우리나라 대학과 보건대학원에서 환경·보건분야 관련학과의 특성변화

Character Transformation of Departments in the Fields of Environment and Public Health at Universities in Korea

Background: Education on environmental health in Korea was begun with establishment of the Graduate School of Public Health at Seoul National University 1959. The sanitary movement started in Europe and the Americas in the 19th century and was introduced to Korea in the 1960s under the name of sanitary engineering. The field enlarged along with title changes. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the previous and present status of the environmental and public health fields in Korea. Methods: This study utilized documents published by the South Korean Ministry of Education and Korean Education Development Institute (KEDI) from 2015 to 2020, the homepages of universities with their history and regulations, and other related published documents. Results: Public health was fundamentally enlarged as an expert field in Korea with the establishment of the Graduate School of Public Health at Seoul National University in 1959. There are 102 departments relevant to the environmental field at two-year colleges, 220 at universities, and 175 at graduate schools. There are 89 departments relevant to the public health field at colleges, 96 at universities, and 160 at graduate schools as of 2020. The term “environment” in the title of a department is used as much as 80~93.1%, but “public health” in titles is used in 47.7~61.5%. Fifty percent of graduate schools of public health award specialty degrees other than master of public health. Conclusions: Although environment and public health fields have been expanded in universities in Korea, various specialty fields were included in university and graduate school. It is important to consider the coping plan with the trend.