International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | October 2019 | Vol 6 | Issue 10 Page 1 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Joshi V et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2019 Oct;6(10):xxx-xxx http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Undergraduate public health degree courses in India: selected overview Vibha Joshi 1 , Nitin Kumar Joshi 2 *, Komal Bajaj 3 , Praveen Suthar 1 , Gregory Fant 4 , Anil Purohit 4 INTRODUCTION World Health Organization states that building and sustaining the capacity of a public health workforce is crucial for a robust public health workforce. 1 India has certain public health challenges that complicate the development of a public health workforce. 2 Building the public health workforce in India along with strengthening the public health systems across the nation are essential components necessary to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDG) for India. In fact, the global strategy on human resources for health by WHO highlighted that building the human workforce (including the public health workforce) in developing countries ABSTRACT Background: Building the public health workforce in India along with strengthening the public health systems across the Nation are essential components necessary to achieve the sustainable development goals for India. In the Indian context, there is limited information available for undergraduate public health education. The central aim of this brief study is to elucidate the undergraduate public health education landscape at selected institutions in India. Methods: A mixed methods approach was used in this brief study. First, cross-sectional, scoping review was used. Then, to describe student perceptions and attitude towards undergraduate public health curriculum, primary data were collected by using a questionnaire. A self-administered questionnaire was developed after extensive literature search. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize questionnaire results. Chi-square tests were used to help identify factors that may influence student perceptions and attitudes. Results: Through scoping rapid review and internet search, eight institutions were identified that are offering undergraduate public health courses in India. Most institutes in India have 3 years duration for the undergraduate public health degree courses. Most of students (89%) believed that the undergraduate public health course increased their knowledge in the field of public health. We found an association between student perceptions about community benefits from trained undergraduate public health workforce. Conclusions: The undergraduate public health education initiatives should be promoted and envisioned as a new strategy for public health capacity-building in public health in India. Keywords: Public health workforce, Bachelor of science in public health, Review of undergraduate curriculum 1 Department of Public Health, Lachoo Memorial College of Science and Technology, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India 2 School of Public Health, AIIMS, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India 3 Sainath Hospital and Research Center, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India 4 Jodhpur School of Public Health, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India Received: 25 August 2019 Revised: 10 September 2019 Accepted: 11 September 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Nitin Kumar Joshi, E-mail: drjoshinitin30@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20194199