Public Health (Bachelor's Degree)

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The Department of Public Health (DPH) at National Taiwan University was founded in 1972 as the pioneer of its kind in Taiwan. Unlike the developmental process commonly seen in other departments in which an undergraduate program is first formed and then a graduate program eventually follows, the DPH was set-up two decades after the Graduate Institute of Public Health, which was established in 1951 by renaming and reorganizing the Institute of Tropical Medicine, founded during the Japanese Colonial Period. In essence, the department and the institute were deemed a two-in-one organization in the first two decades after the inception of the DPH. In 1993, the DPH and two other institutes were separated from the College of Medicine to become the first College of Public Health (CPH) in the nation, with a matrix organizational structure of One College-One Department-Multiple Institutes.

Initially, faculty members of the CPH were appointed separately to either the department or to one of the institutes. In 2005, as a way of encouraging all faculty members of the CPH to participate in undergraduate instruction, the college adopted the policy of “merging the college with the department”, inaugurating a new epoch in DPH development. Under this policy, the CPH is now in charge of making the overall plans for the DPH and the DPH chairman, in turn, serves also as the vice dean and is responsible for coordinating and carrying out DPH instruction and administration policies. An immediate benefit of this new policy was that all faculty members of the CPH were able to contribute to DPH teaching and student affairs by implementing a “two-phase mentor” system. The DPH also made use of the “joint appointment” to enlist all faculty members of the CPH in the running of the department. After the new system had been in place for three years, a further commingling of “discipline-division” was introduced into the system beginning in 2008. Based on disciplines, the whole college has been reorganized into three divisions: the Division of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Preventive Medicine; the Division of Health Policy and Medical Organization Management; and the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health. Each faculty member belongs to the Division which encompasses his or her specialized track and can be elected as representative of the Division to participate in the running of DPH affairs. In 2010, the six institutes of the CPH were consolidated into four, and the main affiliation of all faculty members was moved to the DPH with each faculty member being assigned an adjunct appointment in the institute of their specialty. By reforming the organization and expanding the faculty, the DPH will continue to devote itself to improving basic education in public health for the new era.

Departmental aims:

‧To cultivate students with the requisite knowledge and skills of a public health professional.

‧ To guide ambitious people into pursuing a career in a public health related area.

Educational objectives:

‧To cultivate professionals in public health with expert knowledge, practical ability, and a global perspective, so as to promote health for all.

Core values:

‧Compassion

‧Integrity

‧Teamwork

‧Equality

The DPH has cultivated numerous talented experts in public health since its inception. Our alumni are widely distributed throughout various circles. They contribute abundantly in the areas of health administration, environmental health organization, and public health education in research institutes, non-profit organizations and the commercial R&D departments of various industries, where they hold positions as professional staff members, research experts, instructors and managers. At the DPH, we continuously perform self-evaluation and strive to strengthen our contribution to worldwide public health, both through research and by providing quality teaching that prepares our students to be talented experts versed in public health theory and practice.

Websitehttp://dph.ntu.edu.tw