Minor Requirements
To earn a minor in Global Health Studies, students must:
- Complete seven courses, including four core courses and three elective courses.
- Students may elect to study abroad as part of their Global Health Studies curriculum.
Course requirements
Two Global Health core courses
- Global Health 201 Introduction to Global Health (formerly Global Health 301: Introduction to International Public Health, which counts for this requirement if taken prior to Fall 2022)
- One of the following:
- Global Health 302 Global Bioethics
- or Global Health 303 (Re)Mixing Qualitative Methods (formerly Global Health 390)
- or Global Health 318 Community Based Participatory Research (formerly Global Health 390)
- or Global Health 320 Qualitative Research Methods
Two additional GBL_HLTH courses
- Select courses listed on our Course Descriptions page.
Three elective courses
- Up to two elective courses can be taken abroad.
- Approved elective courses offered by a wide variety of departments are shared before pre-registration each quarter, and are posted with each quarter's schedule.
- Up to one approved 200-level course can count towards this requirement.
- Additional 300-level courses may also be considered as electives with approval from the Global Health Studies program.
- Global Health Studies classes may not be used for elective credit towards a Global Health Studies degree.
- Please note that Global Health Studies does not permit double-counting classes, but some units within WCAS and other colleges do allow it. Speak with your standalone major advisor to see what is permissible before contacting the Director of Undergraduate Studies to have a class double-counted.
Approved Non-GHS Electives (last updated October 2025)
Co-listed Courses
The following co-listed courses, taught together with other departments and programs, count interchangeably as core requirements for the major and the minor. None of the courses, however, can count as a Global Health Studies elective.
GBL_HLTH 309-0 and HISTORY 379-0; GBL_HLTH 317-0 and NAIS 317-0; GBL_HLTH 326-0 and NAIS 326-0; GBL_HLTH 337-0 and ENVR_POL 337-0; GBL_HLTH 338-0 and ENVR_POL 338-0; GBL_HLTH 339-0 and ENVR_POL 339-0; GBL_HLTH 357-0 and ANTHRO 357-0 and GBL_HLTH 221-0 and GNDR_ST 221-0.
Study abroad
You may elect to participate in a substantial public health experience abroad. Most Global Health Studies students choose to complete one of Northwestern's public health programs, offered in France, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and South Africa. Two of your Global Health Studies elective requirements can be completed on a public health study abroad program. Students who elect to study abroad more than once may earn more elective credits.
You may also participate in a non-Northwestern public health program (either affiliated with the university or unaffiliated).