If You Lose Us: The Threatened Future for Public Health Education

At our September Early Career Academic Catch-Up Café (eve of World Environmental Day), we gathered to discuss teaching climate change amidst worsening environmental conditions, global geopolitical tensions, and increasing instability in public health. Our concerns are further weighted by the recent news from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where the School of Public Health and Education is being dismantled.

This isn’t just another headline. It represents a direct threat to our careers, research, and teaching missions. The cuts, 167 courses and 134 jobs gone in the name of a $100 million savings plan, aren’t just statistics to us. They represent real people, real careers, real futures and a critical threat to current and future health of everyone in Australia. Holly Donaldson, CAPHIA Executive Director, called it a “wholesale destruction” of vital public health education, and we couldn’t agree more.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) protects public health through disease prevention, environmental monitoring, health promotion, and education. However, the CDC currently faces massive layoffs and funding cuts, weakening surveillance systems, halting training programs, and leaving thousands of public health workers jobless. These are the very systems we rely on to respond to pandemics, climate-related health threats, and both infectious and non-communicable disease burdens.

Despite these challenges, the global demand for public health professionals remains high. Approximately 90% of positions advertised by health-focused United Nations agencies and development organizations (WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, Australian Aid, Abt Associates) require a public health degree or equivalent qualification. The qualification is also essential for doctors and health workers in humanitarian and emergency settings. Public health continues to offer diverse and impactful career paths vital to health systems worldwide. Professionals in this field work as Health Promotion Officers developing programs for healthier lifestyles, Health Data Analysts interpreting evidence for decision-making, and Health Policy Analysts improving health policies. These positions span government agencies, NGOs, academic institutions, and international organisations, providing numerous ways for those with public health training to contribute to population wellbeing.

As early career academics who have dedicated years to studying, working, and practicing in public health, we feel the weight of these developments deeply. Our struggles mirror a troubling global trend of disinvestment in public health education and infrastructure.

Research paints a concerning picture of our professional reality:

Over 50% of us are on contracts with less than a year left (Marck et al., 2024)
Nearly 90% of us work overtime (Johnson et al., 2021)
High rates of workplace abuse: bullying, sexism, and racism (Winkler, 2024).
Alarmingly, many of us are experiencing depression, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts.

The emotional toll of institutional instability profoundly threatens innovation, retention, and the future of the public health workforce. Despite our passion and commitment to making a difference in public health, many of us now question whether we can afford to stay in the field we love.

Voices from our Catch-up Café / ECAC

“Many of us have received emails about budget reviews and potential redundancies. I don’t know if I’ll be next” – Academic who recently gained permanent status

“I’m scared to say anything. One wrong move and my visa could be gone just like that. How am I supposed to fight for my rights when they hold my entire future here in their hands?” – International faculty member

“Here we are dealing with this massive climate crisis that absolutely needs strong public health systems, and what’s happening? With budget cuts, we’re sitting here wondering: who even are we if we can’t do the work we trained for?” – 2 years post-PhD, MPH and Bachelor of Public Health

Where Do We Go From Here?

We must stop treating public health as expendable. The dismantling of programs like those at UTS is not just a loss for staff—it disrupts the entire public health workforce pipeline. Universities are the primary institutions responsible for training future public health professionals (CAPHIA, 2022). Every course cut compromises the development of the next generation of public health leaders, educators, and practitioners.To fulfil its rationale for being, the Australian CDC needs a robust, well supported and diverse public health workforce so that we are producing a pipeline of public health practitioners. This means the Australian Government has a vested interest in ensuring its current and future practitioners are appropriately trained and qualified to meet the evolving health challenges, from workplace development to pandemics to climate-related health threats.

So, who trains this workforce? University academics. Yet many of these academics are experiencing high-stress work environments, facing institutional cuts, national agency layoffs, and precarious employment contracts. Without urgent investment and support, we risk losing the very people who are essential to the future of public health. These interconnected symptoms are part of a broader undervaluing of public health as a public good.

We must support all academics, including early-career educators and researchers, with mentorship, mental health resources, and stable employment.

Because if you lose us, we all lose the future of public health.

References

https://caphia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/CAPHIA-Position-Statement_-Educating-the-Public-Health-Workforce.pdf

Rachelle W. Johnson, Megan M. Weivoda, Current Challenges for Early Career Researchers in Academic Research Careers: COVID 19 and Beyond, JBMR Plus, Volume 5, Issue 10, 1 October 2021, e10540, https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm4.10540

Marck, C.H., Ayton, D., Steward, T. et al. The workplace culture, mental health and wellbeing of early- and mid-career health academics: a cross-sectional analysis. BMC Public Health 24, 1122 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18556-0

Winkler, T. (2024, April 24). Burnout, instability threaten health and medicine workforce. Future Campus. https://futurecampus.com.au/2024/04/24/burnout-instability-threaten-health-and-medicine-workforce/