Research and extracurricular opportunities in global health have grown in tandem with course offerings. The Harvard Initiative for Global Health, the Harvard College Global Health and AIDS Coalition (HCGHAC), the Harvard Undergraduate Global Health Forum, and the Harvard Project for Sustainable Development are among the most visible newly established student organizations at the College.

Still, opinions vary on the possibility of global health becoming its own concentration.

Since the field is inherently interdisciplinary, Cutler says he does not think it would make sense as its own concentration. He adds that it is important for students to have a “firm foothold” in a discipline while cultivating a subject area of interest.

“The answer is not to flood us with more classes,” says Krishna M. Prabhu ’11, a member of HCGHAC.

Rather, Harvard’s efforts should go towards research on neglected diseases with the aim of benefitting the mostly impoverished people who suffer from such diseases, Prabhu adds.

But both Han and Henderson say there is value in having a concentration devoted to global health.

There is still a “real need to connect the experiences students have in the classroom with experiences students have on the ground,” Han says.