title: European accreditation and the future public health workforce.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In 2011 the Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation (APHEA) was initially launched focusing on Master level (second cycle) education.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 2012 and 2013 the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region, APHEA and partner schools conducted a study on the compliance of Master level programmes of public health to the accreditation criteria. A web-based survey of second cycle programmes of public health across 29 countries was conducted using the APHEA criteria. The 29 countries were categorized into four regions: Northern, Southern, Central and Eastern and Western. We applied a Chi square test to identify regional differences with regard to the compliance of the programmes to the criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data from 51 out of 71 schools contacted were analyzed. The compliance to the two themes of student and faculty exchange and quality management were lowest for programmes of public health throughout the EHEA. There were significant differences in the compliance between the regions with higher compliance in the Northern European region.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Student and faculty exchange and quality management are essential for schools and programmes of public health to improve the quality of their education through expanding international knowledge and the pertinence of skills taught within European and national contexts. The results show that there are intrinsic issues with exchange and quality management as well as the role of national accreditation agencies in defining public health education for the future workforce.
authors.affiliation: 1 Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation (APHEA), Avenue de l'Armée, Legerlaan, 10, 1040 Brussels, Belgium julien.goodman@aphea.net.
authors.forename: Julien D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.affiliation: 2 Berlin School of Public Health, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Muckelbauer
authors.affiliation: 2 Berlin School of Public Health, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Müller-Nordhorn
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Public Health and Paediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cavallo
authors.affiliation: 4 Faculty of Public Health, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Ramune
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kalediene
authors.affiliation: 1 Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation (APHEA), Avenue de l'Armée, Legerlaan, 10, 1040 Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuiper
authors.affiliation: 5 Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Otok
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation / Q000592:standards*; D040381:Education, Public Health Professional / Q000592:standards*; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D011786:Quality Control; D014495:Universities / Q000592:standards*