How to choose an MPP in the healthcare domain?

Often, we find an urge to create a bracing impact on the world around us; yet being clueless on how to approach this in a productive manner that brings up actionable outputs. Well, the easiest way would be to choose our education on similar lines, so that it helps us focus on our most wanted desires. Here, we can look at the health domain, which provides more scope for effective solutions to combat age-old deficiencies, while inspecting the totalitarian aspect of health at large.

What entails a public health degree

This degree focuses on the needs and requirement of working within a community health facility or residence, where graduates may find themselves working within public and private sectors.

These programs aid in expansion of skills that are related to a host of environmental health services, health service administration, human behavior, and communication. Combining the cause of health policies with practical implications, this program teaches students ways to shape health and social policies, through lobbying and presentations.

Specializations of this degree include epidemiology, biostatistics, nutrition, health policy, environmental health, health education, and health service management.

Opting for master of public policy courses

A Master’s in Public Policy degree can be of one or two years long, depending upon variables such as the nature of course, specialization and more. Public policy deals with the development of various regulations and policies, which directly impact public health. Students are taught of the various legislative, executive, and administrative processes involved in policy creation, while learning to develop and scrutinize policies during pertinent research.These programs share common characteristics with Master of Public Administration degrees, owing to its understanding of administration procedures and how policies can be fully analysed.

The program entails qualitative methods of analysis, policy evaluation, politics and management. This provides students with an opportunity to specialize within various fields of public policy.

The scope of learning is vast students are often given an opportunity to opt for an internship during the course of their degree, which in turns goes on to become an important key in gradation. Commonly, students are assessed through group projects and a written assignment, ending with a dissertation, which requires independent research.

Future Prospects

A Master’s in Public Policy opens up a vast avenue of opportunity that involves both government bodies and private entities, opting for the brightest minds in the segment.

This degree creates a path to a host of professional careers and leadership positions within the non profit sector, public sector, and various parts of the private sector that provide consulting options to other companies. The different types of public policy jobs that it covers: n Lobbyists working to promote a particular group of views or opinions, to convince the legislature to change n Public health administrators that are accountable for super vision of other staff as well as various business issues n Government based jobs where individuals are in charge of the research and information that supplement the changes in policies and legislation on a wider level n Teaching positions to propagate the wealth of knowledge to students who are willing to create a difference.

MPP’s importance in India

India, with its ever-growing population, needs a stricter check over the government policies that it nurtures. The importance of individuals holding this degree is large, owing to the developing state of health and sanitation pertaining to the well-being of the nation. Therefore, eminent institutions such as IIHMR are integral in building the educational framework of the health domain, in policy making. Its Master of Public Health (MPH) degree, executed in collaboration with The Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), caters to the sensitive constituents of the South-east Asian diaspora. It is designed with the following objectives:
* To cultivate students’ health management skills so that they will be prepared to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of public health programs and services
* To enhance the capabilities of public health professionals in countries of the Global South.

*To prepare professionals for challenging careers in public health management in the public and private sectors, non governmental organizations, as well as national and multinational organizations.

With the presence of such an illustrious organization, the cause of public health and its policies find much resonance in Indian education and legislature.

(Author Dr. Pankaj Gupta is President, IIHMR University, Jaipur. Views expressed here are personal)