The main goal of the Master of Public Health (MPH) program is to strive for academic excellence, encourage the development of health technology and advance new idea and leadership quality in the field of public health. The result would be the availability of competent public health human resource which could contribute for healthy living in the healthy environment by promoting health, preventing from becoming sick and protecting from diseases. After completion of this course, gradates would contribute for educating people on health promotion and managing public health services as sound as possible. The graduates of this course would be able to carry out research activities independently and in group and contribute in the development of evidence based health policies, plan and programs.

Program Objectives

Specific objectives of the program are as follows:

1. Provide students a firm grasps of broad-based and integrated advanced concept of public health, including health promotion and education with real-life applications.
2. Develop professional managers who can effectively lead public and private sector public health and related organizations in a highly dynamic and competitive national and global public health service environment.
3. Provide student-centered learning environment where students acquire modern public health service skills, enhance their managerial capabilities, and adopt success-oriented, career-focused attitudes.
4. Provide research skills for seeking empirical solution to public health issues.
5. Contribute in the development of evidence based health policy, planning and practice.

Curricular Structure

This curriculum is designed to equip students with knowledge, competencies and attitudes needed for success in public health service positions. This coursework gives students a broad and holistic view of the complexity of issues in today’s public health service environment. It comprises the following three distinct components:

Core Courses
The core courses provide students with advanced analytical concepts and the skills on core areas of public health field, necessary for making program decisions in planning, implementing and evaluating public health and related areas.

Specialization Courses
The specialized courses in the concentration level provide students with an opportunity for in-depth study in particular focus on public health field areas listed below:

1. Health Promotion and Education
2. Public Health Service Management

Thesis
Students are required to submit a thesis in their specialization area that involves either fieldwork for primary data or national level authorized secondary data. Students are required to prepare a thesis on a prescribed format. This course covers 9 credit hours.

Program Features

The features of the MPH program are competitive learning environment, service demand-driven concentrations, and program flexibility. The MPH is a two-year regular program spread over four semesters each lasting for six months. A student needs to successfully complete 75 credit hours of course work, practical work, seminars and research work to confer the degree.

The program will use a range of critical pedagogy inputs that includes on-campus learning through classroom discussions, presentations, group work, case events and guest lecture series, and off-campus learning through practical for skill development (PSD) work.

The Semester System

The prominent feature of the semester system is the continuous evaluation of performance of student. The credit hour assigned to each course of this program varies depending on theory and practical works. One credit hour theory is equivalent to 16 teaching hours and one credit practical/PSD is equivalent to 48 hours of clinical or laboratory or field activities.

Admission Requirements

Eligibility
To be eligible to apply for admission to the MPH program, an applicant must have

• Bachelor of Public Health (BPH) degree or Post Basic Bachelor of Nursing (PBN) degree or Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSc. N) with community nursing specialization or Post Graduate Diploma in Health Education (after holding a bachelor degree) degree from a recognized university/institution for pursuing MPH with specialization in Health Promotion and Education.
• Bachelor degree in health science field (Public Health, Nursing, Medicine, Laboratory Technology or Pharmacy) for pursuing MPH with specialization in Public Health Service Management.

Furthermore, the applicant must have obtained a minimum CGPA of 2.5 or 55 percent in bachelor level (required level/degree) and at least one year working experience in after completion of bachelor degree in health related Government Organizations, research organizations NGOs/INGOs, or teaching in CTEVT or university constituent or affiliated colleges in the field of public health, or health promotion/education or nursing or in the field of general health at recognized health service organization or at recognized health science teaching institute.

The final decision on admission is taken on the basis of entrance examination conducted by the University and the affiliated colleges

Documents Required for Admission
The applicant is required to submit copies of the following documents with the application form made available by the concerned college/school/university:

• Completed and signed application form mentioning his/her intended specialization area
• Transcript/mark-sheet, transfer and character certificates, and citizenship/passport
• Experience letter

Certificates of all degrees should be photocopied and submitted with proper attestation. Enrolment is conditional upon completion of all admission formalities including payment of fee determined by the school/college. Incomplete application shall not be processed.

Admission Procedures
Admission notice will be announced in Local/National News Paper/s. Application form and information brochure will be provided after the payment of the prescribed fee. The eligible candidates are to be informed to attend the entrance examination.

Academic Schedule and Course Registration

The intake will be announced in the newspaper. Selected candidate is required to register assigned courses at the beginning of each semester mandatorily.

Addition and Withdrawal from Courses

A student would have the option to add or drop from the course. This can, however, be done only during the first week of the semester. A student wishing to withdraw from a course should apply on the prescribed form within a week from the starting date of the semester.

Attendance Requirements

The students must attend every lecture, tutorial and practical class. However, to accommodate for late registration, sickness and other such contingencies, the attendance requirements will be a minimum of 80% of the classes actually held. Students will get NOT QUALIFIED (NQ) in terms of class attendance status if s/he fails to maintain 80% attendance in any course.

Normal and Maximum Duration of Study

The normal duration and the maximum duration for the completion of the requirements for the MPH program are as follows:
Normal duration: 24 months (4 semesters)
Maximum duration: 4+1 years from the date of registration.

(All the courses have to be completed within 4 years, and additional 1 year can be given to Thesis work on special request upon the approval of concerned authority)

Evaluation System

A student’s academic performance in a course is evaluated in two phases as:
• Internally by the concerned faculty member/s and
• Externally by the Office of the Controller of Examinations through semester-end examinations.

A sixty percent weight is given to internal evaluation and forty percent weight is given to external evaluation (Semester-end examination). The pass mark for both the internal evaluation and external evaluation (Semester-end examination) is 60%. A student must qualify in both evaluations separately to get a pass grade in a particular course. The final grade awarded to a student in a course is based on his/her consolidated performance in both internal and external evaluations.

The details of the criteria for internal evaluation will be as described in the internal evaluation guideline. The internal evaluation may consist of various components like project works, quizzes, presentations, written examinations, reflection notes preparation, and the like. A student will get NOT QUALIFIED (NQ) status in the internal evaluation if his/her performance falls below the minimum requirements. Such students will not be allowed to appear in the semester-end examination of that particular course.

Evaluation of Thesis
Internal (60%)
Preparation of proposal and defense 20%
Thesis report 30%
Thesis defense 10%

External (40%)
Thesis report 20%
Thesis defense (presentation and viva) 20%

Grading System

Pokhara University follows a four point (4.0) letter/ grade system. The letter /grades awarded to students will be as follows:

If a student cannot finish all the assigned works for the course, he/she will be given an incomplete grade ‘I’. If all the required assignments are not completed within the following semester, the grade of ‘I’ will automatically be converted into ‘F’.

The performance of a student is evaluated in terms of two indices: (a) Semester Grade Point Average (SGPA) which is the grade point average of the particular semester, and (b) Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) which is the grade point average of all the semesters.

SGPA = Total honor points earned in a semester / Total number of credit registered in a semester
CGPA = Total honor points earned / Total number of credits completed

Where,
Honor Point = Grade point earned in a subject × Number of credits assigned to that subject

Degree Requirements

To earn graduate degree from the MPH program,

• a student should have a ‘C’ or better grade in each of the courses as specified in the curricular structure section;
• completed all the courses, practical work and thesis as specified in the curricular structure section within the maximum time period specified in the normal and maximum duration of the study section;
• have a final CGPA of 3 or better on the university’s 4.0 grade scale, and
• No outstanding financial obligations to the university.

Distinction and Dean’s List

A student who obtains a CGPA of 3.75 or better will receive the MPH degree with distinction. The Dean’s list recognizes outstanding academic performance in the program. To qualify to this list, a student must have a CGPA of 3.80 or better.

Award of Degree

On completion of all the requirements with CGPA of 3.0 or better, the student will be awarded a degree of Master of Public Health with respective specialization. Thus the Degree will be read as:

• Master of Public Health (Public Health Service Management)
• Master of Public Health (Health Promotion and Education)

Repeating a Course

A course may be taken only once for grade. Since passing of all courses individually is a degree requirement, the student must retake the failing course when offered and must successfully complete the course. A student will be allowed to retake maximum of two courses to achieve a minimum CGPA of 3.0. The grade earned on the retake examination will substitute the earlier grade earned by the student in that course. A student can retake a course only when it is offered by the college/university.

Credit Transfer

A maximum of 25% of the total credit hours of course work completed by a student in an equivalent program of a recognized university/institution may be transferred / waived for credit by the Dean on the recommendation of the principal/head of the school/college. However, for such transfer of credit, a student must have received a grade ‘B’ or better in the respective course. Courses taken more than two years earlier than the date of application will not be accepted for transfer of credit.

Credit transfers will also be allowed from different programs of Pokhara University. In such cases, all credits earned by students in compatible courses with a minimum grade of B may be transferred to the new program.

Unfair Means and Dismissal from the Program

Students are strictly forbidden from plagiarism and adopting unfair means in class assignments, tests, report-writing, and internal and final examination.

The following would be considered as adoption of unfair means during examination:

• Communication with fellow students for obtaining help.
• Copying from another student’s script/report/paper.
• Copying from disk, palm of hand, mobile phone, or other incriminating documents.
• Possession of any incriminating documents or electronic gadget, whether used or not.
• Any approach in direct or indirect form to influence teacher concerning grade.
• Unruly behavior which disrupts academic program.

Adoption of unfair means may result in the dismissal of the student from the program and expulsion of the student from the school/college and as such from Pokhara University.

Dismissal from the Program

A student is normally expected to obtain a GPA of 3.0 in the semester-end examinations of the MPH program. If a student’s performance falls short of maintaining this CGPA continuously over the semesters, he/she may be advised to leave the program or dismissed from the program.

Detailed Curricular Structure

Pokhara University may offer several career-focused concentrations in the field of public health. These courses allow students to gain specialized knowledge and skills on specific concentration in public health areas. Currently, students are required to select any one of the following concentration areas besides studying core public health courses:

1. Public Health Service Management
2. Health Promotion and Education