Campus: Astana, Kazakhstan, NU School of Medicine building

Language: English

Delivery mode: Full-time, on-campus

Duration: 2 years

Total ECTS credit: 120

Health-related positions in the United Nations (WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNAIDS, and others) and unilateral international agencies (USAID) almost always require or prefer candidates with MPH degrees. There is a growing need for MPH-trained personnel as administrators, researchers, and assessment specialists in hospitals and other health institutions. In the private sector pharmaceutical, health insurance and biotechnology companies are hiring public health professionals. Sometimes MPH graduates start their own businesses.

Increasing numbers of universities, both in Kazakhstan and outside Kazakhstan, are hiring MPH graduates for teaching, administrative work, and research. The MPH is also a gateway degree for MPH graduates who want to pursue a doctorate in a public health field in universities outside of Kazakhstan.

Engage students through transformational education and training in internationally accepted best practices in population-based approaches to address health, health conditions, and disease determinants for the prevention and control of disease, disability, and untimely death.

• To provide graduates with competencies in public health sciences to produce health and biomedical research and program evaluations of the highest quality based on international standards.
• To provide graduates with competencies in management and health service assessment for the administration of health institutions and the development of health policies.
• To produce skilled public health professionals who draw on knowledge and methods from multiple disciplines to ethically define, critically assess, and resolve problems affecting the public’s health.

There is a growing national and international demand for MPH graduates. The Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy identifies preventive medicine, environmental protection, population health, and access to health as priorities- all requiring public health-trained professionals. The Ministry of Health and Social Development and its affiliated institutes and centers, and the National Medical Holding hire MPH-trained professionals.

On successful completion of the Master of Public Health program graduates will be able to:

• Assess the health needs of defined populations, including critically characterizing distributions of determinants of health, morbidity, mortality, disability, the burden of disease, and application to inform the development of more effective and more cost-effective interventions.
• Develop, analyze, and implement targeted health policies, projects, and programs.
• Assure the appropriateness and effectiveness of a given public health intervention through monitoring and evaluation and other means.
• Communicate and disseminate public health messages to targeted audiences in the general public and professional groups, including the writing of scientific papers for international conferences and submission to international biomedical and public health peer-reviewed journals.
• Apply behavioral sciences in public health research and practice, including identifying psycho-social determinants and etiologies of health conditions and design of behavioral interventions to improve health and well-being.
• Apply biomedical sciences in public health research and practice, including characterizing and evaluating modes of transmission and etiology, pathophysiology, and host responses to vaccines, chemoprophylaxis, and pharmacological methods of prevention, treatment, and management of disease of public health importance.
• Apply environmental health sciences in public health research and practice, including identification and appraisal of environmental exposures associated with disease, disability, and death, especially for susceptible populations, and conducting risk assessment/risk management analysis.
• Apply management sciences in public health research and practice, including characterizing health service systems’ organizations and structures, evaluating health delivery system models, assessing and improving health service management through changes in strategic planning and organizational design, applying concepts of human resource management to achieve strategic objectives, and preparing budgets.
• Utilize quantitative sciences to design, conduct, analyze and interpret quantitative health research and statistical analysis, plan and conduct epidemiological surveillance, and critique and explain published peer-reviewed biomedical and public health literature.
• Utilize qualitative sciences to design, conduct, analyze and interpret health research and critique
• Demonstrate integration of new knowledge and skills with previous training and experience by critical and selective application within a personally and professionally relevant context, including fostering life-long learning and open critical thinking.

STEP 1. Create your personal account

Register on www.admissions.nu.edu.kz portal to create a Personal Account. Please select the «Master's degree/Residency» program during choosing the Academic level.

After completing the application, confirm it by clicking on the link sent to your email.

Be sure to read the Instructions about the application procedure given in your Personal account.

STEP 2. Complete your Application Form and attach the required documents

Fill out the application form and attach the required documents:

1. Scanned copy of a National ID card or passport;
2. Scanned copy of secondary school or higher education institution certificate (attestat/diploma) with final academic performance or certificate from the school (spravka) according to the sample in the personal account;
3. Motivation letter in English;
4. Valid copies of certificates. The results of standardized tests must be sent directly to the University through test administrators.

STEP 3. Pay an application fee and finish the registration process

To finalize the application process, please click on the "PAY AND SUBMIT APPLICATION" button on your Personal account under the "My Application Forms" section. The application fee shall be paid online through the payment options available in the Personal account. The use of other payment methods for the application fee is not acceptable.

Applicants can apply for no more than 2 Master's / PhD programs at NU. In case of admission to both programs, the applicant must choose only one.

The application fee is 15 000 tenge. The application fee is increased 3 times when paid within the last two weeks before the first approved deadline and during the extension period for accepting applications for participation in the admission process (except for the Graduate School of Business). The application fee is non-refundable, irrespective of the application outcome or payment errors.

After submitting the online application, an applicant will not be able to make changes in the actions described in Step 2.

Step 4. Provide results of IELTS/TOEFL/GRE/GMAT

In order to provide IELTS/TOEFL/GRE/GMAT certificates, applicants should fulfill the following requirements:

• Send the electronic results of valid IELTS/TOEFL/GRE/GMAT certificate via the Test Administrator directly to NU;
• Upload a scanned copy of the IELTS/TOEFL certificate to the «Upload IELTS/TOEFL results» section of a Personal account and indicate its unique number. Applicants can submit any number of certificates for the competition, but the last certificate uploaded to the Personal account will be considered.
• Upload a scanned copy of the GRE/GMAT certificate in the «My Application Forms» section (Step 2) when uploading the required documents (if available or as required by the program).

Please pay attention to important information regarding the codes for providing test results through the Test Administrator:

• Code for IELTS: NU
• Code for TOEFL iBT: 6762
• Code for GRE: 6496
• Code for GMAT: H6m-R7-93

Please note that issuance and submission of IELTS/TOEFL/GRE/GMAT results in the electronic database of NU is not within the competence of the University. You should independently contact the Test Administrator (Test Center) and make sure that your certificate has been sent. Please note that this action takes at least 7-10 working days. If the certificate is received after the deadline specified by the Admissions Department, results will not be considered in the competition

All certificates provided must be valid at the time of submission of application.

Detailed Instruction on the provision of IELTS/TOEFL certificates is available in the applicant's Personal account. IELTS Online, TOEFL iBT Home Edition and TOEFL PDT results are not considered in the competition and selection process.

Applicants, at the discretion of the Admissions Committee, can be exempted from submitting the language proficiency test report in one of the following documented cases:

• an academic degree was earned in a country with English as the language of official communication and academic instruction;
• an undergraduate and/or graduate degree was earned in a program which was officially taught in English;
• if an applicant is a graduate of NU.

Further steps

After submission of the online Application Form, an automatic email notification will be sent to your referees with a request to submit a recommendation letter to NU in accordance with the provided online form. Detailed Instruction on providing recommendation letters is available in the Personal account.

Check your email for notifications from NU and your Personal account to stay informed about the status of your application. ​​Please keep in mind that sometimes letters from the University may go to the spam box.

Participate in the interview with the Admissions Committee in case of being invited. Interviews are conducted in English.

If you experience any difficulties with the registration or online application, please contact info_admissions@nu.edu.kz. Refer to your IIN and/or Applicant ID while sending us your requests.

Candidates applying to the Master of Public Health program are expected to have:

• an undergraduate degree (Bachelor’s degree or equivalent) and a/or graduate degree (if applicable) in a relevant discipline. During the application period, final year students may submit official current transcripts for consideration. Applicants recommended for admission must provide final transcripts and diplomas before the end of the Programs’ enrollment term. Graduates of the University are enrolled based on the evidence of the final transcript confirming the degree completion followed by diploma submission within a month;
• Applicants may be enrolled conditionally based on evidence from graduating university that the applicants have completed the educational program and the applicant expects formal issuance of final transcript and/or diploma by a certain date. In that case, the decision on enrollment shall prescribe the period of time within which the applicant shall provide the necessary documents to the University;
• a minimum CGPA of 2.5 out of 4.0 or equivalent on the applicant’s degree (bachelor's, master or Ph.D. (if masters and Ph.D. have adopted a GPA approach);
• the required level of English language proficiency;
• strong reading, analytical and mathematical skills as demonstrated by GRE or GMAT test (optional). Although an official GRE/GMAT score is not an essential requirement, an applicant can enhance his/her application with a competitive GRE/GMAT score;
• high level of motivation and a strong interest in the Program outlined in the statement of purpose;
• 2 (two) confidential letters of recommendation;
• For Master of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Master in Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation programs only: Evidence of any professional and/or voluntary experiences related to biological and/or medical research (optional). Although this is not an essential requirement, an applicant can enhance his/her application with such evidence.

The required level of English proficiency:

1. The absolute minimum requirement for English language proficiency test reports for admission to the Program is an Academic IELTS – overall 6.0 (writing 6.0, reading 5.5, listening 5.5, speaking 5.5) or the equivalent TOEFL score (except Home edition) as posted on the ETS website;

2. Applicants to the Program, at the discretion of the Admissions Committee, can be exempted from submitting the language proficiency test report if:

• one of their earlier academic degrees was earned in a country with English as the language of official communication, academic instruction, and daily life;
• an undergraduate or graduate degree was earned in a program that was officially taught in English;
• the applicant is a graduate of NU.

All submitted documents shall be in English or with notarized English translation:

• Complete application form;
• National ID or passport;
• Official document confirming name changes (if applicable);
• Degree diplomas with transcripts;
• An official electronic IELTS/TOEFL certificate (except Home edition) (valid at the time of document submission) sent to the University through IELTS/TOEFL VERIFICATION SERVICES. Code for IELTS: NU. Code for TOEFL: 6762
• Document confirming English as the language of instruction (only for applicants who earned their degree in a program which was taught in English and request an exemption from submitting IELTS or TOEFL);
• GRE/GMAT test certificates valid as of the date of online documents submission (optional);
• Two confidential letters of recommendation written within the last 12 month (to be provided by referees electronically or in hard copy). You can find the Instruction for submission of recommendation letters here;
• Statement of purpose of 500 words or less;
• 075у medical certificate (for Kazakhstani applicants) or a similar medical certificate with indication of general health (for international applicants);
• A document stating the presence or absence of a criminal record;
• Consent of the applicant/student to the processing of personal data;
• For Master of Pharmacology and Toxicology program only: Evidence of any professional and/or voluntary experiences related to biological and/or medical research shown in a CV, recommendation letter or in any other document (optional).
• The Admissions Committee and/or Admissions Department may request additional documents when necessary.

Online application deadlines for Masters programs:

For all types of grants: the application deadline is December 23, 2024, 14:00 (Astana time) for international applicants and citizens of Kazakhstan.

For full tuition fee-paying category:

• International applicants: available until March 17, 2025, 14:00 (Astana time).
• Citizens of Kazakhstan: available until June 25, 2025, 14:00 (Astana time).

Deadline for submission of IELTS/TOEFL, GRE/GMAT certificates:

For all types of grants: the application deadline is January 5, 2025 for international applicants and citizens of Kazakhstan.

For full tuition fee-paying category:

• International applicants: available until April 30, 2025.
• Citizens of Kazakhstan: available until July 31, 2025.

The start of orientation week (for newly enrolled students): August 2025

First day of classes: August 2025

All registered candidates can check the status of their application in the Personal account. Description of the status below is presented in the order of assignment to the candidate in the Personal account.

Application in processing. This is interim status, which means that the application is being processed. Admissions Committee will evaluate the application and inform the candidate on further steps/stages. Notification on final results will be sent to your email address.

Does not meet entry requirements. The status is assigned to the candidates who do not meet the minimum entry requirements. It is given after checking the application forms and the documents by the Admissions Department.

Disqualified. The status is assigned to candidates who are disqualified for gross violations of the conditions of the competition. For example, provided deliberately false information.

Rejected by Admissions Committee. At one of the competition stages, the Admissions Committee decided to reject the candidate’s application.

Transfer to another program. At the stage of an application screening the Admissions Committee has decided to recommend the candidate for consideration by the Admissions Committee of another program within the same School.

Pending. Candidate’s application is pending.

Waiting list. The Admissions Committee has finished reviewing the candidate’s application and made a decision to put you on a waiting list. Such candidates should expect notification from the University, as there is a possibility that if other candidates reject to study, they may be sent an invitation letter to study.

Recommended for admission to program. Admissions Committee has decided to recommend candidate for the program without going through the Year of Graduate programs.

Recommended for conditional admission. The Admissions Committee has decided to recommend a candidate for the conditional admission with a requirement to fulfill the condition by the deadline specified in the notification.

Withdrawn. Candidate decided to withdraw from the competition.

Accepted Program admission offer. The status is assigned to candidates who received offer letter, signed Enrollment confirmation form and fulfilled all the сonditions of the University indicated in the offer letter.

Refused admission offer. The candidate was recommended for admission, but refused to study.

Refused in favor of another NU program. The status is applicable for those candidates, who applied for several graduate programs at NU. The status is assigned when the candidate chooses another program.

Deferred. The status is assigned to candidates who were accepted for the program, but decided to postpone their studies until the next year.

Did not submit the documents/Refused. The status assigned to candidates who did not provide originals of the documents by the stated deadline, which means that the candidate refuses to study at University.

Did not come to Orientation week/Refused. The status is assigned to candidates who accepted the offer letter, provided hard copies of documents, but did not participate in Orientation week. The vacant place, if available, can be offered to the candidates in the Waiting list.

Enrolled to program. The status is assigned to candidates who enrolled to the main program by the Decision of the Provost. Candidate officially became a student.

The Master of Public Health Program is a two year full-time program. The MPH program provides the basic core competencies to practice in a large range of public health fields and to contribute to the body of knowledge in public health and population medicine. The curriculum focuses in basic public health sciences and essential managerial and analytical skills including project planning and evaluation, analytical epidemiological investigation and statistical data analysis and modeling, understanding complex determinants of health and health disparities, effective communications to professionals and the public, and leadership.

Year 1: Semester 1

Year 1: Semester 2

Year 2: Semester 3

Year 2: Semester 4

PUBH 501 Principles of Public Health Problem Solving

This course is an introduction to the diverse profession of public health and a guiding framework for public health problems solving. The course covers a broad range of global public health problems, with the emphasis on chronic diseases epidemiology. The course emphasizes the development of essential skills in critical thinking and group process. Students will complete an analysis of current public health problems, including recommended courses of action, individually and in small groups.

PUBH 521 Principles of Analytical Epidemiology

This course introduces you to the principles and methods of analytical epidemiology, providing you with a quantitative toolkit to investigate the broad range of infectious and non-infectious (including genetic) diseases, mental and physical health disorders, related behaviors and complications, and health systems and health policies. The course provides you the opportunity to learn and apply epidemiological study designs and assessments to measure problems and their determinants. Epidemiological reasoning and methodologies are demonstrated through faculty interactive lectures and readings, enhanced by problem-posing group exercises linking these methods to real-life case studies. Individual work on problem sets further strengthens epidemiology skillsets. Student evaluation will be based on homework, quizzes, and a final examination.

PUBH 511 Inferential Biostatistics

This course covers basic understanding of inferential biostatistics in application to Public Health. This course addresses issues of descriptive analysis, hypothesis testing and doing bivariate analysis (t-test, chi-square test, etc.). Established and recently collected data sets will be analyzed using these methods. Evaluation is based on individual and group problem sets (including quizzes, and examinations). The course provides opportunities for real life case applications.

PUBH 599 Global Nutrition and Sustainability

This course aims to provide the students with basic concepts in epidemiology, nutritional science and public health in relation to the development of contemporary and modern nutrition strategies and technology to improve health, well-being and to sustain food ecosystems. Students will be able to apply the knowledge gained in understanding how diet influences health to inform national, global food policies and the dissemination of evidence-based information to various key stakeholders in government institutions, private and public agencies. This course will also provide a broad overview of policy and communication, allowing the students to demonstrate an understanding of the challenges in making informed decisions about the relationship between sustainability and public health nutrition.

PUBH 528 Qualitative Research Methods

This course is an introduction to qualitative research methods that are employed in health and health service research. We cover the basics of the qualitative research methods, including theoretical foundations, research ethics, research designs, data collection, data analysis, and writing research results. This course includes classroom activities and case studies that will provide students an opportunity to practice the most used qualitative research methods in public health, including semi-structured in-depth interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. By the end of the semester, students will design their own research that applies qualitative research methods to examine a public health-related question of your choice.

PUBH 512 Biostatistical Modeling and Sampling

This course advances the concepts of regression modeling of epidemiologic data to broaden analytic skills acquired in previous courses. This course covers statistical techniques commonly used in epidemiology and health services research, such as linear, logistic and Poisson regression as well as survival analysis (Cox regression). The course also addresses issues of sampling, sampling schemes, sample size, and power calculations for different study designs. The course includes statistical software computer exercises for real-life case studies that are linked to topics covered in the lectures. Evaluation is based on problem sets, quizzes, and examinations. Greater emphasis will be placed on conceptual understanding rather than just doing computations. In other words, formulating the proper model to fit will be considered more important than the actual trying to fit the model using software.

PUBH 522 Advanced Analytical Epidemiology

This course builds upon the courses Principles of Analytical Epidemiology, Social and Behavioral Sciences and both Biostatistics courses. Students learn advanced methods to further assessing the impact of bias, confounding and interaction and acquire advanced techniques for mitigating those effects. Newer specialized cohort and case-control study designs and randomized controlled trials are introduced. Evaluation is based on problem-posing assignments, case study group work and exams.

PUBH 631 Social and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health

This course introduces quantitative research methods and focuses on methodological issues of conducting a health survey. It provides an overview of social and behavioral aspects of public health and covers the application of behavioral theories for public health research. For the practical application of the course material, students are involved in group projects on designing and implementing small-scale health surveys.

PUBH 641 Problem Investigations in Environmental Health

This course presents the broad concepts and principles used in organizing and assessing the major environmental and occupational health problems in low/middle income and in industrialized countries and reviews interventions in the control and prevention of environmental health conditions. Student evaluation is based on quizzes, examinations and paper.

PUBH 551 Health Services Management, Health Economics and Health Policy

This course provides the practical and theoretical underpinnings of the organization and management of health organizations, health economics and health policy. Specific emphasis is placed on evaluation of health services and systems, individual leadership, management and policy development skills development.Evaluation is based upon examinations and student projects. By the end of the course students will be able to:

1. Describe and critique the government’s role in health policy development and implementation

2. Analyze and evaluate the process of public policy-making and how it affects the design, implementation and performance of health policies

3. Identify policies and services appropriate to promote and maintain health or prevent injury and disease, for communities, families, and individuals

4. Articulate the fiscal, administrative, legal, social, and political implications of a strategy developed to solve a health problem

5. Relate how advocacy, biases, politics, and information influence policy-making and program implementation

6. Design a program evaluation that is methodologically sound

7. Apply key concepts of human resource management to achieving the strategic objectives of health service organizations.

PUBH 681 Master's Project Planning

Through the course of the semester, each student will develop the key parts of the master’s project proposal using the MPH Integrated Experience Project (IEP) Guidelines. The MPH IEP allows the students to demonstrate the application of the core public health competencies to a problem of professional relevance. This course will lead students through the steps of planning a proposal for an MPH IEP, followed by the actual implementation and defending of the thesis project during the last semester of the MPH program.

PUBH 552 Principles of Heath Economics and Policy

This course is a continuation of PUBH 551 Principles of Health Administration and Economics, expanding on and focusing more on the diverse basics of health economics and health policy. The course covers general issues in economics and policy of the health care system. The course emphasizes the development of essential skills in critical thinking and team work. Students will complete an analysis of current health care policy and economic system functions and challenges, including recommended courses of action, individually and in small groups.

PUBH 633 Methods in Public Health

The course focuses on advanced specialized methods and applications used for evaluation and assessments, especially as they relate to chronic diseases. The course covers a range of specialized applications designed to supplement and enhance methods and applications from previous MPH courses that are utilized in public health professions, including metanalysis, econometrics, program evaluation techniques and others. Assessment will be determined by three projects, each representing a third of the grade.

PUBH 601 Health Education and Promotion

This course is an introduction to the health education and health promotion field of public health. The course focuses on practical aspects of planning and evaluating health programs in diverse health settings, and emphasizes the link between health education and promotion theories and research. Throughout the course, students will work on developing a health behavior change plan/program individually and in small groups, which will enhance understanding and application of the theoretical knowledge presented during the lectures. Evaluation is based on essay, quiz and group project on research grant proposal writing and presentation.

PUBH 561 Graduate Research Seminar

Graduate Seminar encompass two section: Seminars on paper critique and lectures on intro to Psychometrics. First section provides an opportunity to learn how to critically appraise public health peer-review journal publications and appropriate applications of evidence. Students are required to turn in a critique for every peer-reviewed journal article presented in class, lead one discussion among their peers and instructor, and participate in discussions. Second section attempts to cover the important topics of Psychometrics with emphasis on research applications in the broad field of Public Health. Standardized tests to assess psychological attributes of individuals are commonplace in many epidemiological investigations. The sessions will provide overview of psychometric theories with the applied knowledge and skills to assess psychometric characteristics of psychological tests. During classes students will have an opportunity to work with real-world data to develop the skills to assess reliability and validity of items in surveys.

PUBH 682 Master's Project Implementation

This course allows the students to demonstrate the application of core public health competencies to solve real world problems of professional relevance. Throughout the course of the semester, each student will work on the actual implementation of the master’s project proposal, which has been developed during the previous semester’s course on Master’s Project Planning. Thesis Project defense is the final step of the project, which is conducted at the end of the last semester of the MPH program.

PUBH 651 Risk Management in Health Care

"This course is an introduction to the diverse basics of risk management methods used in healthcare field. The course covers general issues of safety culture in the healthcare facility, risk identification and assessment and concepts of governance of health care organizations in regard with risk management system. The course emphasizes the development of essential skills in critical thinking and team work. Students will complete an analysis of current health care facilities individually and in small groups. The overall aim of the course is to develop skills in understanding and applying a broad range of methods of risk management in healthcare field. By the end of this course, students are expected to be able to:

1) Define and apply basic concepts of risk management;

2) Define and analyze risk management process;

3) Apply methods of risk assessment and management;

The course consists of a series of lectures and team workshop sessions. The course sessions will take place once a week. Lectures will be one-hour long, and the remaining two hours of the sessions will be small group discussions of the laboratory exercises and/or workshops. The lectures will introduce the basic concepts and principles of risk management in healthcare sphere. Reading assignments from textbooks or research articles will complement the lectures. It is recommended that reading assignments be completed prior to the corresponding lecture. Team assignments will supplement the lectures and introduce problem-solving exercises, based on applied examples of global healthcare problems and case studies. During the team assignments, questions will be discussed and answered within the small group. At the end of the session, the questions will be discussed by the entire class with one group or few ones randomly chosen to present their answers and lead the discussion."

PUBH 652 Applied Methods in Health Services Research

The course provides insight in the various research questions, designs, and analytical methods used in Health Services Research, as well as how to use them as an input into health policy making, emphasizing the necessary links between the production of scientific knowledge and the complexities of the decision making arena. HSR addresses issues such as access and quality of health care delivery, financing and use of health care services, disparities in access, the overall functioning and performance of health care systems, and implementation of change. The overall goal of the course are for students to be able to competently work providing scientific support into the health policy decision making, identifying the effective and efficient ways to organize, manage, finance, and deliver high quality care, and to be able to support and stimulate policy changes to strengthen health care systems based on the best available evidence. The course is organized around lectures, to set out key ideas, followed by student presentations, and some form of group exercise- this might take the form of brainstorming and group discussion. Students will give 2-3 presentations to the class on the assigned readings. They will also give 1 presentation to class on a health services and policy topic which have significant relevance for Kazakhstan. Students will also be asked to work in groups to identify a policy relevant question, outline a research strategy to address this problem with a scientific rigorous methodology, and make a brief presentation to a mock funding panel in the last session.