Building on the university’s vision and mission, the school seeks to be a world class, innovative centre committed to scholarly and professional excellence in the provision of health education, research and services in Malawi and globally. Its mission is to provide high quality student-centred and innovative health education informed by research that responds to policy and societal health and development needs in an efficient, sustainable and result oriented manner, and to generate new knowledge to influence health policy and practice. The core values that permeate its work include: entrepreneurship; innovativeness; life-long learning; quality; respect for diversity; and teamwork.
The school’s predecessor was School of Public Health and Family Medicine and comprised two departments, namely; Department of Public Health and Department of Health Systems and Policy. The Department of Public Health is expected to be split into the following departments under The School of Global and Public Health: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Department of Community and Environmental Health; and Department of Nutrition and Dietetics. The Department of Health Systems and Policy is expected to be split into: Department of Health Systems and Policy and Department of Ethics, Behavioral Sciences and Health Social Sciences.
The School runs two undergraduate and five postgraduate programmes. The undergraduate programmes are Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics and Bachelor of Science in Health Management. The postgraduate programmes include: Master of Public Health; Master of Science in Epidemiology; Master of Science in Global Health Implementation; Master of Business Administration in Health Systems Management; and Master of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Research. More information on the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes is provided under department-specific content below.