title: The Emergence of Undergraduate Majors in Global Health: Systematic Review of Programs and Recommendations for Future Directions.
abstract: Global health education has been expanding rapidly and several universities have created an undergraduate major degree (bachelor's degree) in global heath or global health studies. Because there are currently no national guidelines for undergraduate degrees in global health, each of these programs was developed along individual lines. To guide the development of future global health majors, we conducted a systematic review of undergraduate majors in global health. We identified eight programs and invited program directors or representatives to a symposium at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health 2016 conference to review their existing undergraduate major in global health and to discuss lessons learned and recommendations for other colleges and universities seeking to develop undergraduate degrees in global health. We noted significant diversity among the existing programs in terms of required courses, international field experiences, and thesis research projects. In this review, we describe these global health programs, their student characteristics, as well as the key educational competencies, program requirements, and core global health courses. Based on program reviews and discussions, we identify seven recommendations for the development and expansion of an undergraduate major in global health and discuss issues that have arisen in the curricular development of these programs that warrant further exploration. As the field of global health education continues to expand, following these students after graduation will be essential to ensure that the degree programs in global health both meet student needs and launch students on viable career pathways.
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. pkdrain@uw.edu.|Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.|Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Paul K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Drain
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.|Department of Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mock
authors.affiliation: Duke Global Health Institute, Durham, North Carolina.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Toole
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rosenwald
authors.affiliation: School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jehn
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of California-San Diego, San Diego, California.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Csordas
authors.affiliation: Institute for Global Health, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ferguson
authors.affiliation: Global Health Studies, Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Caryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Waggett
authors.affiliation: Department of International and Global Studies, Mercer University, Macon, Georgia.
authors.forename: Chinekwu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Obidoa
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Judith N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Wasserheit
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D015397:Program Evaluation; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities