Seven additional years of accreditation for UdeM's School of Public Health

High-quality teaching programs, a highly qualified and diverse faculty, a stimulating study environment, and cutting-edge research: these are all criteria that the Université de Montréal School of Public Health (ESPUM) had to meet to obtain renewal of its accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health.

In July 2017, the ESPUM had become the first and only francophone institution accredited by CEPH, the independent U.S. organization responsible for accrediting public health schools and programs worldwide. On Dec. 2, its board renewed this accreditation for a seven-year cycle, the maximum possible duration.

‘Very proud of this recognition’

"The ESPUM community is very proud of this recognition, which reflects the excellent work done since 2013 to create a school at the forefront of public health," says ESPUM dean Carl-Ardy Dubois.

That pride is fully justified: among the 66 accreditations awarded by CEPH are such renowned institutions as the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Yale School of Public Health.

To date, the ESPUM remains the only French-language institution to benefit from this prestigious recognition and is thus ranked among the best in the world for teaching and research in key areas of public health such as environmental health, epidemiology, bioethics, global health, health promotion and health services management. This excellence is reflected both in the strong attractiveness of the school's programs and in the very high placement rates of its graduates.

Dubois said the exercise of reapplying for accreditation exercise, to which the entire school community contributed, was not an end in itself, but rather a springboard for continuous improvement. The preparations will have been very useful in identifying the additional investments that must be made by the institution to continue its consolidation and transformation.

Increased recognition of skills

By offering the guarantee of an education that meets the highest academic standards, the CEPH accreditation will not only contribute to reinforcing the attractiveness of the ESPUM's programs, but will also ensure that graduates receive increased recognition of their skills both here and abroad, said Dubois.

This recognition also confirms the social utility of the school and its role in solving major health problems and improving the overall health of populations, he added, emphasizing that the school's ambition is to go beyond the role of preparing students for the world of work.

The larger goal, he said, is to place the ESPUM at the heart of initiatives providing answers to major societal challenges: development of sustainable health systems, reduction of health inequalities, the fight against climate change, and the preservation of ecosystems.