As we celebrate our graduating students at today’s Commencement Ceremony, we spoke to Associate Professor Jeannette Lee, Vice Dean (Education), about the School’s education programmes and the future direction of education here.
Pictured above is A/Prof Jeannette Lee with Prof Tan Eng Chye, NUS President (2nd from left) and Prof Ho Teck Hua, NUS Senior Deputy President and Provost (1st from right) at the SSHSPH Booth at NUS Open Day 2019.
Tell us about the School’s education programmes.
Public health is everyone’s business and we need people with a diverse range of backgrounds and perspectives to be aware of and understand public health.
We need leaders with public health skills and knowledge from across sectors to come together to assess needs, listen to communities, develop and implement strategies to protect and promote health, and evaluate what works.
We need to harness the skills and expertise of people from different backgrounds to meet the challenges of an ageing population with increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases (like diabetes and heart disease), potential health disparities and mental well-being. Different backgrounds and perspectives also help us to think differently, evolve as a profession and be more equipped to find innovative solutions to public health challenges.
Recognising this, we provide public health education to undergraduate students from different disciplines, as well as offer graduate courses to a range of different professionals (medics, nurses, social workers, psychologists and many more).
Every year we have around 3,000 students studying public health in at least one of our modules.
Those who wish to further their professional education and training in public health can enrol in our flagship programme, the Master of Public Health (MPH), or our research-intensive Master of Science (MSc) or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). We also offer standalone modular courses to working public health professionals.
For undergraduates, we run a Minor programme that is open to all NUS undergraduates who want to develop the knowledge, skills and approaches needed to understand and address today’s public health challenges in Singapore, Asia and the world. The Minor in Public Health is now the second most popular course offered in NUS.
In terms of public health education for medics, we work closely with the medical school to provide public health education integrated within courses, as part of core medical training. For example, if the students are learning about infectious diseases, apart from learning about microbiology and medical treatment, the School also provides education on epidemiology, and prevention and control measures.
More recently, we have identified a need to further develop education and training around health economics and health technology assessment, to support the debate around the most effective treatments and approaches to disease management based on quality and cost.
Where do you see the future of public health education going?
It is essential for us to provide as many students as we can with a basic understanding of public health, and equip them with the knowledge and skills of public health. These students will go on to shape the future of Singapore in the roles of health professionals, community leaders, teachers, civil servants, business people and parents — all of whom will need to promote public health.
We see the School playing a critical role in offering relevant public health education and training as the individual progresses through his/her career: be it the medical education, minor, masters or PhD.
Do you have anything to say to the graduates of 2019?
I’m incredibly proud of our students and what they go on to achieve in Singapore and beyond. The skills that they develop over their time with us will make them well-placed to be advocates for public health in whatever careers they go on to have.
The mission of public health will always remain the same — to seek to improve the health of the population — but the strategies and tools we use will change. Future public health leaders will also need to look beyond hospitals and healthcare, and reach out to communities where people live, work and spend their free time. Our graduates would need to continually learn to stay relevant, engaging with and embracing new technologies and methodologies to better understand the community and its health issues, and develop solutions.
I always feel a bit sad this time of the year because it marks an ending of sorts with our students, but I do hope they keep in touch and reach out to our faculty if there is a need, be it education, research, mentorship or career advice. Hopefully we will see some of our graduates return to further their studies during the course of their career, such as undertaking a Master’s or PhD, or even a standalone module — whatever meets their needs.
Tell us something surprising about you that people may not know.
I adopt abandoned senior dogs. When I first started working in Singapore, I went to explore becoming a volunteer at SPCA and came back with my first senior dog: Lucky, a one-eyed Jack Russell terrier. Moose is our latest senior dog, whom I adopted at 10 and is now 17 years old.
I also find it interesting to look around supermarkets across the world and compare the ingredients available, the cost, as well as the nutritional difference. If you take yoghurt for example, you would think it was similar across the world, but in Singapore the level of sugar added is so much higher than in places like Australia. My kids thought the yoghurt in Australia tasted strange, because they have become so used to the high level of sugar in yoghurt here in Singapore. It made me reflect that high levels of sugar across a range of products in Singapore have become a ‘norm’ in terms of taste and culture. Singapore is becoming more health-conscious and aware, which will hopefully drive a consumer demand for lower sugar products.