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Public Health Education PH
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  3. Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health
  4. Course Requirements

Required Courses (58 units)

The core courses include six methods courses, five content courses, one course designed to prepare students for submission of predissertation research grants, and one course on scientific ethics.

Methods courses

  • PHB 221 (Biostatistical Methods I) (4 units)
  • PHB 224 (Clinical Trials Experimental Design) (4 units)
  • PH 223 (Introduction to Community-Engaged Health Research) (4 units)
  • PH 220 A/B (Advanced Methods in Health Services Research) (8 units)
  • PH 222 (Advanced Methods in Dissemination and Implementation Science) (4 units)

Content courses

  • PH 277 (Addressing Health Equity Through Policy) (4 units)
  • PH 289R (Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health) (4 units)
  • PH 405 (Introduction to Health Policy) (4 units)
  • PH 440 (Introduction to Health Economics) (4 units)
  • PH 441 (Organization/Financing of Health Care Systems) (4 units)

Note: UC San Diego MPH students who wish to apply to the PhD program may be able to gain credit for having taken PH 405, 413, 440 and 441 to fulfill their MPH requirements. UC San Diego PharmD students who wish to apply to the PhD Program may be able to gain credit for having taken SPPS 207 and 209 in lieu of PH 440 and 441.

Grant writing course

  • PH 221 (Successful Grant Writing for Dissertation Research) (4 units)

Scientific Ethics

  • PH 413 (Ethics in Public Health Research and Practice) (4 units)

Colloquium Series

  • PH 275 (HSRIS Colloquium Series) (6 units)

Elective Courses (16 units)

Students are required to take a minimum of 16 units of elective courses for letter grade. Elective requirements may be fulfilled through formal coursework and completion of a minimum of two quarters of a community-engaged health research practicum rotation (described below). Elective courses may be taken to develop competencies in another specialization or concentration (e.g., clinical epidemiology, health policy, health behavior, global health, human-centered design) or to enhance expertise in qualitative methods, mixed methods, or advanced statistical methods (e.g., PH 288 Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods; PH 226 Statistical Methods for Observational Studies and/or PH 227 Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis).

Community-Engaged Health Research Practicum Rotations

The community-engaged health research (CeHR) practicum rotations (2 units) are a singular feature of this PhD program that takes advantage of the extensive involvement of the program faculty in community engaged research. Students will complete at least two quarter-length rotations before advancing to candidacy, each in the form of an interdisciplinary community-engaged research project. They may elect to work in collaboration with any UC San Diego faculty researcher who conducts community-based studies or experiments which generate data in the medical, public health or pharmacologic sciences, and who will serve as a subject area mentor. Each practicum will last a minimum of 10 weeks and will involve the analysis of original data. The student will prepare or substantially contribute to a project report, which will be reviewed and signed off on by the mentor. 

Contact Us

Please email hsris@health.ucsd.edu for more information.