The Federal University of Bahia Graduate Programme in Collective Health (PPGSC-ISC/UFBA), created in 1973, is one of the oldest in the country. As recognition of its distinguished academic and scientific path in the last six years, it received the maximum score (seven) in the CAPES evaluation, being the only graduate programme in the north and northeast to have attained this distinction.
Starting with a Master’s course in Community Health, PPGSC was established in 1989, with the introduction of the PhD programme in Public Health, with epidemiology as the constitutive area, being the main field of research at the time. With the foundation of ISC in 1995, all of the Faculty of Medicine’s stricto sensu graduate courses in collective health were transferred to this new academic unit, structuring the Graduate Programme in Collective Health, with three areas of specialization: epidemiology; health planning and management and social sciences in health. From 2001, graduate teaching activities were expanded, with the introduction of the Professional Master’s Course in Collective Health (MPSC), evaluated with the maxim score by CAPES (five) since its foundation.
The ISC faculty has contributed decisively in qualifying professionals for health services, forming researchers and teachers who have become leaders at national and international institutions. Faculty and students have actively taken part in the events which have marked the movement that resulted in construction of the Brazilian Sanitary Reform proposal and SUS and made important contributions to establish Brazilian collective health, not only from the theoretical and conceptual point of view but also with relevant participation on the CNPq Advisory Committees and CAPES evaluation committees; actively participating on the Brazilian Association of Graduation Programmes in Collective Health (ABRASCO), as members of their Boards, Committees and Working Groups and, since its creation, at the Brazilian Health Studies Centre (CEBES) on a national level and organization of a centre in Bahia.