Graduate Certificate in Public Health

Admission Requirements

  1. Completion of the UND School of Graduate Studies application and payment of the application fee.
  2. A baccalaureate degree or equivalent from an accredited college or university (for U.S. degrees, accreditation by one of the six regional accrediting associations: MSA, NASC, NCA, NEASC-CIHE, SACS-CC or WACS-Sr.).
  3. An undergraduate and graduate (if applicable) cumulative grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.00.
  4. Satisfy the School of Graduate Studies' English Language Proficiency requirements as published in the graduate catalog.

Application Requirements

  1. Official post-secondary academic transcripts from all institutions attended.
  2. A written statement that describes the applicant's professional goals and motivation for seeking a certificate in public health. (optional but greatly encouraged; limit 1 page)

Certificate Requirements

The Graduate Certificate in Public Health is offered as part of the Public Health Program. It is designed for people who wish to obtain formal training in public health, but do not want to earn the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. These include people currently working in the public health and health care fields, as well as others.

Depending on the area of emphasis, the Graduate Certificate in Public Health requires completion of 12-13 credits. Students may earn the certificate in one of three emphases: General Public Health, Population Health Research & Analytics or Indigenous Health. The General Public Health and Population Health Research & Analytics emphases require completion of 13 credits, and both require biostatistics and epidemiology. In addition to these two common courses, the General Public Health emphasis requires 3 other MPH core courses, and the Population Health Research & Analytics emphasis requires research methods and two analytics electives. The Indigenous Health emphasis requires completion of 12 credits.

All credits from the certificate program can be transferred toward the MPH degree, if the student wishes. In addition, some students who complete the General Public Health Certificate will be eligible to sit for the Certified in Public Health (CPH) examination. For more information and CPH eligibility requirements visit https://www.nbphe.org. 

Areas of Emphasis

General Public Health

The following courses are required for the General Public Health emphasis in the Graduate Certificate in Public Health.

PH 504Public Health Management, Planning, and Health Care Systems3
PH 520Environmental Health2
PH 531Biostatistics 13
PH 541Public Health Communication2
PH 551Epidemiology 13

Population Health Research & Analytics

The following courses are required for the Population Health Research & Analytics emphasis in the Graduate Certificate in Public Health. 

PH 505Public Health Data Management in SAS1
PH 531Biostatistics 13
PH 551Epidemiology 13
PH 532Biostatistics 23
or PH 550 Population Health Research Methods
PH 552Epidemiology 23

Indigenous Health

The following courses are required for the Indigenous Health emphasis in the Graduate Certificate in Public Health. 

PH 581Principles of Indigenous Health3
PH 582Social Ecological Determinants of Indigenous Health3
PH 583American Indian Health Policy3
PH 584Public Health Programming in Indigenous Populations3