The World Directory of Schools of Public Health and Postgraduate Training Programmes in Public Health, published by the World Health Organization in 1985, charted the worldwide growth of postgraduate public health education. Covering 216 institutions in 54 countries, it reflected how public health training had expanded rapidly since the 1960s, noted as a response to the  global call for ‘Health for All’ following the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978. The Directory captured a potential turning point when public-health education began to broaden its focus to promotion and  community participation.

When we reviewed the data on public health schools and departments worldwide, we found several clear trends in how education developed across different regions. Two broad periods of growth stood out: the first in the inter-war and immediate post-war years, when early prorgammes and schools were founded in London, Boston, Mexico and São Paulo; and the second during the 1960s and 1970s, when many newly independent countries created national schools or departments of public health. Over time, units once centred on hygiene or tropical medicine (the terms used in the some of the earliest schools) evolved into broader activities encompassing epidemiology and health systems.

In Italy, almost every university established a School of Specialisation in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine from the late 1960s onwards, following national legislation that linked prevention directly to the health system. A decree issued in 1988 set out how universities should run these schools (Gazzetta Ufficiale), building on earlier reforms from 1960s that first defined hygiene and prevention as public responsibilities.

In India, most departments began as “Preventive and Social Medicine” and later became “Community Medicine” or “Community Health”. The National Health Policy of 1983 reinforced this shift towards preventive and community care, linking medical education more closely to population health. (Indian Journal of Public Health)