Online Bachelor of Science in Public Health
The University of Cincinnati’s Bachelor of Science in Public Health is a fully online, four-year degree program. Students pursuing their undergraduate degree in Public Health gain the knowledge and skills to become leaders in the health profession, helping improve the health of people and communities. This program is the next step from the Associate of Science in Public Health program, and provides an environment that reaches beyond course work and class discussions.
What is Public Health?
Public Health is the science of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting the health of people and communities through organized efforts to educate, develop policy, conduct scientific research and regulate health systems. Public Health is part of the human services field of study, which means its primary objective is to improve the quality of life for as many people as possible!
There are many facets of public health – from improving access to healthcare, controlling infectious diseases, reducing environmental hazards to working toward decreasing substance abuse. Public Health professionals work to improve the health of individuals and communities. Their role can vary greatly, depending on their work setting and job responsibilities.
Public health professionals are passionate about giving back to their community. The right to be healthy helped shape public health as we know it today. Working in this field helps ensure everyone can exercise that right!
Understanding Public Health
Public health professionals work to keep people and communities safe and healthy by reducing harm. Public health is not a typical “health” degree like nursing or pre-medicine. Public health professionals use an upstream approach to examine potential issues impacting communities. Through this, they develop prevention programming to improve health while also enhancing the quality of life.
Professionals in public health take the “public health approach” to determine what will improve the quality of life in a community. Read more about this approach and how it works in the field and in an online public health degree program from the resources at UC Online.
While other health degree programs focus primarily on an individual’s health, our public health program emphasizes larger groups and teaches how to make a positive impact on an entire community!
Public Health Job Outlook
A public health degree is a gateway to a versatile job field that offers a variety of career paths that focus on the safety of the community and improving the general well-being of entire populations. These opportunities can range from focusing on the general population to more specialized groups and functions. There are three general categories of public health careers, including: research, community wellness, and administrative. Learn more about the career outlook for public health on our public health careers page.
Improving Public Health
The mission of Public Health is to promote health, prevent disease, and protect the environment of our communities, locally and beyond. We achieve this through our evidence-based interdisciplinary approaches in education, research, practice, and community engagement. Recent studies have shown that underserved communities need more public health professionals now more than ever. Make a difference in public health today!
UC Online Public Health Degree Highlights:
- 100% online: no campus visits are required.
- Ranked in the 15 Best Online Bachelor’s in Public Health Degrees by Best Health Degrees.
- Ranked in the 25 Best Online Bachelor’s in Public Health Degrees by University HQ.
- Employment Opportunities: our graduates are knowledgeable, skilled, and in high demand in today’s job market! At least 80,000 new employees are required for state and local health departments, according to research in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.
- Part-time and full-time scheduling: have the flexibility to balance work and family obligations while completing your degree.
- Certified Health Education Specialist: all graduates of the program are eligible to sit for the national certification exam to become a certified health education specialist (CHES).
Ready to get started?
We offer over 130 degrees from undergraduate to doctoral programs.