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Simon Fraser University’s master of public health (MPH) degree is the first such program in English Canada to receive accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).

“This confirms our MPH program is recognized by the lead accreditation group in the world and establishes us as a premier training program in Canada,” says John O’Neil, dean of SFU’s Faculty of Health Sciences. “It also confirms for the public health community that our students are studying curriculum and competencies that meet international standards.



“Other programs in Canada may offer MPH programs, but without accreditation you have no idea what the students are learning. There is no standardization in those programs.”

The University of Montreal, in primarily French-speaking Canada, is the only other school nationally with an MPH program accredited by CEPH.

Public health graduates are trained to protect the community’s health through identifying, evaluating, and monitoring disease and illness patterns, and implementing programs and services to prevent disease and promote healthy environments and healthy living.

SFU applied for accreditation with CEPH because there isn’t a Canadian equivalent of the U.S. organization. CEPH is an independent body established by the American Public Health Association and the U.S.-based Association of Schools of Public Health to evaluate and accredit public health schools and programs. Their accreditation standards are extremely rigorous and place ongoing demands on programs to report on a variety of outcomes related to student success.

Accreditation means SFU’s MPH program has been evaluated and met accepted standards established by public health professionals. This assures the curriculum covers essential skills and knowledge needed for today’s jobs.

Canadian officials started to realize the important of creating public health training programs following the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002. O’Neil believes this wake-up call led to discussions about Canada’s ability to quickly and effectively respond to a health crisis.

“We were just plain lucky with SARS,” he says. “I think everybody who works in public health would say it was a stroke of luck that we didn’t have a major epidemic that might’ve killed thousands across the country and around the world.”

O’Neil adds everyone was better prepared in 2009 for H1N1 thanks to lessons learned from SARS.

“Although H1N1 wasn’t as serious as we thought it was going to be, the fact that we identified a few cases in Mexico early on allowed the world to prepare for it. That capacity probably wasn’t there 10 years ago,” O’Neil says. “It might’ve become far more epidemic before anyone realized we had a new flu virus on their hands. Who knows … it could’ve mutated and become more serious.

“These bugs can go from being a mild flu to deadly very quickly if there isn’t an early response to it.”

SFU’s MPH program was established in September 2004. Its researchers and students come from disciplines as diverse as molecular biology, epidemiology, geography, medicine and anthropology. There are currently 35 faculty members, 907 health science majors, and 166 graduate students in the program.

The accreditation also covers the Faculty of Health Sciences’ undergraduate bachelor of arts and bachelor of science programs.

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