Graduate/Professional & Capstone Certificates in Global Health Online

The complex, existential problems challenging today’s world – emerging infectious diseases and pandemics, food insecurity and starvation, climate change impacts on health, antimicrobial resistance, fundamental inequities in access to nutrition and healthcare – are all fundamental issues of global health.  Creative solutions require multidisciplinary approaches and expertise from across the biomedical, social, and physical sciences.

• The largely asynchronous format provides flexibility for students to complete the certificate effectively within the context of primary degree, work and/or family responsibilities.
• The UW-Madison Graduate/Professional and Capstone Global Health Certificate Online programs comprise a collection of five courses that provide up-to-date global health knowledge across a wide breadth of topics and potential areas of personal interest.  Students will learn about the historical and contemporary issues of global health, how global health activities are governed and financed, different health system models around the world, how to use global health statistics to profile the health of a country, the challenges and options for control of the major infectious and non-infectious disease threats in the world today, and how to effectively, ethically, and respectfully engage with communities in culturally appropriate ways.  The focus is on global health in the context of lower-middle income countries throughout the world.
• Students will be equipped with the ability to collaborate with partners to help lead advances in global health, from small local projects to multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral initiatives to enhance the health and well-being of individuals, families and communities around the world.
• The online course instructors are UW-Madison health professionals with decades of in-country global health experience and connections all around the world, from Central and South America, to multiple countries in Africa, to India and East Asia, and here in the U.S.
• Students will work with mentors to complete a field experience (locally or globally) or to do an in-depth analysis of an important global health issue.

The Graduate/Professional and Capstone Global Health Certificates Online share the same overall curriculum, though are considered to be two separate programs administratively.  The 11 graduate credit curriculum includes five two-credit online courses that are largely asynchronous to optimize flexibility for students, plus a mentored field experience.  The five online courses are:

• PUBLHLTH 710: Introduction to Global Health: History, Current Issues, and Health Statistics (2 cr)
• PUBLHLTH 711: Global Public Health and Healthcare Systems: Organizations, Governance, Financing, and Workforce (2 cr)
• PUBLHLTH 712: Global Health: Infectious Diseases, One Health, and Prevention Strategies (2 cr)
• PUBLHLTH 713: Global Health: Non-communicable Diseases, Poverty, Environmental Health, and Food Security (2 cr)
• PUBLHLTH 714: Global Health Field Work Fundamentals: Engagement, Ethics, Policy, and Methods (2 cr)

Additionally, students complete a one-credit field experience.

• For students with relatively little international experience, this can take the form of a faculty-led, group field course.
• More advanced students with substantial prior experience living/working in a lower-middle income setting also have the option of independently developing their own field experience. Independent field experiences are focused on an issue/topic of particular interest to a student and usually take place in a country outside the U.S., but may also be carried out among an international/underserved population in the United States.  Students may also undertake work with international agencies as an independent field experience, e.g., the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or non-governmental organizations.
  • Purely clinical global health experiences (across all health science programs) do not satisfy the expectations of a global health certificate independent field experience. Certificate field experiences must focus substantially on an issue of community/public health.
• Certificate students also have the option of completing a structured independent study in-depth analysis of a contemporary global health issue in place of an actual field experience if fieldwork is not possible (due, for instance, to family/childcare commitments, work commitments, impediments to travel in their home country, financial constraints, etc.).

Upon completion of the certificate, students should be able to:

1. Exhibit the ability to describe and compare the health care systems in different areas of the world (such as: an understanding of pros and cons of systems, comparison to the U.S. system, and trends in the evolution of health care systems over time).
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the epidemiology of common global health concerns, both communicable and non-communicable (such as: differences between high/middle/low income countries and programs to mitigate the impacts of these health issues such as the millennium and sustainable development goals).
3. Demonstrate the ability to integrate information from multiple perspectives into an assessment of a country/location’s health status (such as: history, politics, culture, societal structure, economics, environmental sciences, health care system(s), health databases, disease epidemiology, human rights, human subjects protections).
4. Model ethical behavior in global health engagement (such as: appreciation of the bidirectional nature of learning and mutual benefits between stakeholders and learners, cultural humility and flexibility, recognition of the importance of program sustainability over time, openness to new information/ideas).
5. Demonstrate professionalism, effective communication, leadership, problem-solving, and collaboration across multiple health education disciplines and stakeholders in addressing a global health issue (including an understanding of One Health approaches).
6. Exhibit the ability for growth in one’s approach to global health work through self-assessment and structured reflection (such as: personal biases and perspectives, views on equity and disparities, personal limitations).

Though it is technically possible to complete the certificate’s course of study in one year, certificate students should generally allow two years to finish the program.  This time frame provides sufficient flexibility for students to complete required courses and for graduate and professional students to simultaneously complete curriculum requirements in their primary areas of study.  Capstone candidates, who are often meeting the demands of full- or part-time work while simultaneously pursuing the certificate, follow a similar course of study as the professional/graduate students, with most also taking 2-3 years of part-time study to complete the program.  It is expected that all students will complete the certificate in no more than 4 years and, in the case of students simultaneously pursuing a graduate or professional degree, at or before the time of completion of their primary degree program.

For students enrolled full-time in a graduate or professional degree program at UW-Madison, the cost for the courses in the certificate is included in their primary degree tuition (additional costs will be incurred for the field experience, which will vary depending upon the field option chosen). For Capstone certificate students, the cost is $800 per credit, plus costs for the field experience.

No, students who have completed an undergraduate global health degree from UW-Madison would have been required to cover a number of topics included in the Grad/Prof or Capstone certificates.

Yes! Students who have completed an undergraduate global health certificate from UW- Madison would not have been required to cover many of the topics included in the Grad/Prof or Capstone certificates.

All graduate students (Masters, PhD, DNP, etc.) in any discipline and all students in a post-bachelor’s professional degree program (MPH, DVM, PharmD, DPT, MD, etc.) who meet the program admission requirements are welcome.

Learners who have earned at least a bachelor’s degree from any accredited university including UW-Madison are eligible. Capstone certificate students CANNOT be simultaneously seeking a degree at UW-Madison. If you are seeking or planning to seek a degree at UW-Madison please consider the Graduate/Professional Global Health Certificate Program Online.

At UW-Madison, these Certificates are identical in the curriculum, format, instructors, and requirements for a field experience. The only difference is the way in which you apply for the program:

Graduate/Professional application process

Capstone application process

Yes, you are required to have a minimum of four (4) credits to qualify for federal financial aid.  Please note that as a Capstone student, the UW will only allow you to take required Certificate courses. You cannot take other electives to increase your credit load to qualify for financial aid.  Please see this website https://financialaid.wisc.edu/eligibility/ and https://financialaid.wisc.edu/applying/ for more information. Students’ financial aid is different depending on their situation so we strongly encourage students that are interested in getting financial aid to reach out to the Office of Student Financial Aid for more details. Their contact information is https://financialaid.wisc.edu/, finaid@finaid.wisc.edu, or 608-262-3060.

There are several restrictions from the medical school about electives.  Only one longitudinal elective is allowed per semester.  No electives are allowed in Phase 2.  No longitudinal electives can be taken in the first semester of Phase 3 to allow Jan-early Feb for Step 1 Board preparation. Therefore, many medical students follow this path:

• Phase 1 – semester 1: PUBLHTLH 710 or 711
• Phase 1 – semester 2:  PUBLHLTH 714 (field experience prep course)
• Summer between M1 and M2 – field experience
• Phase 1 – semester 3:  PUBLHLTH 710 or 711
• Phase 2 – medical school does not allow any electives
• Phase 3 – semester 1:  no certificate requirements
• Phase 3 – semester 2:  PUBLHLTH 712 or 713
• Phase 3 – semester 3:  PUBLHTLH 712 or 713

Other paths exist for students who join the certificate after Phase 1 and/or are in the POD-PH, WARM and/or TRIUMPH programs.  Please see other FAQs and talk with Dr Ann Evensen ann.evensen@fammed.wisc.edu for more details. 

Yes, please see FAQs below

PUBLHLTH 712 (2 credits, global health and communicable disease) and PUBLHLTH 713 (2 credits, global health and noncommunicable disease) can satisfy the 4 credits of required Public Health Selectives.  The other global health certificate courses and field experiences do not satisfy requirements for medical school graduation. 

Regrettably the UW does not allow students who begin the Graduate/Professional Certificate to finish requirements after graduation.  If you do not think you can complete all of the requirements prior to your graduation date, consider starting the Capstone Certificate  after graduation instead.

For students who have teaching or research assistant positions eligible for tuition remission, please note that most field experience costs (including the Program Fee charged by the UW International Academic Programs and the Program Fee collected for the Guatemala service-learning experience) are NOT considered tuition and therefore NOT eligible for tuition remission.  Tuition for an independent study field experience (course number 699 or MED 910) may be eligible. Please discuss all tuition remission questions with the UW Division of Business Services.

Questions should be directed to the certificate programs coordinator at smphglobalhealth@hslc.wisc.edu.  We welcome questions and are here to help you with your global health education.