New BS in Public Health

[sanantone]

WGU is hiring course developers and testers for a BS in Public Health program. In my opinion, they should have skipped directly to the MPH. There's not much that can be done with a BS, and people usually transition into this field with experience in healthcare or science. They also should have created a BSW, MSW, or master's in mental health counseling instead of undergraduate degrees in psychology and health and human services. With them already being an education-focused university, school counseling and school psychology certification/license-eligible programs would have made sense. 

WGU's mission was to offer practical degrees that lead to jobs, and I don't think their latest health-related programs align with that mission.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Years ago WGU offered an MS in Health Education that I think qualified graduates for the MCHES or CHES certification exams. They closed the program with no replacement, a rare occurrence for WGU. Now they're adding one program after another at a lower level adjacent to it.

[Kab]

Maybe later on, when the bachelors are stablished they will start with the MPH and etc.? Maybe they took a step by step approach starting from the lower point?
All that said, I agree with Sanantone in that usually the useful degree is the MPH and is people with previous degrees in healthcare that transition to it.

[bjcheung77]

Most changes are determined by demand and they're trying to supply that demand at the undergrad level. I would hope they either create a new program for the graduate level or re-instate/revive the older program mentioned in post #2. I think if they revive the program, they can make minor changes until it conforms to accreditation requirements...

[indigoshuffle]

WGU is hiring course developers and testers for a BS in Public Health program. In my opinion, they should have skipped directly to the MPH. There's not much that can be done with a BS, and people usually transition into this field with experience in healthcare or science. They also should have created a BSW, MSW, or master's in mental health counseling instead of undergraduate degrees in psychology and health and human services. With them already being an education-focused university, school counseling and school psychology certification/license-eligible programs would have made sense. 

WGU's mission was to offer practical degrees that lead to jobs, and I don't think their latest health-related programs align with that mission.

This was exactly my critique of WGU's new psychology degree. As an alum, I was surprised because it doesn't line up with their mission statement. Everyone knows psychology degrees have a poor return on time/money investment. But after thinking about it a bit, I realized they were probably going to be developing some kind of graduate program to make the psychology degree worth the time and effort. I'm sure they have something interesting in the works.

[sanantone]

WGU is hiring course developers and testers for a BS in Public Health program. In my opinion, they should have skipped directly to the MPH. There's not much that can be done with a BS, and people usually transition into this field with experience in healthcare or science. They also should have created a BSW, MSW, or master's in mental health counseling instead of undergraduate degrees in psychology and health and human services. With them already being an education-focused university, school counseling and school psychology certification/license-eligible programs would have made sense. 

WGU's mission was to offer practical degrees that lead to jobs, and I don't think their latest health-related programs align with that mission.

This was exactly my critique of WGU's new psychology degree. As an alum, I was surprised because it doesn't line up with their mission statement. Everyone knows psychology degrees have a poor return on time/money investment. But after thinking about it a bit, I realized they were probably going to be developing some kind of graduate program to make the psychology degree worth the time and effort. I'm sure they have something interesting in the works.

I hope so. Otherwise, they'll be just like every other online school that focuses on offering popular degrees instead of degrees that can actually get people jobs. Not that I'm saying that you can't get a job with a BS in psychology; it's just a lot harder, and the average pay is low.

[BecciCarroll]

WGU is hiring course developers and testers for a BS in Public Health program. In my opinion, they should have skipped directly to the MPH. There's not much that can be done with a BS, and people usually transition into this field with experience in healthcare or science. They also should have created a BSW, MSW, or master's in mental health counseling instead of undergraduate degrees in psychology and health and human services. With them already being an education-focused university, school counseling and school psychology certification/license-eligible programs would have made sense. 

WGU's mission was to offer practical degrees that lead to jobs, and I don't think their latest health-related programs align with that mission.

This was exactly my critique of WGU's new psychology degree. As an alum, I was surprised because it doesn't line up with their mission statement. Everyone knows psychology degrees have a poor return on time/money investment. But after thinking about it a bit, I realized they were probably going to be developing some kind of graduate program to make the psychology degree worth the time and effort. I'm sure they have something interesting in the works.

I just spoke with an enrollment counselor at WGU the other day and they said that there will be no "behavioral-type"masters programs for at least another 4 years. 

[bjcheung77]

I just spoke with an enrollment counselor at WGU the other day and they said that there will be no "behavioral-type"masters programs for at least another 4 years. 

Sometimes you take information from people with a grain of salt, don't dwell on what they give you, decide if you want to take it at WGU or go for another route. There are different pathways towards the goal. What if the person you were talking to made a minor mistake, it may have been 4 months not 4 years... What if they decide to bump it up earlier than that or maybe drop the program altogether later down the road, no one knows for certain. Have a backup plan...

[withrown]

WGU is hiring course developers and testers for a BS in Public Health program. In my opinion, they should have skipped directly to the MPH. There's not much that can be done with a BS, and people usually transition into this field with experience in healthcare or science. They also should have created a BSW, MSW, or master's in mental health counseling instead of undergraduate degrees in psychology and health and human services. With them already being an education-focused university, school counseling and school psychology certification/license-eligible programs would have made sense. 

WGU's mission was to offer practical degrees that lead to jobs, and I don't think their latest health-related programs align with that mission.

I can only speak to my experience in Alabama but I suspect this is the case nationally. In Alabama maybe 10ish years ago, the Al department of public health needed employees but they did'nt have enough staff pay lines for folks at the masters level but they still needed qualified candiates for the positions. The answer was the BS in public health. FWIW, the university I was formerly employed at had the same faculty teaching the BSPH and MSPH (also DRPH). The BS and MPH curiculum is almost identical except the MPH has more papers and presentations.