Dr. Isabelle Richard, Director, EHESP, Rennes, France

EHESP was the first School of Public Health in Europe to succesfully achieve institutional accreditation in 2015. In 2021 EHESP was re-accredited.

A key role at the crossroads of the French, the European and the International Public Health sector by:
- Providing initial and lifelong training for public health administration management and management for the private and voluntary facilities, in health and social sector;
- Delivering higher education in public health (Master, PhD) and, to this end, to take initiatives within a national network promoting the pooling of resources and activities between the different public and private-sector organisations concerned;
- Contributing to public health research, and to this end, to involve scientists, practitioners and professionals from other French and foreign establishments in its activities and collaborate with the academic world and research institutions in France and abroad
- Developing international relations, including exchanges with institutions offering similar training courses.

Since the early 2000s EHESP School of Public Health, has examined the issue of international accreditation of schools of public health and their training programmes.

By participating in the initial work started in 2006 by ASPHER with more than hundred European

public health teachers, scientists and practitioners in the development of a list of Core Competences for the Public Health Professional , regularly updated ever since, it helped to define the foundations of APHEA.

The recommendations made by APHEA’s peers was extremely profitable for the institution thanks to the broader perspective it brought on the School practices and areas of improvements intended to better suit the needs of well-trained Public Health workforces in France and worldwide regarding EHESP’s audience.

The pandemics due to Sars-Cov-2 emphasized the fact that EHESP School of Public Health network of former Alumni worldwide can build up easier and fast professional cooperation. It enhances by the way the crucial need of competence-based education focusing on common methods in public health. The robust quality standards provided by APHEA based on a large and impacting professional territorial anchoring make its assessment being a strategic coherent approach for any institution willing to stay at the cutting edge of the latest developments in the field of public health higher education and research.

Accredited 2015 & 2021