health; so this is historic moment and we are happy to be a part of it that school of health sciences and graduate programs will now be a part of the health workforce training,” Dr. Adams concluded.
Making a power point presentation of the final draft proposal of the School of Public Health, former Health Minister and one of the proponent of the document, Bernice Dahn, recalled an effort by the ministry to develop an ‘Investment Plan for building a resilient health care delivery system’ in partnership with the University of Liberia being a part, while the country was still responding to EBOLA in 2014/2015.
“The first pillar in the Investment Plan is to build a resilient fit for purpose health workforce”, Dr. Dahn narrated.
She said Liberia has never been in the meningitis belt until 2017, something she attributed to the emergence of several life threatening diseases globally. She named Monkey Pose, Rabbis, Laser Fever, among others as some of the diseases Liberia has recorded in recent years, noting that even though these diseases have existed for several years, Liberia for the first time recorded few cases in 2016/2017.
Reflecting on the impact of the EBOLA outbreak on the economy and the health workforce of Liberia, Dr. Dahn said the country was making a steady progress picking up in these areas prior to the 2014 outbreak. “As the result of the outbreak, everything went backwards; up to day’s date, we have not been able to catch up with where we were before the outbreak”, she lamented.
On the issue of health workers, Dr. Dahn recounted lives lost as a result of the already poor health system Liberia had in place before the outbreak, while at the same time schools were shot down to prevent the loss of more lives. Given these and many other reasons, the former Health Minister said the ministry redesigned her strategy on how it was implementing the health services, noting: “Even though we were actually making some significant head waves because Liberia did achieve the MDGs 4s three years before the end date, though we started very late in 2016”.
Dr. Dahn stated that as a result of the above reasons and many others, they decided to build the public health workforce by developing the ‘National Investment Plan for Building a Resilient Health Care Delivery System’, noting that pillar three is to build a robust health emergency risk management system that can detect, prevent and respond to tests, something that she said led them to establishing the National Public Health Institute of Liberia, which is focused on detecting, preventing and responding to emergencies, looking at public health research.
“We gave them the responsibility to work with the University of Liberia to also develop the public health workforce”, Dr. Dahn said. She added that haven done their due diligence leading to the establishment of the school, the University of Liberia faculty Senate on March 29, 2018 approved the curriculum for the establishment of the School of Public Health, which is now pending approval by the Board of Trustees of the institution.