Swiss TPH

Since December 2001, the postgraduate degree Master of Advanced Studies in International Health has been fully accredited by the University of Basel. It is one of the first joint Master's degree programmes in the field of Public Health to be recognised by a number of universities in different countries (9 at the time of writing). The MIH degree was established by an association of 27 institutions in Europe - mostly Tropical Institutes, but also Public Health Departments and institutions involved in development studies, which are members of the European Network for Education in International Health (tropEd). Swiss TPH is founding member of tropEd, and since 1995 has been one of the two co-ordinating centres of the network. Besides some funding through the European Commission, the input of Swiss TPH and the co-ordination of the network was substantially supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC) and the Swiss Federal Office of Education and Science (BBW).

The goal of tropEd is to promote excellence in postgraduate education and training in International Health. It aims to foster mobility of students and teachers - indeed, it is a requirement of the programme that students must take courses in different countries. tropEd has been very successful in bringing together institutions with very different experience and histories, working in 11 countries with various patterns of postgraduate education, to plan a common curriculum. This takes into account the change in emphasis in international health from a concentration on tropical medicine to a focus on public health issues. The approach to the course includes an understanding of development as an exchange of ideas and resources, rather than the classical one-way transfer of knowledge, and the promotion of collaboration and co-ordination among institutions within Europe and between the Northern and the Southern hemispheres.

The programme at Swiss TPH is mostly designed for people who can only study part-time. The workload is equivalent to one year of full- time study, but can be distributed over a period of five years. Each student is registered in one of the participating universities, and has a "home" institute associated with that university. A tutor in the "home" institute gives advice and support, and guarantees the quality of the course of study. This requires a large investment of time, so the Swiss TPH has limited the places for the MIH programme. As a result, the selection of candidates is highly competitive.

The structure of the curriculum is the same in each member institution. The programme starts with a mandatory core course of about 3 months. One of these is the Swiss TPH course "Health Care and Management in Tropical Countries" (see HCMTC). The core course is followed by a series of optional modules (e.g. the advanced courses at Swiss TPH), equivalent to about 14 weeks of full-time study. To foster the students' mobility and to allow them to see different teaching and learning approaches, most of these optional modules must be taken outside the home institution. The program is completed by a project leading to a dissertation, taking 3-6 months. The projects ore often directly connected with the student's professional work. The transfer of credits for courses taken in different places is regulated by the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).

For more details please contact the course secretariat or download brochure (pdf)