Title:	Health Policy and Financing (HP&F)
Keywords:	Universal health coverage Health sector reform Health financing Health economics Health Policy
Country:	Netherlands
Institution:	The Netherlands - Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Amsterdam
Course coordinator:	Eelco Jacobs
Date start:	2025-05-12
Date end:	2025-05-27
About duration and dates:	Duration of the course is 2.5 weeks full time learning. Application deadline is 2 months before the start date of the course. If space is available and no visa required, students can apply until 4 weeks prior to the first course day.
Classification:	advanced optional
Mode of delivery:	Face to face
Course location: KIT Amsterdam (Royal Tropical Institute) PO Box 95001, 1090 HA Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel: +31-20-5688256 Website: www.kit.nl tropEd representative: L. Gerstel (l.gerstel@kit.nl)
ECTS credit points:	3 ECTS credits
SIT: 84 hrs: 30 hours contact time, 54 hours self-study time, including work on the assignment. The COVID-19 situation might lead to some adaptations in the mode of delivery. Our website will present the latest relevant information on this.
Language:	English
Description: After this course students should be able to: ● Evaluate and critique the various dimensions of health policy and governance research, including the identification of different types perspectives, arguments and values that inform health policy analysis and its application ● Analyse and assess different resource mobilisation and pooling arrangements in health financing, and their implications for UHC. ● Critically examine health benefit packages and purchasing strategies in health financing for UHC. ● Develop a policy brief for evidence-informed health policy advice
Assessment Procedures: Participants are required to write a policy brief (2000 words critically discussing policy options towards UHC while strengthening health systems. A standard rubic/assessment grid is used to mark the paper. Students receive written feedback on their policy brief with their result. Participants who did not obtain the pass mark of 6/10 for the policy brief are allowed one re-sit. The resit entails revising the paper they handed in for the original assignment.
Content: ● Health Policy and Systems Research ● Evidence-informed policy advice ● Main principles of UHC and health economics ● Health insurance & risk pooling arrangement for UHC ● Health benefits packages and priority-setting for health ● Strategic purchasing for health systems performance and equity
Methods: Interactive lectures (24 hours), critical reading of scientific and policy papers (journal clubs) (4 hours), an assignment question & answer session (2 hours), and self-study time (54 hours), including flipped classrooms and webinars (5 hours), and time for the writing of the policy paper. The above methods comprise virtual teaching methods, including group work on practical case studies, guest lectures, plenary discussion on policy issues and discussion through online platforms.
Prerequisites: ● Bachelor’s degree or equivalent academic training in either medicine or another field related to health care, such as health sciences, health economics, social sciences, or nursing ● A minimum of three years of health-related work experience in health systems, not limited to (organisation of) individual patient care ● English proficiency at the level of TOEFL 5.5 or IELTS 6.5 (certificate is not required) ● Computer and internet literacy; the participant should be able to use a computer access to wifi networks, and working-level understanding of Microsoft Office software (e.g. Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Adobe (PDF). Students will be introduced to the e-learning platform.
Attendance: Minimum of maximum 50 students; The number of tropEd students is not limited.
Selection: First come, first serve
Fees: € 1,980 (tropEd € 1,782) € 1,584 (early bird, when you pay more than 3 months before the course starts)
Scholarships: There are no current specific scholarships for this course, for latest updates see
Major changes since initial accreditation: ● Slight change in focus and scope of policy brief that has to be written for the assessment, including more background in the assignment and clarification of the assignment’s objectives. ● Reformulation of the learning outcomes. Sharpening of focus of sessions on UHC, health financing and policy analysis, updating the course contents based on new evidence, international agreements and developments. ● Since a few years, the programme includes journal clubs that have replaced earlier class sessions. For selected topics, students are required to read through scientific articles that they need to analyse with the help of guiding questions (for structured reading, comprehension, and reflections on own country situation). ● Course duration has been reduced from 3 to 2.5 weeks and credits reduced from 4 to 3 EC.. As a result contact hours have been reduced, also to give students more time for preparation of class sessions, and for reading for and writing of their assignment, while a Q&A session is scheduled to address students‘ questions and challenges.
Student evaluation: Over the years, students have consistently evaluated the content and the depth of the coverage of this content as being very good. Many feel initially stressed about the complexity of the assignment. We have therefore provided more detail and structure to the assignment, included a seperate session to explain the assignment and an additional Q&A session for students to guide them through the writing process. To compensate for this we have somewhat reduced the contact hours for regular sessions. Areas of attention surfacing from student feedback pertaining to specific sessions or facilitators have been and are discussed with them for continuous improvement of the module.
Lessons learned: This advanced module brings together a large number of concepts that participants are expected to have been familiarised with in their core modules and/or through relevant (work) experience. These concepts relate to the health systems module, health management module, health planning module, and Human resources for health module. At the start of the module, most students feel anxious about the policy brief assignment, that they consider complex at first sight. We have therefore provided somewhat more structure to the policy brief assignment itself and provided more detail in terms of the objectives of and expectations for the assignment. After the various classes and Q&A session, most become more confident and are ultimately satisfied with the work they produce. The same applies to the journal clubs: the articles – after their first reading – are considered difficult to read, but the guiding questions and the discussions during the tutorial sessions make the articles more transparent for them. In the past it was interesting to hear from students that they would have liked an introduction to the structure of the article before reading it, while this was exactly what we wanted them to learn from these journal clubs. This learning objective of the journal clubs has therefore been clarified better. Strategic purchasing and priority-setting for benefit package design were initially not covered very explicitly in the course, but since a few years specific learning units have been taught on these topics. This helps to clarify and elucidate these important health financing functions, which are often not well understood initially. It is reflected in the student assignments that these concepts and their application are now better understood.
tropEd accreditation: Accredited in Madrid May 2004, re-accredited in October 2011 and February 2016. Re-accredited Feb GA 2021, re-accredited in Cuernavaca, June 2024,valid until 2029.
Email Address:	courses@kit.nl
Date Of Record Creation:	2011-11-15 05:48:56 (W3C-DTF)
Date Of Record Release:	2011-11-15 07:24:34 (W3C-DTF)
Date Record Checked:	2021-03-18 (W3C-DTF)
Date Last Modified:	2024-07-10 08:09:33 (W3C-DTF)