Fifty years of serving public health: the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region moving forward to the next half-century

Excerpt

Half a century of the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) covers only half of the lifespan of some schools of public health in Europe. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was founded in 1899, it was followed by such centres as: the Spanish Escuela Nacional de Sanidad in 1924, the Zagreb Stampar School of Public Health in 1927, the Athens School in 1929, the French Ecole National de Santé Publique in 1945, and the Nordic School of Public Health—Nordiska Hälsovårdshögskolan—in 1953 (Foldspang et al. 2016). In 1966, ASPHER was established due to the initiative of the World Health Organization’s Office for Europe and its international professional network. The Association’s development accelerated over the last half of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century when many more schools and university departments of public health came to existence (Foldspang et al. 2016; Bjegovic-Mikanovic et al. 2014). ASPHER itself played a crucial role in the creation and development of schools in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries during that time (Goodman et al. 2008). Nowadays, ASPHER represents over 110 member schools throughout Europe. A few associate members are located in other parts of the world (Foldspang et al. 2016). New network structures such as the Swiss School of Public Health have been developed with the aim to strengthen public health education, research, and training (Künzli et al. 2015). …