As part of the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, the UCI Program in Public Health is dedicated to the achievement of health equity for all populations through research, teaching, service, and public health practice, locally and globally. Championing the principles of evidence-based public health science, the Program’s community aspires to understand and impact population-level social, biological, and environmental determinants of health and well-being.
Established in 2003, UCI Public Health has one of the largest and most diverse undergraduate programs in the country. In the 2023 U.S. News and World Report Rankings, UCI Public Health ranked #19 among public universities and #31 nationally out of 200 schools/programs of public health.
In the summer of 2020, the Program went from a single Department of Population Health to a program with four distinct departments representing the foundations of public health: the Departments of Environmental and Occupational Health; Epidemiology and Biostatistics (both of which migrated from the School of Medicine); Health, Society and Behavior; and Population Health and Disease Prevention. Leveraging the strengths of the Program, the campus is in the process of officially establishing a School of Population and Public Health, making us the fourth school of public health in the 10 campus UC system.
The Program is made up of approximately 1,300 undergraduates and roughly 200 graduate students as of Fall 2022, and has nearly 175 dedicated faculty and staff who support the Program’s academic programs and research endeavors.
The curriculum brings a multidisciplinary approach to public health practice and research. Undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students explore epidemiology, genetics, health informatics, chronic and infectious diseases, environmental and global health sciences, social and behavioral health sciences, and health policy and administration. Students are encouraged to learn through researching critical issues, such as air and water pollution, natural disasters and emergency health response, maternal and child health, and occupational health and industrial ecology.
Faculty members and alumni are pioneers in crucial areas of public health, taking part in innovative research, policy analysis, global environmental assessments, occupational health, and clinical and translational sciences that impact our region, nation and world.
Accreditation Statement
The Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) is an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit schools and programs of public health. The Program in Public Health at UC Irvine was initially accredited in October 2012. In July 2018, CEPH acted to re-accredit (see CEPH Final Report and CEPH Letter) the UC Irvine Program in Public Health for a seven-year term until July 1, 2025.
Upon approval of the School of Population and Public Health by the UC Regents, a comprehensive school-focused, self-study will need to be provided to CEPH with evidence of compliance with the agency’s school-level standards. For more information or questions, please contact Michael Robert, EdD at mrobert5@hs.uci.edu.
