This section describes our Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) programme. The MSPH Programme description document can also be downloaded in its entirety in PDF format here.

1. Introduction
2. Goals and Objectives of the MSPH Programme
3. Programme Organisation and Structure
4. Programme Assessment
5. Course Catalog

1. Introduction

The Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) offered by the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and administered by the Health Services Academy (HSA), Islamabad, is a twenty four months post-graduate degree programme.

The Academy’s mission and vision statements are described below.

1.1 Mission Statement
As an institution of higher learning, the Health Services Academy provides teaching, research, and service programmes that prepare students to address the public health needs of Pakistan and the surrounding region in a setting that values and develops academic excellence in teaching and research, academic freedom, leadership and service to society.

1.2 Vision Statement
The HSA aspires to become a regional academic centre of excellence in public health training, policy formulation and Ongoing Research that is nationally and internationally accredited.

1.3 Goal of the Academy
The goal of the Academy is to improve the health of the population of Pakistan and its surrounding region by enhancing human resource development and contribution to evidence-based policies and practices.

1.4 Institutional Objectives
The objectives of the institution are to:

1. Produce competent, committed and skilled public health professionals.
2. Discover and disseminate new knowledge in the field of public health.
3. Assist in the translation of the knowledge into sound evidence-based policies and practices.

These objectives will be realized by adhering to institutional values, such as a merit-based system, transparency, and quality, to be implemented through a multidisciplinary team, networking and a sustainable institutional infrastructure.

2. Goals and Objectives of the MSPH Programme

2.1 Goal of the MSPH Programme
The MSPH programme offered by HSA aims to improve the health status of the population, which is to be achieved by providing public health and health care professionals with a high quality postgraduate training programme in public health sciences.

2.2 Objectives of the MSPH Programme
The graduates of the MSPH programme are prepared to:

1. Solve health-related problems within the financial, socio-cultural, environmental and political framework of Pakistan and its surrounding region.
2. Design, conduct, analyse and interpret the results of relevant studies, projects and programmes.
3. Initiate, plan, manage, monitor and evaluate interventions in the field of public health.
4. Communicate public health messages to diverse audience effectively.
5. Advocate sound public health policies and practices.

The Master of Science programme at HSA provides experienced professionals with a thorough grounding in population-based approaches to health sector problem identification, investigation, analysis and managed response.

3. Programme Organisation and Structure

The intensive curriculum emphasizes basic public health sciences, essential managerial and analytical skills including project planning and evaluation, epidemiological investigations, health systems analysis and research, reproductive and child health, environmental and occupational health, disease control, and effective communication and leadership. It adopts a discipline-based approach to address the core competencies (see Annex 7).

The 24-month curriculum is organized around a guiding framework, which first provides students a conceptual overview of the diverse profession of public health and team-oriented approach to professional practice as well as a six-month practicum.

The courses are taught in either a concurrent or modular manner to build upon and integrate with each other. The first semester curriculum provides exposure to the breadth of public health disciplines. The second semester curriculum provides advanced training in key methodological and programmatic disciplines which continues into the third semester, along with electives and a student-directed thesis. The Dissertation integrates public health knowledge, skills, and methods in a professionally and personally relevant practice context. Elective courses are offered only during the third semester if minimally eight participants enrol for a course. New credited courses will be subsequently introduced on a need-and-demand basis in the coming years.

Students are encouraged to become involved in the institutional research, e.g. HSA’s Field Demonstration Area provides an opportunity for supervised, mentored practical experiences while addressing the health needs of Pakistan and its surrounding region.

In the fourth semester the students proceed to their respective workplace and apply the skills that they learnt in the first three semesters. The immediate supervisor’s/mentor’s appraisal will be submitted at the end of the semester.

3.1 Programme Duration, Credits and Medium of Instruction
The MSPH degree programme extends up to twenty four (24) months comprising four semesters. The first three semesters are dedicated to course work and dissertation culminating in end of semester examination in all three semesters. All semesters are followed by semester break of up to four weeks’ duration. In the third semester all students have to conduct a field project leading to a dissertation. In the fourth semester every student has to carry out an practicum (on-the-job assignment) and submit a short written report and an appraisal from the immediate supervisor/mentor.

The total programme consists of 60 credits. One credit is equivalent to 16-18 hours of formal teaching/contact hours or 48-54 hours of practical fieldwork. Practical fieldwork is defined as consisting of individual fieldwork, group fieldwork, field visits, individual assignments and class exercises.

English is the medium of instruction and examination for the MSPH programme.

3.2 Semester-wise Distribution
The distribution of the core and elective courses in the three semesters is given in the following tables.

4. Method of Assessment/Examination

The students are evaluated during each course on the basis of:

• Formative assessment: which is a mix of the tests, end of course examination, class and home assignments, class participation, interactive discussions, practical exercises and/or group works depending on the course outline (ongoing assessment);
• Summative assessment based on the end of semester examination papers. Summative assessments are held at the end of first two semesters and comprise of two semester papers each. In the third semester, the students are examined in the mid-semester summative assessment before the start of the Dissertation work.

The Dissertation work is assessed through a viva voce examination on the basis of a structured format covering the quality of the project, work performed in the field, data generation and analysis and presentation of results, discussion and conclusions presented as a written report.

In the fourth semester the students go back to their workplaces and apply the skills learned in the first three semesters. At the end of the semester an on-job written report will be submitted by the students in addition to the written appraisal by the designated supervisor/mentor. A joint agreement has to be made with the supervisor/mentor and the faculty advisors at HSA prior to the beginning for the fourth semester. This will be finally assessed by the senior faculty of HSA.

Fifty percent marks shall be reserved for the ongoing (formative) assessment and fifty percent for the semester examination paper and dissertation (summative assessment).

Candidates obtaining less than 50% in any of the examinations will be deemed to have failed in that paper/semester of the MSPH. A student failing in a paper (when scores of semester examination and ongoing assessment are less than fifty percent), will be allowed to clear that paper in the supplementary examination to be held within 3 months of the declaration of the result of the semester. However, a student accumulating more than two failures at any stage shall cease to be a student of the University.

Each credit corresponds to 50 marks in the examination. 25 marks per credit are for the formative (ongoing) assessment and 25 marks for summative (end semester exam) assessment.

The distribution of marks for each examination is as follows.

You are reading the course catalog for the MSPH Programme. The MSPH Programme description document can also be downloaded in its entirety in PDF format here.

1. Courses for Semester I
2. Courses for Semester II
3. Courses for Semester III
4. Dissertation Guidelines (Semester III)
5. Practicum for Semester IV

1. Courses for Semester I

This is a 1-credit introductory course designed to introduce students to the various facets of public health concepts, the problem-solving paradigm, and to prepare them for a multi-disciplinary approach toward public health. By the end of the course, participants should be able to examine public health through its historical context and use this information in the evaluation of current public health issues, and analyze a public health problem and evaluate interventions and policy alternatives using the problem-solving methodology.
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MPH302 - Basic Epidemiology: This 3-credit course in Basic Epidemiology is designed with the objective of introducing the subject and its fundamental principles, uses and methods. The student should become familiar with principles of screening, surveillance, measures of disease frequency and association. They will be able to understand epidemiological study designs and interpret data in a scientific manner.

MPH303 - Basic Biostatistics: A 3-credit core course in basic biostatistics shall be given. It shall cover the basic statistical methods to enable the participants to use them in such disciplines as Epidemiology, medical demography, health planning and management, maternal and child health and communicable and non-communicable disease prevention and control. The emphasis in the course shall be on development of practical skills in Biostatistics rather than on its mathematical basis. The student would thus acquire the ability to make appropriate tabulations and graphic displays of data, select and conduct appropriate methods of statistical inference and interpret the results of analyses.
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This is a 2-credit core course. The course introduces participants to the basic concepts of demography, its importance and application in public health. They would study the various methods for demongraphic data collection and learn how to compute and interpret the common demographic indicators. Participants shall be able to use thi sknowledge to make projections of future population growth and its use in planning for health services.
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This 2-credit course aims to provide the public health professionals with skills to operate the computers and utilize the softwares with speed and efficiency to improve in their communications with their colleagues and other scientists around the world. Public Health requires expertise from its professionals to not only utilize the offered softwares but also to effectively use them in order to produce reports and publications using the statistically sound applications independently.
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In this 3-credit course the participants are introduced to basic concepts of social and medical anthropology. The socio-cultural dimensions and lay perceptions of health and medicine including the concepts and definitions of disease, illness and sickness from the public health’s point of view are taught. The course teaches qualitative research methods, i.e. interview, observation and participative techniques, and their application to public health. Students discuss and practice methods for collecting and analyzing qualitative data.
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This 3-credit course presents concepts, principles, and applications of the main natural and social science disciplines that form the basis of environmental health and describes how these disciplines and their practitioners interact in the environmental health paradigm. The course examines health issues, scientific understanding of causes, and possible future approaches to control of the major emerging environmental health problems in industrialized and developing countries.
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The goal of this 1-credit course is to introduce the MSPH participants to the various facets of the public health in light of the social determinants of health. The main emphasis is on a holistic view keeping under
consideration the social, cultural, ecological, political and economic factors and their mutual interaction
that influences the occurrence of disease and its management at individual and community level.
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This 3-credit elective course is aimed at enhancing the skills of participants in hospital management in order to improve the quality of services being provided in hospitals. Participants will familiarise themselves with the essential components of a hospital system, the role of hospitals in relation to a primary health care system and the fundamental principles of management of hospitals with respect to financial, physical and personnel resource management.
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2. Courses for Semester II

This is a 3-credit hour course offered over two semesters; part one in semester II (credits 2) and part two in semester III (credit 1). This is an applied subject utilizing the knowledge and skills acquired in the first semester. This includes the learning of skills of critically assessing the published articles in medical journals based on the knowledge acquired earlier. Through the application of their knowledge of epidemiology and biostatistics, population dynamics, qualitative research methods, computer skills and health systems analysis, students will develop a research question, do a literature review and provide the essential background, make statements for objectives, carry out data collection, apply statistical methods and computer skills to conduct data analysis, and finally, present their findings and research projects in the third semester.
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The goal of this 3-credit course focusing on women's health status. This course is designed to increase the participants' awareness regarding women's health issues. It is hoped that the participants would also be able to analyse and interpret relevant data and to design, implement and monitor field programmes for improving women's health status. The course will focus on the basic concepts, problems and issues in reproductive health.
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This is a 3-credit core course, which aims to improve and strengthen the knowledge and skills of health care providers in the field of child health including social problems. Participants will become aware of the multidimensional casues of child health problems, understand the basic concepts and principles of essential programme areas of child health, the role of governmental, private and international health agencies, research methods, policy formulation and programme evaluation in child health. The participants will be able to evaluate national health programmes and to compare and contrast vertical and integrated approaches to health care interventions in child health.
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This 3-credit elective course in applied Epidemiology and Biostatistics shall further consolidate the knowledge and skills of the participants that they have acquired in basic Epidemiology, biostatistics, and computer-assisted data management. The aim of this course is to familiarize participants with application of epidemiological methods in the field. By the end of this course, the participants should be able to prepare a scientifically sound study proposal, develop and use a data collection instrument in the field, and be able to apply statistical methods to analyze, interpret and present the results.
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This is a 3-credit core course. THe overall aim of this course is to familiarize participants with the Epidemiology of commonly occurring diseases in developing countries and their impact in endemic areas. It covers mainly Epidemiology of infectious diseases, in addition to some common non-communicable diseases. The course contents include investigation of outbreaks, medical entomology, efficacy of vaccines, diagnostic laboratory techniques and control measures for selected communicable diseases.
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Health promotion is an important intervention to change behaviours and attitudes of people to deal with largely preventable health problems. It needs the input in the form of proper planning, implementation and evaluation of Health Promotion programmes and projects. Health Promotion is considered as the continuation of the skills already learnt in the earlier courses. This 3-credit course aims to reorient the students to turn them into health promotion specialists and communicators.
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This 3-credit core course focuses on the means and methods of proper management of a health care system. It will focus on issues such as health management information, quality assurance, and financial management, maintenance and repair, and personnel management. Also considered are quantitative techniques and methods, which shall assist the health managers in improving their management decisions.
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This 3-credit course is offered to MSPH participants to build upon their existing Health Systems concepts. Health planning is major task of public health professionals working in the government and the private sector in positions of programme and project managers, district officers or hospital managers. Particularly since many countries have decentralized their administration to the districts and below, public health professionals are required to have sound knowledge and skills to plan and budget for health. The focus of this course is on the tools and techniques of operational planning, whereas strategic planning is dealt with in the elective course on health policy.
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3. Courses for Semester III

This 3-credit course is an introduction to the field of health care financing and health economics. In the past decade, some of the most controversial policies considered by governments have involved issues that have been analyzed by health economists. For this reason, public health professionals need to have a sound basis to understand economic and financing mechanisms underlying changes occurring in the health sector.
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This 3-credit elective course is designed to familiarize the participants with the fundamentals of nutrition. The assessment of nutritional status, effects on growth and common nutrition problems will be discussed in greater detail. In addition, this course will provide an opportunity to the participants to learn about the nutritional care of the mother, infant and young children.
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This 3-credit elective course is aimed at enhancing the skills of participants in hospital management in order to improve the quality of services being provided in hospitals. Participants will familiarise themselves with the essential components of a hospital system, the role of hospitals in relation to a primary health care system and the fundamental principles of management of hospitals with respect to financial, physical and personnel resource management.
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This 3-credit course specifically focuses on occupational health problems. The emphasis is on problems encountered in developing countries, in teh rural and urban setting. It begins by describing exposure-disease relationships in the workplace and then goes on to discuss the various control measures available to minimize such exposures. Ergonomics and acute and chronic injuries are also discussed. Other issues that are covered include occupational Epidemiology, industrial hygiene, workers' compensation, and the mechnaism for delivery of occupational health services.
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The overall goal of this 3-credit course is to provide the participants a basis on how to critically analyse, develop and improve health policies. This course introduces participants to the concepts of Primary Health Care, its policies and strategies: the role of the community, the participatory principle and the necessity for multi-sectoral cooperation. Participants will develop an understanding of the need for a health policy, and be equipped with the methods and tools of policy formulation. This course will introduce participants to means and methods of planning at the centrla level. Participants will be given an insight into how macro-plans relate to district plans and be able to identify constraints to, limitations and problems with implementing macro-plans for improving peripheral health services.
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The goal of this 3-credit course is to equip the participants with the skills, knowledge and principles to design and manage effective community-based reproductive health programmes at the national, provincial and district levels. Students spend the first part of the course preparing the community-level assessment tools and the second part collecting the information in the field. Assessments are conducted at volunteer tehsil health centres where local health officials and community providers can guide the types of information needed. Course participants analyze the collected data and prepare written and oral reports which are shared with the local health unit. Appropriate community-based interventions are then suggested from the needs assessment.
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During this 9-credit course, participants will be attached to an existing programme active in health or health-related activities, or carry out a research project of her/his own choice in an area of public health. In close collaboration with a faculty advisor, participants will ocnduct a study in the form of basic or an Ongoing Research project or program/project evaluation. At the end of the fieldwork participants shall formally present their findings in the form of a dissertation.
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The goal of the 3-credit Practicum is to provide a structured and supervised opportunity for the student to apply the theories, principles, knowledge and skills of public health and health promotion, as learned in the classroom, in a practice setting. The practice experience occurs in a carefully-selected health services organisation approved by the MSPH Program Coordinator and is supervised by HSA faculty and an immediate supervisor/mentor. This takes into account the transition from education to professional practice.
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