title: Education and training of public health professionals in the European Region: variation and convergence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the exit competences of public health graduates across a diverse European landscape.
  
  
  METHODS
  The target population comprised 80 full institutional members of the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region with a participation rate 82.5 %. The web-based questionnaire covered institutional profiles and the ranking of exit competences for master of public health programmes, grouped according to WHO Essential Public Health Operations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  European schools and departments usually are small units, funded from tax money. A total of 130 programmes have been indicated, together releasing 3,035 graduates in the last year before the survey. All competence groups showed high reliability and high internal consistency (α > 0.75, p < 0.01). The best teaching output has been assessed for health promotion, followed by disease prevention and identification of health hazards in the community, the least in emergency preparedness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Given the fragmentation of the institutional infrastructure, the harmonisation of programme content and thinking is impressive. However, the educational capacity in the European Region is far from being sufficient if compared to aspired US levels.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Centre School of Public Health and Management, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, bjegov@med.bg.ac.rs.
authors.forename: Vesna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bjegovic-Mikanovic
authors.forename: Dejana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vukovic
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Otok
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Czabanowska
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Laaser
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D003625:Data Collection; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health / Q000193:education*; D012581:Schools, Public Health / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D000078329:Workforce