Graduate Students in U.S. Schools of Public Health: Comparison of 3 Academic Years

Although the Federal Government has authorized financial assistance to schools of public health since 1957, uniform and reliable data on students, faculty, and programs have been lacking. Under the stimulus of legislation requiring an assessment of the impact of Federal support, the Division of Associated Health Professions, Bureau of Health Manpower, contracted with the Association of Schools of Public Health to establish a data center and analyze information reported by the schools. Information on characteristics of students enrolled over the past 3 academic years indicate that public health schools are making major efforts to train students in areas other than those traditionally associated with the State or local health department. Health administration and environmental health are now the most frequently chosen specializations. With the growth of demand for new types of health services and increased numbers of administrators inside and outside the public sector, students are seeking these fields, and the schools of public health are responding to the demand. Women and men are receiving public health training in roughly equal numbers, although enrollments of women are growing slightly faster than enrollments of men. Minority students constituted 20.1 percent of the total in 1977-78: Blacks 6.6 percent; Asians, Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, 7.6 percent; Hispanics, 4.8 percent; and American Indians and Alaska Natives, 1.1 percent. Traineeship funds, the majority of which come from the Federal Government, were used by 56.6 percent of all students in 1977-78, with minority students reporting traineeship support substantially more frequently than the average of all students.