The Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) is an independent agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education that accredits schools of public health and public health programs. CEPH's mission assures “quality in public health education and training to achieve excellence in practice, research and service, through collaboration with organization and community partners". Accreditation by CEPH shows that the school or program has gone through a process of self-evaluation of content of instruction, research and that it has successfully met the standards for quality in public health education.
In 2006, the Graduate Public Health Program (GPHP) of the Faculty of Health Sciences was accredited by CEPH and was reaccredited in 2012 for a seven year term extending to December 2019. Since 2016, the GPHP was involved in a self-study process which required a comprehensive description of the faculty's organization, governance, resources, faculty, students, curriculum, research, and services. The study included an in depth qualitative and quantitative assessment of the program's performance against the CEPH criteria. An external committee, organized by CEPH, reviewed the self-study and conducted a site visit in May 2019. The site visit team interviewed senior leadership members at AUB and FHS, as well as faculty, staff, and students, inspected facilities and examined documentation supporting the self-study.
The CEPH Board reviewed our self-study and response at their December 2019 meeting and voted to renew the accreditation of the program for another seven-year term, ending in 2026.