L'université et la Santé publique

What role should the university play in relation to public health? It should encourage and assist pure research. Public health may reap untold benefits from discoveries such as those of Pasteur, Best and Banting, etc.—promote applied research directed towards such problems as air or water pollution, prevention of noise, etc.—improve the teaching and development of the personnel. To this end, a School of Public Health was founded twenty years ago. The entire course, given in French, attracted foreign students whose second tongue is the French language from North America, Africa, Asia, and Europe, thanks to scholarships by the World Health Organization, the Colombo Plan, the Canadian Arts Council and other sources. During the last two years, a reorganization in the structure of the School of Public Health has gradually replaced part-time teachers by full-time professors, created master degrees in environmental health and presently in epidemiology, tried to solve community health problems, and increased the importance of refresher courses. In conclusion, a broad conception of the role of the university is required in order to pave the way for the integration of the many disciplines that work together in public health. It is a real challenge to choose the best methodology to meet the needs of the stupendous leaps of human knowledge.