2026 Criteria Revisions for SPH & PHP

CEPH has prepared a second round of proposed revisions to the criteria relating to the MPH foundational knowledge and foundational competencies. This draft also contains language relating to the requirements for documenting assessment of foundational competencies, an element that was not present in the previously released draft.

This draft reflects the Council’s review of over 350 comments submitted by 41 individuals and organizations. The Council also reviewed all comments on foundational knowledge submitted as part of the concurrent open comment period on MS, PhD, and non-public health degrees, since the foundational knowledge areas will be the same for all degrees.

The Council truly appreciates the comments received. A number of the comments related to new content that commenters proposed to add or to content commenters proposed retaining from the current criteria. The updated draft reflects the Council’s consideration of each of these comments, and we also note that the proposed competency set is shorter, by four, than the current competency set; this is intended to allow units to add and/or retain content and/or competencies that align with their mission and student populations.

The requirements for assessment, new to this draft, reflect the Council’s experience, as well as formative input from a group of faculty and staff from accredited units who provided expertise and perspectives on instructional design and assessment for group assignments.

CEPH’s process now provides for an open comment period through June 16, 2026, during which any interested parties may provide feedback on the proposed revisions. We encourage you to share this invitation to comment with your colleagues; we welcome all perspectives.

Comments must be submittedvia this form by the close of business on June 16, 2026. Comments submitted via email or other methods will not be accepted.

The following documents may be helpful as you prepare comments:

• Marked up document showing changes between the previous draft released for comment and the current draft
• Proposed revised MPH criteria on foundational knowledge & foundational competencies
• Draft interpretation guide with additional information on the proposed criteria
  • Important note: if you have comments raised by the interpretation guide, you must make those comments by reference to the criterion line number. All comments must contain a criterion line number reference, since the interpretation guide is simply an explication of the criteria. The interpretation guide provides criterion line numbers for ease of reference.

An initial draft of MPH Foundational Knowledge & Competencies was open for comment September 16, 2025-January 9, 2026. The Council reviewed the comments at its winter 2026 meeting.

• Summary of key changes and principles
• Proposed revised MPH criteria on foundational knowledge & foundational competencies
• Draft interpretation guide with additional information on the proposed criteria
• Comparison document that crosswalks current MPH knowledge areas & competencies with proposed revisions

CEPH offered a webinar providing an overview of the initial proposed changes to MPH curricular criteria on Thursday, October 9, 2025. The webinar slides and recording are availble below:

• Proposed PHP & SPH criteria revisions (October 9, 2025) Slides | Recording (Passcode: hj+Y8x#x)

Guiding principles for revisions to MPH curricular criteria

This is a statement of the Council’s intention when beginning the process and may be revised as necessary based on our conversations with the field.

1) We will revise MPH curricular criteria, as needed, to reflect the evolution of public health knowledge and practice over the last decade and current workforce needs.

2) Revisions to MPH foundational competency statements are intended to be sufficiently modest to allow most accredited units to preserve their current foundational curricula if they wish to do so. As curricular revisions are needed to comply with criteria revisions (e.g., adding instruction and assessment for a substantively new foundational competency), we hope to create an opportunity for units to be innovative and integrate revisions across courses to respond to current public health practice needs.

3) To the extent possible, we hope to maintain the current number of required MPH foundational competencies, rather than increasing the number of competencies that must be assessed. For any new foundational competencies added in the revision process, we would strive to remove current competencies.

While there is no special significance to the current number of statements (22 competencies), we want to be responsive to units’ interest in keeping the number of competencies manageable to ensure appropriate instruction and assessment of each.

We acknowledge that the revision may identify a need to break apart existing competency statements for clarity (i.e., addressing compound statements); this could result in a numeric increase to the competency list but would not increase the number of substantive requirements.

CEPH criteria will continue to define a baseline for the content in public health curricula, while allowing accredited units discretion to define additional requirements that serve their missions and communities. Units will remain free, as they are now, to incorporate additional content into their concentration competencies or to require more foundational competencies than the minimum defined in CEPH criteria.

4) We expect to preserve the basic architecture of requirements for an MPH degree: foundational knowledge, foundational competencies, concentration competencies, applied practice experience, and integrative learning experience.

Summary of MPH Foundational Competencies Survey Results

CEPH has prepared proposed revisions to the criteria relating to the requirements for the MPH, other than foundational knowledge and foundational competencies.

CEPH’s process provided for an open comment period through May 19, 2026 during which any interested parties may provide feedback on the proposed revisions.

The comment period is now closed.

The following documents may be helpful as you prepare comments:

• Summary of key changes
• Proposed revised MPH criteria on areas other than foundational knowledge & foundational competencies
• Draft interpretation guide with additional information on the proposed criteria
  • Important note: if you have comments raised by the interpretation guide, you must make those comments by reference to the criterion line number. All comments must contain a criterion line number reference, since the interpretation guide is simply an explication of the criteria. The interpretation guide provides criterion line numbers for ease of reference.

Next steps

The Council will review comments in the second half of 2026. Based on the comments, the Council may make revisions and conduct additional comment periods on specific criteria or topic areas.

The Council will release a full draft revised criteria document for comment as soon as is feasible.

CEPH has prepared proposed revisions to the criteria relating to DrPH foundational knowledge and DrPH foundational competencies; the foundational knowledge criterion is identical to the draft that was recently promulgated for public comment with the MPH criteria. The competency criterion reflects feedback received during the open-ended DrPH foundational competency survey that concluded in fall 2025.

The comment period is now closed. Comments on the DrPH criteria were accepted from January 12-March 23, 2026.

• Proposed curricular criteria for DrPH
• Draft interpretation guide for DrPH criteria with additional information on the proposed criteria
• Comparison of current and proposed DrPH competencies

Previously, CEPH administered a survey to gather information to inform our revision of the DrPH foundational competencies and the Council reviewed these findings in early September 2025.

• SBP Accreditation Criteria revised December 2024
• Webinar detailing curricular criteria (February 13, 2025) Slides | Recording (Passcode: *Pp9%4KP)

The Council considered initial public comments on its draft revisions in September 2025 and prepared a second draft of revisions for comment. This second comment period is now closed. The Council's review of the second round of comments is underway.

• Proposed revised criteria for MS, PhD, and non-public health degrees
• Draft interpretation guide with additional information on the proposed criteria

CEPH has prepared proposed new criteria relating to joint degrees: CEPH uses the term “joint degrees” for all programs of study that are presented as allowing students to complete two separate degrees at the same time, regardless of what terminology the university uses for them (e.g., dual degrees, combined degrees, concurrent degrees). Please carefully review the definition of terms that appears at the top of the draft criteria document, as well as definitions of terms that appear within the criteria themselves.

The current accreditation criteria address joint degrees solely through the criteria on degree length (e.g., Criterion D13), rather than in criteria specific to the degree type. The new criteria, which more directly state the Council’s expectations, would apply to joint degrees in addition to all other relevant criteria. For example, a JD/MPH program would have to address Criterion Joint.2 as well as all of the criteria that pertain to the MPH.

The comment period is now closed. Comments on the joint degree criteria were accepted from January 12-March 23, 2026.

• Background & rationale for proposed criterion on joint degrees
• Proposed criterion on joint degrees
• Draft interpretation guide for joint degrees with additional information on the proposed criteria

Tips for providing useful comments

• Questions about proposed criteria are generally less helpful. When possible, frame your comments as specific statements outlining your concerns or areas of support.
• Comments are most useful when they:
  • Provide a specific recommendation to address any concerns, e.g., remove this text or requirement, modify this text or requirement
  • Propose alternative text when advocating for modification to proposed language
  • Provide a succinct rationale for the concern or support, as applicable
• Comments are most helpful when they are prepared with consideration of the wide variety of units CEPH accredits.