# APHEA Reviewer's Update.

## 3rd Quarter 2016

Dear All,
Once again on behalf of the Board of Directors and Accreditation and the secretariat we would like to express our deepest gratitude for your commitment to APHEA by being a reviewer. This is a just a short quarterly update on the activities so far as well as an enquiry for participants in forthcoming reviews.

We do hope that this message finds everybody in good health and spirits and please feel free to contact me (Julien) if you have any comments, queries of recommendations.

Once again our best wishes and thanks,
Julien

CONTENT
1. Reviewers sought
2. Update on activity
3. Reviewers sought for future accreditations
4. Reviewer Training
5. Website upgrade

## 1. Reviewers sought - urgent

We are running a programme review of an on-line MPH programme at Liverpool University in the UK on June 2nd and 3rd (week 23). We have 2 reviewers and would like to ask if you would be interested to join as a third? We are sorry for the short notice on this and please be aware that there is a clash with the times of ASPHER's Deans and Directors retreat.

We are also looking for some quite urgent help with some external curriculum validations. This is a home based activity which is fairly straight forward taking around 90 minutes to complete based around a template found on the website. We could really benefit from your assistance if you can spare the time.

## 2. Update on activity

Last September we introduced 2 new products, Institutional Accreditation and Curriculum Validation. Since then we are now involved in two institutional accreditations, two programme accreditations and a standalone curriculum validation up until July this year. Finally APHEA's CPD accreditation ["Continuing Training and Educational Event (CTEE)" Accreditation] is now in its final stages of consultation. This accreditation will cover areas, such as, (but not limited to) short training courses, individual modules, symposia, summer schools, modules, MOOCs, and conferences. If you have time please do go to www.aphea.be to see how things are progressing.

Reviewers are also invited to see how the Board of Accreditation has changed recently with the introduction of new members http://www.aphea.be/Pages/A1.ABOUT/BoA.html. We would like also to make mention of the incredible hard work and dedication of the BoA without whom the introduction of the new products and focus areas would not have been possible.

## 3. Reviewers sought for future accreditations

We would like to enquire for potential reviewer interest for upcoming accreditations which are foreseen toward the end of the year. We are actively seeking people with specialisations, experience and interest in Environmental Health, Epidemiology/Biostatistics, Occupational health and Infectious disease control. Please feel free to recommend colleagues and peers (see also below).

We would also like to kindly ask you to encourage any of your colleagues who you think would be valuable or would benefit from being part of APHEA as a reviewer for both site visits and external curriculum reviews. We're very much interested in all managerial levels and especially programme level colleagues (programme directors, coordinators, managers, etc). We would like to think of this as a potential 'win-win' situation. APHEA's workload is ever increasing and we need the help of colleagues and academic peers for both quality assurance and improvement of public health education across the European region and the globe. Equally, our activities offer a great opportunity to learn from different environments and also to reflect on our own as well as make international contacts. We are actively seeking to have most of our activity remunerated to incentivise and encourage participation and we should be in place for this soon. Applicants can simply contact me or send their CVs to Julien in the office which I will pass on to the Board of Accreditation.

## 4. Reviewer Training

This year we want to continue with reviewer capacity building by providing reviewers with training on the various aspects of APHEA's work. For the most part this will involve on-line sessions and tutorials which will be cost efficient and non-disruptive to our daily lives. At this point we would like to enquire if you have any specific areas that you would like to cover so that we can tailor the training. Training is not only seen to increase knowledge and confidence in the processes but is also imperative in APHEA's own accreditation plans through European Quality Assurance Register (EQAR).

## 5. Website upgrade

We would like to invite everyone to visit APHEA's website on www.aphea.be to see the changes that are taking place and how the website is aiming to provide for both quality assurance and improvement. We are aiming that this site provides information, help and training to all involved with APHEA. If you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to raise them.