Department Introduction
Demand for a healthier life is increasing as the society is developing. Accordingly, the demand for health policy, health system, and health sciences is also increasing. This change in demand is based on the yearning for a better quality in life, and especially, the desire to live a healthier life. Thus, it can be concluded that the need for research in the field of health science will ever continue to rise in the future.
The department of Public Health Sciences was first founded in March 2008 as the first graduate school department to be founded in the history of school of Health Sciences. The department developed to a point of having approximately 130 students and 20 professors at the year 2015, and is still on the process of further advancement. The department is interdisciplinary which covers all fields of liberal arts and natural sciences based on 6 main major fields. Our interdisciplinary approach targets cell unit, individual unit, population unit, and policy level researches. In 2013, our department has been selected as the only department to participate in the BK21PLUS project in the field of health science, and after that, our convergence oriented curriculums and collaborative research has been greatly enhanced. The department is continuously making an effort to successfully train world-class interdisciplinary researchers based on our education philosophy.
The department of Health Science provides you with great opportunities to become an international leader with a brighter future in the field of public health. We are putting all our efforts even at this moment to help you think of a wider vision for the enhancement of the quality of health of the population world-wide. We strongly suggest you to participate in this great effort for a healthier and more affluent future.
Words of greetings
Health has been traditionally perceived as something that is gained by personal luck. However, since the emergence of social epidemiology in 1990, and after vigorous activities by the ‘Commission on Social Determinants of Health’ of WHO, many have started to think better.
“All conditions within the health system including birth, growth, living, work, and aging“ are determinants of health, and all public policy regarding health should change in a way that positively affects health.
We are actually planning to take a step further. If the statement, “As long as humans are social and biological beings, there are no biological process that do not interact with social environment” was the principle in ‘Determinants of health’, social science should be focused more on this ‘biological process.’ In other words, not only should we discuss how social factors simply affect disease or health, but also we should research the causal mediate relation of how social factors biologically affects the body, and then how it results in certain health conditions.
We are implementing a ‘Problem solving oriented research and education’ that can provide political answers in a variety of fields such as social policy, statistics/epidemiology, health/medical policy, science technology policy, nutrition, and environmental policy that are based on ‘Public health’ which covers a wide range regarding health promotion, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation related interventions. Through this, we are putting all our effort aiming to train world-class, interdisciplinary students who can provide and implement practical answers that lead to health promotion.
Majors
- Major in Health Policy & Management
- Major in Epidemiology & Risk Management
- Major in Rehabitilitation Sciences
- Major in Dental Laboratory Science and Engineering
- Major in Environmental Health Sciences
- Major in Biomedical & Food Sciences
Head of Department of Health Sciences, Graduate School, Korea University,
Tae-Ro, Lee