Course testimonials 2025

Public Health Law and Ethics, January 2025

• Very well-balanced lectures, content and group work - case studies.
• Interactive sessions - direct application of theory into practice with real-world case studies analysis - time for networking - differences in backgrounds of students which provided different perspectives during classes.
• Learning about the legal system in Switzerland and how public health professionals can use knowledge of law to create meaningful policies.

Designing and Using Questionnaires for Research: Practical Insights and Challenges, February 2025

• The very practical approach and the exemplary cases used as teaching aid. The good balance between the "big picture" and the devil in the details. The kindness and good attitude of the teachers and the students. Great course overall.

• All of it to be honest, I think it's the best course I've attended. If I try to be more specific:

1. The course was really well constructed; all the talks and all the lecturers brought something new, relevant and well presented. There was no repetition and great complementarity.
2. There was really good fit between the audience and the talks.
3. The abundance of examples the lecturers shared from actual studies was a great way to illustrate the points presented.
4. The course leaders did an amazing job creating an environment where participants got to know each other, exchanged and participated. Not only it was enjoyable but also I learnt a lot from the examples shared by other course participants.
5. The course leaders have a great energy/attitude, and they managed to keep it up for 3 very packed days which is impressive .

• This course was really timely and informative. It went well above my expectations. The knowledge gained during the 3 days is essential for the next steps of my research. I am really glad that I did not miss this opportunity. I honestly realize how much I would have missed out if I did not take it. I would have benefited to have it even earlier to plan better the different steps (and time!) needed for my research aim.
  I wonder whether this course should be not even further promoted towards supervisors and PhD students (or even make it mandatory) given the high use of questionnaires in research, the lack of knowledge,misuse, misconception and underestimation of challenges.

Systematic Reviews and Evidence Synthesis, February 2025

• I really enjoyed the way the teachers engaged with the participants: we were actively prompted to think. I liked very much the groups sessions and the work we had to do in order to have a complete SR and MA for the end of the course.
• Step by step guide to the use of R and direct application of theory into practice; examples and case studies during the lessons; an open, enriching discussion on the final presentations; stimulating and nice classroom atmosphere.
• The course was amazing, lots of discussions and interaction with the other participants.Lecturers were very available, either during the course and breaks, and for class matter or our personal work. The course was challenging, but the team was very supportive.

Basics of Scientific Writing in English: A Structured Method for Organizing and Writing Better, Faster Papers, March 2025

• One of the best SSPH+ classes! The teacher went above and beyond to make this course truly personal for each student. She is incredibly knowledgeable and conveys complex topics in a clear, understandable way. Her dedication to student learning is unmatched. I received assignment feedback from her at 4 AM, and she was back lecturing just a few hours later.Her commitment to personalized learning is truly inspiring.The course structure was also excellent, building from very basic concepts to more detailed material, allowing each student to take what they need from it. The online format was a huge plus, making it easier to dedicate time to coursework instead of long commutes, which can be a challenge with many SSPH+ classes. Overall, an outstanding course with an exceptional instructor!
• The consise lecturing and the very, very professional feedback on the homework! Just excellent.
• The teacher demonstrated deep expertise in scientific writing and a highly structured teaching approach, making complex concepts easy to understand. Her guidance helped me effectively organize and refine my research papers.
  A key strength was her dedication to student progress. She provided timely and thorough feedback on homework, ensuring each participant received personalized support to improve their writing skills.
  Her clear explanations, engaging teaching style, and commitment to helping students succeed made this course an invaluable learning experience. Highly recommended for anyone looking to enhance their scientific writing proficiency.

The Swiss Health System: Key characteristics and Policy Challenges, March 2025

• Thank you for the superb course.
• The topic of the Swiss healthcare system has been examined from many perspectives by various experts.
• Broad context overview, expertise of lecturers.
• The different presenters make the course very alive and give insights on different topics from experts.

Course testimonials 2024

Public Health Law and Ethics, January 2024

• This course was held for the first time and I definitely would recommend it to other students. Hope you keep this course in your SSPH+ program.
  
• I really liked the combination of lecturers' inputs and class work/active participation. I also liked that we actively worked during class instead of doing an assignment after. The lecturers were great!
  
• Very interactive, interesting exercises and discussions :
  - Opportunity to discuss topics related to our specific projects/fields
  - Good mixture of theory, exercises and breaks.

A Step-By-Step Approach for Designing and Using Questionnaires, February 2024

• The atmosphere created in the classroom, the fact that the lecturers were very approachable and enthusiastic. Additionally, that we had time to complete the group assignment during the course.
• The course was very well organized, notably the complementary between lectures and group exercices.
• It was a great course! I liked that we had a chance to do a group work project and apply the concepts right away.

Systematic Review and Evidence Synthesis, February 2024

• AMAZING course, very hands-on, clear but advanced enough.
• I thought the course was really well taught overall, but what really exceled was the excellent balance between lecture and practicals throughout the four days which gave us the opportunity to immediately put our skills to use in a "real" example continuously. It also made it easier to engage with the lectures when we had some breaks to discuss and work ourselves.
• 1)The solid experience (theorethical and practical) of all teachers in the matter
  2) The combination of theorethical sessions with practicals, and how they both were very well coordinated and complementary
  3) The teacher in charge of the practicals was exceptional! Highly motivated, strong competencies and skills on the topics, resolutive to overcome challenges and requests by students.

The Swiss Health System: Key Characteristics and Policy Challenges, February 2024

• Excellent course. I would highly recommend it to other students.
• The experience, expertise, charisma, and passion of the lecturers. It was such a pleasure to attend these lectures and participate in the discussions.
• The course was well structured, the teachers were committed and encouraged discussion. The course gives a good overview.

Basics of Scientific Writing in English: A Structured Method for Organizing and Writing Better, Faster Papers, March 2024

• Great course, which I would recommend without hesitation!
• Fantastic teacher and human being, and the way she shared her knowledge with us was inspiring. I really appreciated her feedback on the homework and her willingness to help as much as possible. The insights she gave us about the submission and the peer review process, particularly how to deal with rejection, reply to reviewers, and interpret some reviews, will be very helpful to me. I thought the acceptance rate was much higher. Knowing that rejection is normal, I will try to keep this in mind when I submit my first paper.
• I like everything, in particular the assignments and the feedback from the facilitator are very useful to improve scientific writing skill such as how to write different paragraphs with the appropriate structure. My best ever teacher for short course training. She is very effective focused with excellent time management. I get surprize the knowledge and skill I got from her just only with two days lecture it is amazing.

Understanding Social Inequalities and Social Problems in Health!, April 2024

• The course offered a lot of opportunities to ask questions and interact. Very pleasant setting, interactions. Very useful topics to cover and taught in an easy way allowing to understand complicated concepts and then further use them in our research.
• The course instructors were excellent, very approachable, and eager to assist with any questions.
• The basic principle of the different dimensions of the social phenomenon of social disparity. Health and its association with cultural capital, racism, and stigma.

Big Data in Public Health, May 2024

• The interdisciplinarity, the active interactions between lecturers and students during class, the students exercise, the availability of food and drinks.
• Many new topics (e.g. social media), very engaging lecturers, nice and motivated participants, good location.
• The atmosphere, the people, the lecturers. It was very well organised and there was a lot of room for discussion with the lecturers.

Public Health Nutrition, May 2024

• The subject was extremely interesting and diverse. The atmosphere was great and the teachers very nice.
• The course objectives/contents.The lecturers and how they deliver and explain the subject.The networking.
• It was a great course-format to participate (online and on-site), this worked very well. Congrats to the speakers and coordinators.

Introduction into Multilevel Modelling of Clustered Data, July 2024

• I liked the well prepared materials: there was a well-structured correspondence between slides, exercises, syntaxes and solution documentation. The course can be highly recommended as a crash course in "everything" about mixed models, provided, one is a-priori already very well-versed in statistics.
• The switch between theoretical input and practical application. The opportunity for R users to consult with an expert for the corresponding analyses.
• Practicals that were really helpful to understand the lectures.

Introduction to the Statistical Software R, September 2024

• Interaction with lecturer: 5 stars. Very good first part introducing students to coding aspects.
• The lecturer is great; very knowledgeable/passionate and he somehow went through an insane amount of content in his course while maintaining the pace. I really, really enjoyed the alternation of presentation and then solo coding and then correcting. It was great to be able to ask questions during the solo programming. Also I really enjoy his sense of humour!
• All the concepts were very well explained and the course was very entertaining! I also loved the availability of R tutorials on github and lots of bits and pieces of additional help and resources.

Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning & Healthcare, September 2024

• Interesting variety of content/practical sessions and a lot of opportunities to ask questions.The practicals were useful to see how to implement ML pipelines. All of the TAs were very enthusiastic and you tell that they are very knowledgeable and passionate about the topic. I personally appreciated the practicals in Python because I do not have any experience with it. It was helpful that the coding was consistent across practicals.
• The combination of the detail (i.e Guided Python sessions) AND the high level overview of current state of the field.
• 1. It was mine first to learn Python but the preparatory work prepares me with some basic Python programming knowledge to understand better the coding during the lectures.
  2. The course covers various aspects of machine learning with hands-on and guided coding exercise.
  3. Paper analysis + reproduction
  4. The teaching team did a great job.

Epidemiological Data Analysis Strategy, September 2024

• The classes were excellent!
• Excellent lecturers, fair workload and engaging group discussions.
• The teaching methodology employed during the training course was effective. The instructors were knowledgeable and had expertise, delivering informative and engaging lectures. They also took the time to address all questions raised by participants.

Causal Inference for Population Health Sciences, October 2024

• I signed up for this course out of interest in the subject and it was a really great introduction.The course was very engaging and also gave us the opportunity to think about our analysis in our own PhD thesis. The difficulty level of the course was just right to build on prior knowledge of regression modelling. It was definitely one of the best SSPH+ courses I have attended. Thank you for the interesting days!
• The lecturer was able to explain complex concepts in simple language. There were many opportunities for discussion during the course, and plenty of chances to network.
• I would highly recommend the course to other PhD students who are interested in causal inference.

Writing Better, Faster Scientific Papers in English: A Structured Method for Non-native English Speakers (Advanced module), October 2024

• The course was perfect and exceptionally well-structured. The lecturer was outstanding in explaining concepts to the students. Her ability to break down complex topics into understandable parts made the learning experience enjoyable and effective. I highly recommend this course to anyone interested in the subject.
• The lecturer was always available to answer our questions and provide feedback. She explained all the topics in a clear and accessible way. The course was extremely helpful in teaching me how to approach writing a paper in a well-organized manner, rather than feeling overwhelmed. It also helped me understand how to structure paragraphs effectively and provided essential tips to keep in mind when writing.
• I liked how the course forced me from "consuming" mode (reading all the things, thinking about possible articles, procrastinating) into "producing" mode (writing an outline, making progress, even though not perfect).

Introduction to Health Economics, October 2024

• We learned so much, and the content was delivered in a clear, engaging way. The instructors were amazing. Complex topics were made approachable and everyone was kept engaged throughout the sessions. The entire teaching team was extremely friendly and welcoming, always willing to answer our questions and provide support. It was such a nice touch that the lecturers joined us for lunch, creating a relaxed and friendly atmosphere that made networking and discussions more comfortable. The provided dinner was also a lovely addition, helping us connect with each other and the lecturers even further. Overall, I highly recommend this course to anyone interested in the subject.
• The amazing selection of lecturers, engaging sessions and great location.
• I really enjoyed the fact that we had so many different professors giving lectures. This allowed us to learn from people from different backgrounds and specialties, which was great.

Qualitative Health Research : BASIC module: Defining and Developing Qualitative Research in Public Health, November 2024

• The course was incredibly informative, providing us with valuable insights that we can now apply to our own research. The lecturers were exceptionally friendly and approachable, encouraging us to ask questions without hesitation. Their support and guidance throughout the course greatly enhanced our learning experience. The atmosphere was wonderful, filled with laughter and a positive mood that made the sessions enjoyable and engaging. The collaborative environment fostered meaningful discussions and offered excellent networking opportunities among participants.
• I really enjoyed the overall climate in the course, being able to debate with the class, the teachers or within work groups. I think it really helped me to understand the different concepts.
• 1. Relevance of topics covered and the way they were structured.
  2. Quality of the teachers (in terms of subject and teaching skills), including also diversity (5 different teachers, from different backgrounds).
  3. Combination of theory (presentations, references) and practice (group exercises).
  4. Personal and careful support and accompaniment of participants (answering to questions, interacting during group work, providing feedbacks to the workprepared by participants...)
  5. Provision of additional references and reading materials (preparatory readings, during the presentations, and as additional references).

GIS for Public Health, November 2024

• The atmosphere was incredibly welcoming and conducive to learning. Not only did we cover a lot of valuable material, but the lecturers were truly amazing - they were knowledgeable, engaging, and always willing to help. I highly recommend this course to anyone looking to expand their skills.
• In-class exercises! To me it seems to be the best way to learn!
• We get the chance to work on our own data/project.
  

Qualitative Health Research : ADVANCED module: Appraising Qualitative Health Research, December 2024

• The presentations were well structured and there were many opportunities to ask questions throughout the course. The group work was interesting and triggered many discussions. It helped me a lot in getting a more concrete understanding of the methods and thought processes.
• 1)Sending preparatory readings with enough time in advance (around 2 weeks); 2) Plurality and complementarity of lecturers; 3) The coherence and continuity with basic module course: 4) The relevance, for public health research, of the topic covered in the course
• Great course! I learned a lot and would recommend it to anybody interested in getting a deeper insight into qualitative research.

Foundations of Public Health, December 2024

• The course was really interesting and complete. Really helpful for students who don't have a background in public health. It was also a great opportunity to network and meet other PhD students.
• Very interactive course, diversity of professors and their background.
• I enjoyed the breadth of the topics covered, especially getting a taste of the field of history of public health. I enjoyed learning the theories behind public health prevention, promotion and history, plus being given the tools to be critical of evidence in public health. The pace of the lectures was suitable, not too fast, not too slow. I also enjoyed the discussions that all the teachers opened, which allowed students to reflect on the theories taught in class and their applicability in our own fields of research. I also appreciated having time for the coursework built into the schedule of the course so students do not have to do much extra work outside of class hours.

Course testimonials 2023

Basics of Scientific Writing in English: A Structured Method for Organizing and Writing Better, Faster Papers, February 2023

• This was one of the best courses (if not the best course) I have ever taken. - I was able to benefit greatly from the teachers's vast knowledge of the field. - It was enriching to hear about her experiences she gained over the many years she has been in the field. - We got a lot of very practical and helpful tips (e.g. how to deal with reviewers, how to use the outline view) - much of the content was completely new to me and very interesting - The effort the teacher made to give us all written feedback on our assignments in such a short period of time Thank you for this exceptionally helpful course!
  
  
• Brilliant course, very structured, clear slides and language, fast-paced and engaging, packed with extremely helpful tipps and and great exercises. I also appreciated the regular breaks as they helped me stay fresh and concentrated. This is really one of the best and most useful courses I have taken as a PhD, I'm very thankful for it!
  
  
• The teacher did a wonderful job of giving an all-rounder course in scientific writing. She shared her experience, gave very helpful tips, and talked also about the right mindset. I would recommend this class to anyone in the field. Even further, I think all starting PhD students would benefit from this tremendously. When you are at the beginning of a PhD journey, it might be even easier to implement many of the approaches taught.

Understanding Social Inequalities and Social Problems in Health!, April 2023

• Very relevant (and not often properly covered) topic for public health; 2) Very relevant reading materials; 3) Course very well structured, with clear topics, theoretical presentations, and individual and group activities to discuss and apply these concepts; 4) Very approachable and engaged presenter.
  
  
• The lecturer is fantastic and topic is very related to health research
  
  
• I appreciated the fact that both theoretical concepts and their practical applications were presented. That helped me understand the concepts. I enjoyed preparing and delivering the final group presentation; working together has given us a lot of opportunities to network.
  

Big Data in Public Health, May 2023

• This was an extremely enjoyable class. The content and lecturers were excellent, as were the students. I thoroughly loved it.

• The interesting ideas presented by the professors (own) experiences. I enjoyed getting to know in more detail their projects, ideas and opportunities to use big data in different areas.

• Excellent lecturers and coordination. Excellent content. I really enjoyed the course 100%.

Migration Health, June 2023

• I appreciated the integrative approach of some of the lectures that looked at “non health”
  topics like peace and considered the human rights aspects of migrants and health.
  
  
• The expertise of the lecturers was wonderful, and there was excellent pre-reading material. I
  was glad to attend in-person even though there was an option for online; I think the dynamic
  in the room was more engaged
  
  
• 1. There was a lot of information that helped me have a good knowledge and develop perspective of migration health. 
  2. Experiences were given for different regions of the world.
  3. Workers in the field were invited to give real life experiences. For example the UNHCR.

Writing and Publishing a Scientific Paper, June 2023

• I liked the good structure of the course. Additionally, the assignments in class were really useful in understanding better the content of each session.
  Also, the perfect season and the location was amazing. I strongly recommend the course.
  
  
• The structured approach and that after every small theme (methods, results, etc.) there was time to practice with the proposed method. So the theory was still fresh. And that there were a lot of practical tips, which you can look up several times later, during the writing process. With every new paper again and again.
  
  
• Practical sessions: direct practical application, feedback of other students on the assignments.
  Structure of the course: balance between practical sessions and lectures, meeting other PhD students, social event :)

Life Course Epidemiology and Public Health, June 2023

• Good balance between the topics (epi theory and epi modelling), good balance between practicals and theory, different lecturers providing expertise and insights.
  
  
• Group work, networking, exercises during lectures. Very knowledgeable lecturer. 
  
  
• The overall scope of the course was very thoughtful to cover many aspects in a short timeframe.
  
  
• Creating the DAGS and using DAGs to determine which potential confounders to include in the model.

Systematic Reviews and Evidence Synthesis, June 2023

• The topic was very relevant for my PhD, I learned a lot and enjoyed using COVIDENCE.
  
• The practicals, especially learning how to use Covidence and running the meta-analysis in R/Stata. The course was well organized, with all the course material available on moodle.
  
• Very useful course that I would definitely recommend to keep in the SSPH+ PhD program for upcoming years.

Introduction into Multilevel Modelling of Clustered Data, July 2023

• The ratio of lecture and exercises was good such that one can directly apply the models after this course.
  
• The repetition of fixed, random intercept and random slope concepts. There is no such thing as over repetition of this concept. It is a concept that gets clearer and clearer the more you repeat explaining. And I appreciate this a lot.
  
• 1.Practical and in-depth approach.
  2. Linkage and connections/contrast between different methods for analyzing clustered data.
  3. Practical aspect was good. It allowed hands on application of the concepts

Missing Data in Observational Epidemiologic Studies Including Non-detects, September 2023

• Missing data was clearly explained and we went through the practicals in detail to gain fuller understanding of theory and practice applied and of hands on because we got to go through the R code.
• Moving from theory to practical use. I really benefited from the extensive theory discussions & why addressing missing data is important. I liked having time to work individually on an exercise, but then working through them as a class together.
• I liked that the lecturers always supported theoretical concepts with real-life examples.

Introduction to the Statistical Software R, September 2023

• The lecturer and the atmosphere during the course. The materials were very good, very detailed with all the steps, and very informative. The handouts were very helpful, even to use after the course to refresh everything.
• The lecturer! The material, handouts and the slides were very well-explained. I liked that we had an example of an exercise with instructions and solutions to follow and then we had to apply it by ourselves - this is the best way to learn for me.
• Very good course, appropriate level for beginners. Well balanced between theory and practice, enough breaks to digest the information.

Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning & Healthcare, September 2023

• The combination of theory, practice and discussion/ application for the same topics was helpful. Student presenters/ PhD students did an exceptional job in the practical sessions, theory sessions and reading discussions. 
• I best liked the lab sessions with Python. It was a nice way to start getting to know the methods and now I can go and look for more detailed methodological courses on the methods that lend themselves best for application in my field.
• I really enjoyed the layout of the course with the mix of practical and theory sessions. I also enjoyed the session on interpreting articles on machine learning.

Causal inference for population health sciences, September 2023

• In my opinion, the course "Causal Inference for Population Health Sciences" was one of the best PhD courses - or even the best - I have attended so far. Thank you very much.
• I LOVED this course. The teachers both made me think so hard about the fundamental principles behind my work, which is a good thing! Materials were presented clearly and at what I thought was a really great pace. I could definitely see the materials building on each other, and really appreciated how we started simple and conceptual and built up to very complex (but understandable) methods.
  I've definitely come away feeling that I could start performing causal inference. And I'm now really curious to learn more.
• The atmosphere in the course, how the teachers engaged with the students, the course materials were really excellent, the suggested readings, the practical exercises in groups were great too.

Epidemiological concepts, principals, and methods: A practice-oriented introduction, October 2023

• Getting to know other people from different areas, learning the basics in epic studies, the atmosphere, some of the exercises, the summary every morning & key messages, the presenters and that it was a mix of different speakers.
• The lectures were clear and well designed. The content was relevant and interesting. The engagement of the teachers was good and they tried to motivate, engage and help students.
• Good teaching and knowledge of the teachers. Good summative slides, overviews, introduction of new methods.

Epidemiological data analysis strategy, October 2023

• I really liked the lectures! All lecturers gave high quality and inspiring lectures. There was an excellent information content and density. I would recommend all starting PhD students to take this course.
• Lecturers professional skills, teaching skills and attitudes. The content of the lectures, especially on epi and data analysis strategy. The way statistics was addressed and explained: very clear, but still detailed.
• Many different techniques covered in the course. Hands-on application of the techniques to create analysis plans for real projects.

Writing better, faster scientific papers in English: A structured method for non-native English speakers (Advanced module), October 2023

• It is the best course I have ever taken on writing. Thanks to Kali's tools, tricks and tips, I am no longer "afraid" to write nor procrastinate. I wish I had attended this course earlier in my career, instead of having to do 10 articles as first author without really enjoying it. Kali created a very dynamic and engaging environment, despite being online. Furthermore, she adapted to each individual needs in terms of previous experience and status of the article.
• It is an amazing course! I have written about 10 articles in the past as first author and this course has given me another perspective: before I would always procrastinate and "fear" the writing process whereas with the tools that Kali has given us, I actually enjoyed writing the article during the course. I strongly believe that this course is an asset for any writer or scientist publishing research.
  I wish I had attended such a course earlier in my career to enjoy more my writing, suffer less and be more productive! Even if the course was online, Kali did a wonderful job in keeping the class active, engaged and interested in the course. In addition, having daily assignments helped a lot! Furthermore, I was amazed on how Kali really drove us all throughout our writing journey no matter in which point we were, so we all got feedback and could improve our papers.
• The teacher offered individual meetings to discuss questions, give advise and feedback to submitted work. She answered every question and incorporated additional topics in her lectures when necessary. Topics were covered in an understandable way with examples. For me, the most interesting topic that will stick with me is the differences between German and English writing. This was the first time, I understood the differences and the concept of English writing.

Introduction to Health Economics, November 2023

• The course was really very interesting. All the lecturers were very well prepared and were really good in stimulating our critical thinking. The group engaged in interesting discussions and the topics covered were very very interesting! The course was very well organised (preparatory work, pre-assigned groups (which was great), timetable, breaks, opportunity to network during dinner, lectures, slides etc..). The course was perfect! Thank you!
• The course atmosphere and the fact that we got so many good inputs and info from so many great researchers in such a short time.
• I really like the fact that the course organizers tried to bring in various Swiss researchers with various topic of interest. This way, you can show what are the concrete applications of health economics.

GIS for Public Health, November 2023

• I liked very much the practical approach of the course. In particular, I loved that the case study had not a single solution, but was open to spontaneous exploration of the team.
• It was a hands-on course, with clear instructions on how to do the exercises based on the introduction to the topic by the lecturers, and lecturers were available to answer any question. It had a great structure in terms of allocated time for each part. Having suggested case studies to be done in pairs the last two days was really helpful to put in practice everything done in the previous days in a real case study.
• Even for students who have never used a GIS program before, the guidance was very friendly and detailed so it was easy to understand. It was also nice that the lecture materials explained the exercises step by step well.

Qualitative Health Research : BASIC module, December 2023

• The group exercises throughout the course, the lecture on the use of theories and qualitative data analysis. In general, the lectures were of excellent quality with very passionate teachers.
• Very good lecturers with a lot of experience and who were very open to our questions and insecurities. Good group, interesting discussions during assignment and breaks.
• It was well organized, with useful examples, and very practical on what/how we should do. The group exercises were great to apply and discuss about the questions.

Qualitative Health Research : ADVANCED module, December 2023

• Highly engaged and knowledgable teachers, atmosphere in class where many students have already participated in qualitative research and shared their experiences with others.
• Thank you very much. I very much liked the structure and the content of the course. The exercise with the interviews are very useful, the lecturers were wonderful! Lectures and materials were great! Overall, basic course and advanced courses are well-handled.
• Practical inputs from faculty, working ourselves on the techniques and discussing difficulties with colleagues and faculty.

Course testimonials 2022

Forced Migration: Sexual and Reproductive Health of Migrant Women, March 2022

• It is hard to point out one thing I found best, because the whole course went beyond my expectations. Not only was I constantly engaged, I was also deeply moved by the research presented by the various talks. This course must be repeated.
  
  
• The broad variety of perspectives, interdisciplinary experts that really made a great holistic understanding of the topic. The lecturers were very understanding and did a great job in making a pleasant atmosphere were I never felt shy to askquestions and they took their time to explain everyone’s questions. I also liked that they gave their personal opinions and evaluations on actual political questions and evolvements. I also loved to meet students from other disciples and associations in the breaks and chat since it has been.
  
  
• Everything was so well organized and the atmosphere was so kind, accepting and still so professional. It was Eye Opening and I will strongly recommend it to everyone, as I believe it affects all health professions. The opportunity hear about different research projects and the relation to the situation in Switzerland just made it a well round course.

Understanding social inequalities and social problems in health!,  April 2022

• This course exceeded my expectations. I liked the idea to link what we learnt to our PhD projects.
  
  
• I liked looking at inequalities through the different sociological and economic lenses, this was something new for me. The course was structured well- I liked that the lecturers explained the 3 theories in class instead of expecting the students to be fully versed in the subject matter.

• The group work teachers gave a really good summary of each author and helped to understand the different concepts.

Big Data in Public Health, May 2022

• The course was structured well such that it allowed for interactions, networking and general discussions. The lecturers are experts in the field and their ability to help you with your side projects was really good.
  
  
• I like the selection of lecturers. It was diverse. Also like the level of interaction in the class and the flexibility of the lecturers.

• The ethics workshop and the lecture on integrity/reproducibility etc. in particular were very engaging - I'd recommend any researcher in the medical sciences to attend them!

Life Course Epidemiology and Public Health, June 2022

• The teachers were experts. They were talking about the real experience in the field. Also different background.
  
  
• I liked the presentations by different professors.

• A nice overview of the life course approach.

Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning & Healthcare,  Aug/ Sep 2022

• I thought the topic of the course was interesting, and the self-guided exercises helped with understanding. The real-life examples were also good, as well as discussions of ethical implications.

• The content was really new and feltlike I really came out of this course with a lot of new knowledge. I enjoyed going over the evaluation as it helped reflect on the concepts. Since it was a lot of new information, it was challenging to digest everything within a short timeframe, and the recap and review of the evaluation helped to reinforce material that may not have sunk in yet. The guided exercises and lecture were really helpful.

• Excellent overview of the different ML, AI and DL approaches in healthcare, that was general enough, but also went into sufficient detail. Enjoyed the practical exercises using python.

Foundations of Public Health Sciences, Sept / Oct 2022

• Great courses on health promotion and examples.

• Great expertise and teaching approach.

• I really liked all examples.

Introduction to the Statistical Software R, September 2022

• The combination of lectures and exercises, the flexibility and the humor of the teacher, that I got an understanding of a quite complex topic, that we got the scripts for the exercices, the workshop was super helpful.

• The active participatory aspect was excellent. The lecturer created a very pleasant environment for active participation. The practical and hands on approach was great.
  
  
• The course is well structured and everything was explained in a clear and understandable way. Very helpful for first year PhD students.

Missing data in observational epidemiologic studies including non-detects, September 2022

• I liked the exercises that followed the explanation/ lecture that help us to understand the lecture better. Also, it was also nice to know R code before hand which made understanding coding with R easier.
  
  
• The first part of the course was very well done. Practicals were helpful. The slides and the materials provided were very detailed.

• I was interested to learn a method in handling the missing data. It was nice that the lecturer helped us with the R codes and conducted R sessions simultaneously with the lecturer, which made it much better to understand the example and exercises.

Introduction to Health Economics, October / November 2022

• The lessons were really well done and very interesting. . The welcome, the place, the atmosphere. A very good week! A big thank you for the meals all together :)
  
  
• The course is very well organized. I appreciate the fact that all lecturers are from different universities and are expert in their fields of research. This course did not bring so much mathematic formulas so it is easy to follow for newcomers to the world of health economic.
  
  
• I also like that the course organizer take us for lunch everyday and the group dinner was very fun and interesting, it gave us opportunity to socialize with other students.

• The lecturers, on the whole, were excellent. They explained key concepts of health economics very well without overcomplicating the subjects. The examples given were relevant to the students in the class and it was also great to get a chance to ask them questions about their recent papers. The frontier topics taught were really great too (especially disability economics and ageing) as we got to explore some concepts that are under-discussed.

Qualitative Health Research: BASIC module: Defining and developing qualitative research in public health,  November 2022

• As an epidemiologist with a quantitative background i really enjoyed learning about a new topic (qualitative analysis). The lecturers were good, the material was displayed well and the content was relatable. I enjoyed it a lot and signed up for the advanced module. thank you!
  
  
• The lecturers were really good,approachable, flexible.

• The group works were really interesting and helpful.

Qualitative Health Research : ADVANCED module: Appraising qualitative health research, November 2022

• I liked the selection of the topics and the groupworks.
  
  
• I liked the guidance and also help during the breaks and after the course. I could address all my questions and therefore improve a lot in my knowledge also about evaluation a qualitative research paper.
  
  
• The practical aspect of thecourse enriched my knowledge of qualitative methods.

Public Health Nutrition, November 2022

• I really liked that the course was very interactive and practical
  
  
• I liked the practical approach (having exercises instead of a lot of theory) and working on a case study to apply what we learnt.
  
  
• Lecturers were extremely helpful and approachable. I enjoyed the interactive and practical aspects of the course.

GIS for Public Health, November 2022

• I liked the practical approach (having exercises instead of a lot of theory) and working on a case study to apply what we learnt.
  
  
• Lecturers were extremely helpful and approachable. I enjoyed the interactive and practical aspects of the course.
  
  
• The possiblity to work with own PhD data during the case study.

Public health surveillance and population health monitoring, December 2022

• The lectures by those working in health authorities in Switzerland were especially great to give students a taste of the reality of designing public health policy interventions given limited data. The exercise of coming up with a surveillance system for a specific health issue was also helpful to let students think through the challenges of designing a surveillance system. The course organizers also placed helpful emphasis on thinking of different audiences for specific surveillance data presentations. Overall, the course was really insightful in shedding light on the realities of surveillance data collection and use in Switzerland.
  
  
• The topic was very interesting and the presenters were very well prepared. The courseoffered several occasions for networking.
  
  
• Enjoyed the breadth of lecturers. As I am not as familiar with the Swiss public healthsystem, including examples and an explanation of the system was welcomed. I alsoenjoyed a majority of the group exercises.

Course testimonials 2021

Introduction into multilevel modellingof clustered data, June/  July 2021

• The is very skilled in explaining, putting things in simpler terms. It was very helpful how he explained which analysis makes sense in what situations (or did not make any sense).
  
  
• I liked the examples and the fact that during the practicals we worked with real data sets. Its very good that for every slide the teacher went to stata and could create and output for explanation. I came with some previous knowledge in this kind of models, but the teacher
  was able to fill my knowledge gaps and give very interesting suggestions based on his experience!
• Repetition of concepts with examples and practicals. Thinking about and presentation of own research.

Migration Health, December 2021

• The course brought together an incredible panel of professionals offering their great expertise and experience in a highly engaging way. The course was well-structured, engaging and highly informative. The discussed matter spanned a very broad set of topics related to migration and health, offering compact insights into every single aspect without becoming overwhelming. Overall, it was an extremely valuable and enjoyable experience and I learnt a lot.
  
  
• Different perspectives and multifaceted approach on migrants health and tackling upcoming challenges. Countering narratives on migration and how people with migrant background are perceived.
  
  
• The diverse group of lecturers/presenters who come from different backgrounds and working environments.

2hour online courses from postdocs for IGC students

• I like the format, very informative.
  
  
• I appreciate the short courses. Enjoyed it!
  
  
• Format is good and useful for gaining initial knowledge. Having several of these units would allow us engage more on the topic
  
  
• I think the time is adequate if we consider the course as an introduction to a topic. The activities within the class help make it more engaging.
  
  
• I very much appreciated the practical aspects of the training, important concepts were reminded as we learned.
  
  
• I think these short courses online are very helpful. The topic was very well presented and it made it possible to get to know the topic and in case we want to dive deeper we can invest time on our owns to be more familiarised with help of the resources that are going to be provided by the lecturers.