Program Values

“Health care matters to all of us some of the time, public health matters to all of us all of the time.”

- C. Everett Koop

The Master of Public Health Program is committed to providing a student-centred experience. We teach the skills required for self-directed lifelong learning and place the professional requirements, needs, and interests of our graduates at the forefront of our pedagogy. Our values were formulated with this understanding and are in consonance with the values of Western University:

  1. Leadership: We are committed to building a culture of achievement that inspires all faculty, students, staff and alumni—to lead and succeed as global citizens committed to making a difference in society.
  2. Social Justice & Equity: We will, through our teaching, research and service play a significant role in improving equity and quality of life for communities locally, regionally and internationally.
  3. Excellence: We aspire in our teaching, learning, research and scholarship to a level of academic excellence that is recognized nationally and internationally.
  4. Integrity: We embrace the values of honesty, fairness and respect in conducting all of our academic and professional activities, as essential means of serving the public good.
  5. Innovation: We are committed to innovative approaches to teaching, research and service to solve public health challenges. 
  6. Interdisciplinarity: Recognizing that solutions to many of the world’s most significant and complex challenges are often found where disciplines intersect, we actively foster collaboration while building capacity for interdisciplinary research and teaching.
  7. Sustainability: We will apply our intellectual capacity to identify and solve pressing public health problems in a long-term and sustainable manner.
  8. Diversity: We are committed to welcoming the world to Western and will ensure that our enrolment, employment and advancement processes are open, unhindered and free of barriers.
  9. Academic Freedom: We uphold the right of all in our community to speak and write freely, and we expect all who study, teach and conduct research at Western to uphold the highest ideals of scholarly responsibility.