Table 1.
Curricular offerings in global public health at 50 liberal arts colleges in the United States*
| Category | No. (%) | College consortium† | No. courses (n ± SD)‡ | Student global or public health organizations, no. (%) | Student service, social justice, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome organizations, no. (%)§ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural sciences | Social sciences | Humanities and the Arts | Interdisciplinary | Other | Total | |||||
| Colleges with formal curricular offering in global or public health¶ | 21/50 (42) | 8/21 (38) | 5.9 ± 6.4 | 17.1 ± 14.8 | 3.0 ± 3.0 | 1.5 ± 2.4 | 0.9 ± 2.1 | 28.4 ± 22.9 | 6/21 (29) | 15/21 (71) |
| Track | 9# | 0/9 | 3/8 | 5/8 | ||||||
| Concentration | 5 | 0/5 | 1/5 | 4/5 | ||||||
| Program | 3# | 3/3 | 2/3 | 1/3 | ||||||
| Early study for MPH** | 5 | 5/5 | 0/5 | 5/5 | ||||||
| Colleges with no formal curricular offering | 29/50 (58) | – | 1.2 ± 3.0 | 4.6 ± 4.9 | 0.3 ± 0.5 | 0.4 ± 1.0 | 0.1 ± 0.6 | 6.7 ± 6.7 | 9/29 (31) | 18/29 (62) |
| Total | 50 | 3.2 ± 5.3 | 9.9 ± 12.0 | 1.4 ± 2.4 | 0.8 ± 1.5 | 0.5 ± 1.5 | 15.8 ± 19.0 | 15/50 (30) | 33/50 (66) | |
The 50 top-ranked liberal arts colleges in the United States as ranked by U.S. News and World Report in 2009. These colleges are listed in Supplementary Table 2.
Curricular offering is through a consortium of colleges where courses can be taken at multiple institutions.
Courses that had the theme of global health or public health, by course grouping, e.g., natural sciences. When a college had a track, concentration, or program in global or public health, usually all courses within this were listed.
When a college did not have a global health or public health organization, did they have service, social justice or human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) organizations? Pre-professional medical dental or nursing organizations were excluded.
A formal curricular offering was as a track (series of courses within a concentration), concentration (a discipline, such as International Studies, where the student puts together multiple courses to fulfill the requirements; often thought of a minor), or program (a multi-institutional curriculum leading to a certificate).
One college, Smith College, had its own track as well as being part of a five college consortium (Amherst, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Hampshire, and the University of Massachusetts) for a program in Culture, Health, and Science.
The Claremont colleges in California (Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Scripps and Pitzer) allow third-year undergraduate students to work simultaneously toward completion of their undergraduate degree and a masters in public health (MPH) at Claremont Graduate University School of Community and Global Health.