This study on an evaluation of Doctor of Public Health Program, School of Public Health, Seoul National University that was established in 1976, was carried out for tluee years from 1982.
The major objective of the study was to assess the current program critically with special concern to the appropriateness of the curriculum referring to the principles of curriculum planning, implementation, and evaluation for improvement of the pro-gram.
The study was conducted step by step starting from a staff awareness seminar, planning of the evaluation study, organization of task forces, data collection and analysis, three-day faculty workshop, and implementation of the planned change.
The data collection consisted of relevant literature and documents reviews as well as mail and/or interview surveys with structured questionnaires on the faculty members, current students, graduates, supervisors of the graduates and public health ex-
perts. Stufflebeam´s evaluation model was used as
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the basic framework of the study.
The data analysis revealed various problems on the current program; the ambiguity of the pro-gram objectives, inappropriateness of the curriculum in terms of community context particularly on the expected roles/responsibilities of the graduates,
School of public Health, Seoul National Universityunmet need of students in relation to educational facilities, some problems involved in the operation of the curriculum such as inadequate rule for the eligibility of application to the program, unbalanced staff allocation by subspecialty of public health discipline, and unsettled division of department that represents the subspecialty.
All these problems identified through the study were presented and discussed in the faculty workshop participated in by the all faculty members. In the workshop almost all of the problems were discussed fully seeking the best alternative for solution by means of faculty consensus. Following the faculty workshop in which planned changes had been formulated, curriculum revision, new staff appointment, division of depAtment, enactment of official by-law for the program, reinforcei.ient of educational facilities and so on have been achieved within two years. In order to share the experience with other similar educational institutes, national and regional workshops are in the process of planting.
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