Public Health

Overview

Health-related positions in the United Nations (WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNAIDS, and others) and unilateral international agencies (USAID) almost always require or prefer candidates with MPH degrees. There is a growing need for MPH-trained personnel as administrators, researchers, and assessment specialists in hospitals and other health institutions. In the private sector pharmaceutical, health insurance and biotechnology companies are hiring public health professionals. Sometimes MPH graduates start their own businesses.

Increasing numbers of universities, both in Kazakhstan and outside Kazakhstan, are hiring MPH graduates for teaching, administrative work, and research. The MPH is also a gateway degree for MPH graduates who want to pursue a doctorate in a public health field in universities outside of Kazakhstan.

Aims of the Master of Public Health at Nazarbayev University:

Engage students through transformational education and training in internationally-accepted best practices in population-based approaches to address health, health conditions, and disease determinants for the prevention and control of disease, disability, and untimely death.

MPH Program Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of the Master of Public Health program graduates will be able to:

• Assess the health needs of defined populations, including critically characterizing distributions of determinants of health, morbidity, mortality, disability, the burden of disease, and application to inform the development of more effective and more cost-effective interventions.
• Develop, analyze, and implement targeted health policies, projects, and programs.
• Assure the appropriateness and effectiveness of a given public health intervention through monitoring and evaluation and other means.
• Communicate and disseminate public health messages to targeted audiences in the general public and professional groups, including the writing of scientific papers for international conferences and submission to international biomedical and public health peer-reviewed journals.
• Apply behavioral sciences in public health research and practice, including identifying psycho-social determinants and etiologies of health conditions and design of behavioral interventions to improve health and well-being.
• Apply biomedical sciences in public health research and practice, including characterizing and evaluating modes of transmission and etiology, pathophysiology, and host responses to vaccines, chemoprophylaxis, and pharmacological methods of prevention, treatment, and management of disease of public health importance.
• Apply environmental health sciences in public health research and practice, including identification and appraisal of environmental exposures associated with disease, disability, and death, especially for susceptible populations, and conducting risk assessment/risk management analysis.
• Apply management sciences in public health research and practice, including characterizing health service systems’ organizations and structures, evaluating health delivery system models, assessing and improving health service management through changes in strategic planning and organizational design, applying concepts of human resource management to achieve strategic objectives, and preparing budgets.
• Utilize quantitative sciences to design, conduct, analyze and interpret quantitative health research and statistical analysis, plan and conduct epidemiological surveillance, and critique and explain published peer-reviewed biomedical and public health literature.
• Utilize qualitative sciences to design, conduct, analyze and interpret health research and critique
• Demonstrate integration of new knowledge and skills with previous training and experience by critical and selective application within a personally and professionally relevant context, including fostering life-long learning and open critical thinking.

Career and Educational Opportunities After Graduation:

There is a growing national and international demand for MPH graduates. The Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy identifies preventive medicine, environmental protection, population health, and access to health as priorities- all requiring public health-trained professionals. The Ministry of Health and Social Development and its affiliated institutes and centers, and the National Medical Holding hire MPH-trained professionals.