Adding a Baccalaureate Degree to a Graduate Public Health Program While Addressing Stakeholder Concerns

Professional public health training has traditionally been at the graduate level. Adding undergraduate public health degree programs not only expands the number of individuals with needed public health expertise but also creates challenges for traditional graduate-only educational programs. Our purpose was to discuss the degree development process and examine challenges of adding the Bachelors of Arts in Public Health (BA PH) to a traditional graduate-only program, with illustrations from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, which opened its BA PH in 2014. Challenges were encountered for four groups of primary stakeholders: (1) administrators (infrastructure, staffing, funding), (2) faculty (buy-in, undergraduate teaching skills), (3) students (assuring courses fit undergraduate education requirements, adding student support systems), and (4) community preceptors (establishing appropriate expectations for undergraduate vs. graduate students). Barriers and solutions identified for these four primary stakeholder groups may help other schools and programs of public health in adding a baccalaureate public health degree