Figure 1
General Structure for a Minor in Global Health.
Table 1
Current Curricular Models for Global Health Minors (2019–20).
| Model | Description | Typical Institutions |
|---|---|---|
| Intensive | An intensive global health minor typically consists of a series of specialty courses within global health (such as courses on global environmental health, maternal and child health, and global health leadership) | Universities offering an undergraduate and/or graduate degree, concentration, or certificate in global health as well as both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public health |
| Global public health | A global public health minor is centered around a core of three or more introductory public health courses, typically including public health, epidemiology, and global health | Colleges and universities that offer public health degrees at the undergraduate and/or graduate level but offer limited opportunities for global health engagement |
| Multidisciplinary | A multidisciplinary global health minor requires students to select courses from a diversity of academic departments, including at least one course offered by a science department (usually biology or environmental science) and at least one course offered by a social science department (such as sociology) | Liberal arts colleges and universities that do not offer undergraduate or graduate public health degrees |
| Anthropology | A social science oriented global health minor typically requires several courses related to anthropology, sociology, culture, and related fields | Universities for which the undergraduate minor is the only global health education program |
| Flexible | A flexible minor typically consists of an introductory global health course plus several electives selected from a generous list of science and/or social science fields | Liberal arts colleges and universities that do not offer undergraduate or graduate public health degrees |
Table 2
Recommended Undergraduate Global Health Student Learning Objectives.
| # | Learning Objective |
|---|---|
| 1 | Describe the history, values, and functions of global health. |
| 2 | Explain how travel, trade, and other aspects of globalization contribute to health, disease, and health disparities. |
| 3 | Summarize the social, economic, cultural, and political contributors to individual and population health. |
| 4 | Examine the connections between human health and environmental health, including considerations of water, sanitation, air quality, urbanization, and ecosystem health. |
| 5 | Discuss the relationship between human rights and global health. |
| 6 | Compare the financing and delivery of medical care in countries with different types of health systems and different income levels. |
| 7 | Evaluate the roles, responsibilities, and relationships of the agencies and organizations involved in financing and implementing public health interventions locally and internationally. |
| 8 | Compare the burden of disease, disability, and death from infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies, maternal and perinatal conditions, noncommunicable diseases, mental health disorders, and injuries in countries with different income levels. |
| 9 | Identify evidence-based, cost-effective, sustainable interventions for promoting health and preventing illness across the lifespan from the prenatal period through older adulthood. |
| 10 | Apply an interdisciplinary or interprofessional lens to the evaluation of policies and interventions that seek to solve major population health concerns and achieve health equity. |
Table 3
Evaluation of Current Curricular Models for Global Health Minors (2019–20).
| Model | Strengths | Possible Limitations |
|---|---|---|
| Intensive | Allows for deep exploration of specific areas within global health (such as global environmental health, global health policy, emerging infectious diseases, maternal and child health, and global health leadership) | Requires significant institutional resources specific to global health; Courses taught by experts in focused areas of research and practice may offer depth at the expense of disciplinary or professional breadth |
| Global public health | Emphasizes a set of core public health courses (introductory courses in epidemiology, global health, and U.S. public health policy) for which resources are available to support instructors without specialized training in global health | Treats global health as a subdiscipline of public health rather than as a multidisciplinary field that overlaps public health while drawing on other academic and professional areas; The public health core leaves few credits for courses specific to global health |
| Multidisciplinary | Applies a liberal arts lens to global health education by requiring students to examine complex issues from the perspectives of the natural sciences, social sciences, and (sometimes) the humanities; Requires limited institutional investment in courses specific to the global health minor | Demands that a single introductory global health course cover a wide range of global health principles and practices, because electives in supporting disciplines might only peripherally touch on topics specific to global health (such as a course in environmental science only briefly examining global environmental health concerns) |
| Anthropology | Allows students majoring in fields other than anthropology to deeply understand anthropological theories and methods as they apply to global health | Focuses narrowly on anthropological (and sometimes also sociological) approaches to global health, providing limited exposure to biological and public health perspectives |
| Flexible | Allows students the greatest freedom to craft their own programs of study that best align with their academic and professional interests; Requires limited institutional investment in courses specific to the global health minor | Requires intensive advising to ensure that each student’s unique set of curricular and co-curricular learning experiences provide some sort of coherent engagement with global health and enable the student to synthesize, integrate, and apply central global health principles |