School of Public Health drops ‘graduate’ as undergrad degree added

Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health is dropping “graduate” from its name in recognition of its new undergraduate degree program, which was announced in January.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health — also known as Pitt Public Health — will welcome its first undergraduate class in fall 2022. The school will offer a bachelor of science in public health degree, a four-year program that provides undergraduate students with a foundation in key public health disciplines, study abroad courses and research opportunities while embedding them in communities through active service-learning activities. 

“With the recent expansion of our student body at the undergraduate level, we are entering a new era of cultivating public health leaders across the educational continuum,” said the school’s dean, Maureen Lichtveld. “More than ever, as a premier school of public health in Pennsylvania, we are working together with our communities to counter the most intransigent health problems and inequities.”

The new name reflects the school's investment in younger generations of students passionate about public health, many of whom were driven by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the desire to embrace both the school’s undergraduate and graduate scholars.

Founded in 1948, Pitt Public Health is a community of nearly 650 students, 160 faculty and 320 staff. The school has seven academic departments that include behavioral and community health sciences, biostatistics, environmental and occupational health, epidemiology, health policy and management, human genetics, and infectious diseases and microbiology.

Pitt Public Health is consistently ranked among the top recipients of National Institutes of Health funding.