The Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) is an independent agency recognized by the US Department of Education to accredit schools of public health and certain public health programs offered in settings other than schools of public health. These schools and programs prepare students for entry into careers in public health. The primary professional degree is the Master of Public Health (MPH) but other masters and doctoral degrees are offered as well.
The information on this page is provided on the CEPH website.
The goal of the Council is “to enhance health in human populations through organized community effort.” The Council’s focus is the improvement of health through the assurance of professional personnel who are able to identify, prevent and solve community health problems.
The Council’s objectives are:
1) to promote quality in public health education through a continuing process of self-evaluation by the schools and programs that seek accreditation;
2) to assure the public that institutions offering graduate instruction in public health have been evaluated and judged to meet standards essential for the conduct of such educational programs; and
3) to encourage – through periodic review, consultation, research, publications, and other means – improvements in the quality of education for public health.
Historical Background
Graduate education in public health began in the early 1900s and formal accreditation was initiated in the mid-1940s when 10 schools of public health were recognized by the American Public Health Association (APHA), the nation’s largest individual public health membership organization. From 1945 to 1973, APHA carried out accreditation of graduate professional education in public health, at first centered almost exclusively in schools of public health but later including other college and university settings.
In 1974 the independent Council on Education for Public Health was established by APHA and the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH), the national organization representing deans, faculty and students of accredited schools of public health. Responsibility for the evaluation of schools of public health was transferred to CEPH which initially limited its focus to school accreditation. In the late 1970s CEPH responded to requests from practitioners and educators to undertake accreditation of community health/preventive medicine programs, and to a request from APHA to assume the additional responsibility for community health education programs. In 2005, these separate programmatic categories were combined into a single category of public health programs.
For more information on the CEPH, please visit their website.
