A new agenda for health policy and systems (HPS) education: how high-resource universities can support health system transformation

Health policy and systems (HPS) has matured into a recognised interdisciplinary field with a growing evidence base and emerging competencies. At the same time, health systems, and the contexts in which future health policy and systems professionals are trained, have changed profoundly. Global polycrises, shifting geopolitics, technological disruption, and evolving workforce training modalities are reshaping how people learn, work, and build careers in and about health systems. This perspective piece reflects on what these changes mean for health systems education in high-resource universities (our vantage point). Drawing on developments in the field and on the authors’ experience as educators and thought leaders working with colleagues from diverse contexts around the world, we argue that high-income-country-based universities must move beyond content delivery to intentionally cultivate learning spaces and collaborations that support professional identity formation, employability, and ethical engagement with complexity. We examine how such institutions’ positionality confers both advantages and responsibilities, including convening power, partnership-building, and stewardship of academic freedom. We outline implications for curriculum design, career-long learning, technology use, and institutional support, and invite dialogue with learners, employers, and institutions across contexts on how health systems education can remain relevant, inclusive, and fit for the future.