The EHESP is a public establishment with a dual role of education and research into public health and social welfare. It encourages synergy between the disparate cultures of public health and management.

Four missions are conferred to EHESP by law:

  • to provide training for persons who have to exercise leadership, management, inspection or control functions in the health, social or medico-social fields;
  • to provide a network of higher education in public health;
  • to contribute to public health research activities;
  • to develop international relations, in particular through exchanges with institutions providing comparable teaching.

The EHESP stands for the values of defending fundamental collective values around public service ethics, general interest, respect, openness and cooperation, continual improvement, and social and environmental responsibility.

Download EHESP’s brochure (pdf, 620 ko)

The school for future public health managers

90 lecturers, grouped into 4 departments, provide training for senior management in health and welfare services, in a national and international context.

EHESP also offers 10 certificates and more than 250 “short” training programs that are updated each year in various public health fields, discover all the professional development programs.

EHESP also offers preparatory courses for a number of competitive examinations for positions as civil servants in ministerial and health facilities, both in class setting and through distance learning, as well as training courses tailored to the needs of each facility

A school with research facilities

The relevance and quality of teaching are an integral part of applied research. Research is carried out by 4 education and research departments including 12 research chairs, 1 environmental health research laboratory (LERES), 9 research organizations in partnership including 3 joint labs and a research team.

A school of international repute

The school accepts a number of foreign students and offers a high standard of higher education, including the Master of Public Health. The EHESP has also developed many links with organisations such as the WHO, the World Bank and the European Union. It provides strategic consultancy, expertise and teaching engineering programmes in countries seeking partnerships with the institutions concerned.

Educational development at the heart of training

Strategic issue for the EHESP, educational transformation is at the heart of its teaching programmes. Through its education support centre (Centre d’appui à la pédagogie – CApP), the school is proactively examining collective creation of knowledge, learning environments and skills development. It is empowering itself with training engineering and anticipating transformations related to the generalisation of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The EHESP is making permanent progress on its digital commitment and related teaching strategies.

The EHESP’s values

The EHESP defends fundamental collective values around public service ethics, general interest, respect, openness and cooperation, continual improvement, and social and environmental responsibility.

On November 28, 2023, the EHESP signed the Charter of LGBT+ Engagement of Higher Education of the French non-profit organisation L’Autre Cercle, in partnership with Caélif and La Fage. A strong commitment to a caring and inclusive work and study environment, where everyone can feel confident and free to be themselves, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This membership consists of several specific actions: awareness raising, facilitation of administrative procedures, prevention and reporting of LGBT+ discrimination. It is a guarantee of performance at work and in studies for administrative staff, teachers and all our learners.

Download the Charter

The background

EHESP – French school of public health

The National Public Health School (ENSP) was set up in Paris just after the Liberation as part of the National Hygiene Institute which later became INSERM. The Ministry of Public Health had to find management personnel in the public sector who were able to apply the major social security laws passed in 1945 and construct the new health and welfare administrative infrastructure.

The ENSP was responsible for the professional development of medical and paramedical public health workers as well as health technicians. Post War legislation, political and economic changes and international collaboration very soon called for a wider range of specialised training courses for public health management personnel. The ENSP made contact with leading lecturers and scientists in the field and played an important role at international level.

1960: the ENSP became independent.

The ENSP acquired independent status in 1960, enabling it to take on permanent teaching personnel. It outgrew its premises in Paris and moved to Rennes in 1961. Over the next 10 years the ENSP built up a national and international reputation through the quality of its public health training, the organisation of many conferences and study sessions open to the general public and its special relationship with the World Health Organisation.

1970: identity crisis

Public health became more complex and interdisciplinary during the 1970s: it gradually encompassed health and welfare issues and included the concept of public service hospitals. At the same time, the slowing down of economic growth and the effects of the first oil crisis required better public health management.

From 1975 onwards, the ENSP was faced with an identity crisis

should it continue to develop as a high level post graduate establishment or should it move towards becoming a school for training public servants? This indecision led to vocational training departments becoming isolated and, as a result, there was less emphasis on interdisciplinary education, communication and research.

2008: the ENSP became the Ecole des hautes études en santé publique (EHESP)

The law of 25 July 1985 clearly directed the activities of the ENSP towards broad-based education and research into public health, social welfare and international co-operation. The 2004 public health law further stressed the international mission of post-graduate public health education in France.

On 1 January 2008, the Ecole Nationale de la Santé Publique (ENSP) became the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique (EHESP) and extended its scope to cover new specialties, diplomas and international collaboration.

Modified on 30 November 2023