The PEP in Policy and Management offers a flexible curriculum to students who come to the School with three or more years experience in public health practice or a relevant post-graduate degree.
Most PEP students will maintain their existing professional identity (nurse, public administrator, doctor, lawyer, etc.), but want to develop skills in management and policy analysis, either to qualify for promotion, to make a subtle career change, or simply to do their jobs better.
HPA also uses the PEP program to accommodate our joint degree students in medicine, business administration and law. For more information, visit: http://www.uic.edu/sph/special_joint.htm.
The flexible curriculum of our program allows people with a wide range of backgrounds to learn about policy and management, while tailoring a curriculum based upon gaps in their past experiences and the needs of their future plans.
There is no “typical” PEP student in HPA, but our current students are typical of the diversity we normally accommodate. And since our students have such wide backgrounds and interests and take advantage of the flexible curriculum, the careers of our graduates develop in diverse and exciting ways as well.
The Capstone Project
Every MPH student will prepare a Capstone presentation. The Capstone project allows the student to demonstrate the ability to explain and support an organizational or governmental policy position and present this in a professional-level presentation. Detailed information on the Capstone requirement can be found here.
The Field Experience
All HPA MPH students either complete a Field Experience or are granted a waiver for this requirement. The Field Experience consists of a minimum of 200 hours of mentored work (volunteer or for pay) at an approved Preceptor site. Preceptors will usually be government or not for profit organizations focusing on the solution to public health problems. Most PEP students with experience in public health practice will qualify for a waiver. Descriptions of the HPA Field Experience program and the waiver policy can be found here.