Studies & Degrees in Public Health
Public Health Study Programs
Public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities, in the definition used by the CDC Foundation in the United States. Doctors and nurses treat individual patients. Public health works on whole populations, from a neighbourhood to a country: it prevents disease, promotes healthier living and prepares the response to outbreaks and other threats.
NHS Health Careers in the United Kingdom groups the work into three areas: health protection (clean air, water and food, infectious disease control, emergency response), improving people's health and reducing health inequalities, and making health services effective, efficient and equally accessible.
What students learn
Programmes combine health sciences with statistics and social sciences. The core subjects are epidemiology, which studies the causes and spread of disease at population level, and biostatistics. Around them come environmental and occupational health, health promotion and education, health policy and management, and global health. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), epidemiology programmes include coursework in public health, biological and physical sciences, and maths and statistics, and master's programmes may require an internship or practicum that lasts from a semester to a year.
Qualifications and levels
- Bachelor's degrees. Common in the United States, where universities offer a Bachelor of Science in Public Health. In Spain, public health is studied mainly at postgraduate level, after a degree in medicine, nursing, pharmacy or another health or social science.
- Master of Public Health (MPH). The standard professional qualification in many countries. The University of Washington School of Public Health, for example, offers MPH tracks in epidemiology, environmental health sciences, global health, health services and nutritional sciences, and requires every MPH student to complete a practicum.
- Master's degrees in Spain. Official master's degrees have 60, 90 or 120 ECTS credits under Real Decreto 822/2021. An example is the Máster en Epidemiología of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM): 1 year, 60 ECTS, taught in Spanish. UAM gives an approximate first-enrolment price of €2,736, or €5,079 for non-resident students from outside the EU (figures on its site in October 2026).
- Medical specialty in Spain. Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública is an official medical specialty that lasts 4 years and requires a prior degree in Medicine. The official programme defines five fields: epidemiology, health administration, preventive medicine, environmental and occupational health, and health promotion. The first stage is nine months at an accredited school of public health.
- Doctorates. A PhD for research careers, and in the United States also the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH), which San Diego State University lists among its 19 degrees and certificates.
In the United States, the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) is the independent agency that accredits schools of public health and public health programmes outside those schools. In the UK, the Faculty of Public Health oversees the quality of training of public health consultants.
Where to study
SpainExchange lists 62 active schools for public health. The United States has 31 and Spain 10. The United Kingdom and Sweden have 2 each, and the rest are spread over other countries, among them Denmark, Ireland, Australia, Mexico, China, the Philippines, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.
The listed schools in the United States include the University of Washington, San Diego State University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Florida, Purdue University and Temple University. The University of Washington School of Public Health and the San Diego State University School of Public Health both appear on CEPH's list of accredited schools. In Spain, the list includes the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the Universidad de Cádiz and the Universidad de Murcia. Elsewhere it includes Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, the University of the Philippines Manila, Fudan University in Shanghai and Africa University in Zimbabwe.
Most programmes are taught in the national language, and many universities also teach master's degrees in English. Health systems, law and disease patterns differ between countries, so it helps to study in the country or region where you want to work. Ask each school which public health degree it offers now and how it is accredited.
Careers
Graduates work for national, regional and local health authorities, hospitals, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, research institutes and universities. Typical roles are epidemiologist, health programme manager, health promotion officer, environmental health officer, policy analyst and biostatistician.
For the United States, the BLS reports that epidemiologists typically need at least a master's degree, often an MPH. They held about 12,800 jobs in 2025, a third of them in state government. Employment is projected to grow 19 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations. No comparable official figure for Spain was found for this page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a medical degree to study public health?
No. Master's programmes in public health admit graduates from many fields, and the BLS notes that applicants to epidemiology programmes typically hold a bachelor's degree in a field such as biology, public policy or social science. The Spanish specialty of Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública is the exception: it requires a degree in Medicine.
How long does a master's degree in public health take?
In Spain, official master's degrees have 60, 90 or 120 ECTS credits; the UAM master's degree in epidemiology takes 1 year with 60 ECTS. In other countries the length varies by university, so check each programme.
What is the difference between public health and medicine?
Medicine cares for individual patients. Public health protects and improves the health of whole populations through prevention, health promotion and the organisation of health services.
Is accreditation important in the United States?
CEPH accredits schools and programmes of public health and publishes the list of those that are accredited. Check whether a programme is on the list before you apply.