The UW Community-Oriented Public Health Practice Master of Public Health (COPHP MPH) program is designed for students interested in an MPH degree with training in applied public health practice. The degree prepares students for a fulfilling career as a leader in the field of community health.
Degree Requirements
All students admitted to the COPHP MPH program are required to earn a minimum of 63 course credits.
- 36 core course credits
- 6 problem-based courses
- 6 elective course credits
- 6 COPHP seminar credits
- 6 practicum credits
- 9 capstone credits
Course and Types
Core Courses
All COPHP MPH program students complete the following core courses:
- HSERV 531: Population Health and Community Development
- HSERV 533: Analytic Methods – Epidemiology and Biostatistics
- HSERV 534: Health Behavior, Health Promotion, and Environmental Health
- HSERV 538: Participatory Evaluation and Community Engagement
- HSERV 540: Management and Leadership
- HSERV 553: Health Policy Development and Advocacy in the United States
Core courses teach public health competencies through a problem-based learning (PBL) approach.
Through problem-based learning, students work in small teams to analyze public health cases, developing their own solutions with guidance from faculty instructors.
COPHP faculty teams develop cases to meet each course’s learning objectives. COPHP is centered on a small cohort PBL approach, but each course will use the instructional methods that are most appropriate for the educational content.
By the time they graduate, students will have addressed more than 250 learning objectives through 50 cases.
View our Program Attributes and Learning Objectives page for more information.
Elective Courses
To fulfill the electives requirement, students can choose from a wide variety of courses offered by the UW School of Public Health and other schools at the University of Washington. Students who are also pursuing a graduate certificate in a public health specialty often take elective courses in their particular specialty.
Seminars
Seminars meet weekly throughout the program. They serve as ways to supplement coursework, showcase leaders and role models in the local public health community, and discuss transcending, urgent, and timely public health issues. The COPHP MPH Seminar is a class that all COPHP MPH students take together, offering opportunities for community-building and cohort-wide collaboration.
Practicum and Capstone
The practicum and capstone are important components of the COPHP MPH program.
The practicum project occurs during the first year in COPHP MPH program.
The capstone project typically begins in autumn quarter of the second year or the summer before.
Sample Course Schedule
Below is a sample schedule outlining required core courses in the COPHP MPH program. Program leadership may adjust what courses are required and/or move the courses to different quarters, though we don’t do this often. Students may make adjustments based on elective courses and/or suggestions from their advisor.