Students enroll in the Ph.D. in Public Health in the fall quarter of each year. Applicants are encouraged to start the application process early by consulting with faculty members whose research activities align with the applicant’s interests and academic background. The deadline for receipt of all application materials is December 1. Applicants must choose one of the two three available concentrations at the time of application: Global Health, Disease Prevention, or Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Health. Master’s level degrees in health-related disciplines are the preferred preparation for admission to the Ph.D. in Public Health. Students who entered the program without a master’s level degree from a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited program must complete PUBHLTH 200 Foundations of Public Health as part of their preparatory module. Also, applicants to the Ph.D. in Public Health who come with undergraduate degrees from other related majors might be required to take supplementary courses in addition to the preparatory module of the Ph.D. program.

All applicants must have an overall grade point average of B (3.0 on a 4.0 scale) or better and take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) general test. Applicants must meet the general admission requirements of the UCI Graduate Division and submit both the Application for Graduate Admission and the School of Public Health Application Service (SOPHAS) application in order to be considered for admission.

Each Ph.D. student must serve as a teaching assistant for at least two quarters during the graduate program. If English is not the student’s first language, the student must pass a campus-approved oral English proficiency exam prior to serving as a teaching assistant.

For more information on admissions, visit the Public Health website or contact phgo@uci.edu.

The focus of the Ph.D. research concentration in Global Health is to train excellence in research through engagement in hypothesis-driven projects to investigate the global context of disease burden and the improvement of population health status. The program will attract candidates who seek to analyze problems at the intersection of risk, vulnerability, and disease. Activities may include investigation of strategies to make research results that have already produced benefits in one country or region effective in underprivileged regions. The program trains students in integrative expertise essential for global health research with hypotheses in the nexus of content (risk analysis), context (vulnerability assessments), and process (translation of knowledge to reduce the burden of disease).

The specific learning objectives of the Concentration in Global Health are for graduates of the degree to: 

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the major theoretical underpinnings of advances in global health research.
    

2. Explain the relationship between theory and research methods focused on understanding the association of risk, vulnerability, and outcome in global health.

3. Compare and contrast the health status of different populations with respect to their burden of disease. 

4. Formulate research hypotheses in the intersection of risk factors, vulnerable populations, and burden of disease. 

5. Compose research proposals and conduct original research resulting in discoveries that contribute to improved understanding of risk factors and variations in disease burden in a population, and strategies to alleviate the burden at the global level. 

The focus of the Ph.D. concentration in Disease Prevention is to train excellence in research to discover insights into how human behavior, social constraints, and other contextual factors influence strategies to prevent disease in populations that are vulnerable to risk factors. The program emphasizes the ecological model of disease prevention, with research hypotheses emerging through multi-layered analysis of determinants of health status, including individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and overarching policy. Students generate the hypotheses for their research in the nexus of risk factors, health behavior, and vulnerable populations. 

The specific learning objectives of the Concentration in Disease Prevention are: 

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the major theoretical underpinnings of strategies for disease prevention. 

2. Explain the relationship between theory and research methods focused on understanding the association of risk, behavior, and vulnerability with respect to disease pathways. 

3. Analyze interrelationships among the determinants of illness and maladaptive health behaviors using theories of health behavior.

4. Formulate research hypotheses in the intersection of health risk factors, health behavior, and health promotion and policies toward disease prevention. 

5. Compose research proposals and conduct original research resulting in discoveries that contribute to improved understanding of the role of behavior and health promotion strategies in mitigating the vulnerability to health risk factors in specific populations, with the goals of applying the knowledge to disease prevention.

The Ph.D. in Public Health prepares graduates to initiate independent and collaborative research careers in academic institutions, to teach at advanced levels of instruction, and to lead research efforts at agencies dedicated to public health at all levels of organization. Graduates of the Ph.D. in Public Health will gain employment at research universities, government agencies, or private sector organizations including research institutes, hospitals, and public health foundations. 

Students enroll in the Ph.D. in Public Health in the fall quarter of each year. Applicants are encouraged to start the application process early by consulting with faculty members whose research activities align with the applicant’s interests and academic background. The deadline for receipt of all application materials is December 1. Applicants must choose one of the three available concentrations at the time of application: Global Health, Disease Prevention, or Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Health. Master’s level degrees in health-related disciplines are the preferred preparation for admission to the Ph.D. in Public Health. Students who entered the program without a master's-level degree from a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited program must complete PUBHLTH 200 as part of their preparatory module. Also, applicants to the Ph.D. in Public Health who come with undergraduate degrees from other related majors might be required to take supplementary courses in addition to the preparatory module of the Ph.D. program. 

All applicants must have an overall grade point average of B (3.0 on a 4.0 scale) or better and take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) general test. Applicants must meet the general admission requirements of the UCI Graduate Division and submit both the Application for Graduate Admission and the School of Public Health Application Service (SOPHAS) application in order to be considered for admission. 

Each Ph.D. student must serve as a teaching assistant for at least two quarters during the graduate program. If English is not the student’s first language, the student must pass a campus-approved oral English proficiency exam prior to serving as a teaching assistant.

For more information on admissions, visit the Public Health website or contact phgo@uci.edu.

A main feature of the Ph.D. in Public Health is the engagement in dissertation research that utilizes scientific inquiry and considers multi-level analysis of public health questions. We integrate this feature in the three concentrations, each with knowledge modules and creative activity that must be satisfied in partial fulfillment of the degree requirements. All Ph.D. students are required to complete a minimum of 72 quarter-units according to the following modules: 

¹

Required for students in the Global Health Concentration.

²

Special topics courses must be approved by the program director(s) as satisfying concentration requirements.

The qualifying examination consists of two parts. The first part is submission of a written research proposal to a Candidacy Committee of four faculty members consisting of three members with formal appointments in Public Health, and an external member. The external member must be a member of the Academic Senate but not appointed in the School of Population and Public Health. The chair of the candidacy committee must be faculty with primary faculty appointments in the department of the Ph.D. program. The second part is a public presentation and oral defense of the student's dissertation research proposal before the same committee. Advancement to doctoral candidacy is contingent on passing both parts of the qualifying examination, as judged by the Candidacy Committee. The dissertation proposal must be at a level of quality such that its execution will advance knowledge and have the potential to yield original peer-reviewed publications.

Advancement to doctoral candidacy is contingent on passing the qualifying examination. We expect students to sit for the qualifying examination by the beginning of their third year in the program. Ph.D. completion requires submission of an acceptable dissertation and oral defense. The normative time to degree is six years, and the maximum time permitted is eight years. 

Students enrolled in the Ph.D. in Public Health are required to serve as Teaching Assistants in public health courses for two quarters during their graduate study. Teaching is an important component of graduate training, as it helps graduate students learn how to communicate effectively about their field of knowledge. In addition, teaching experience is valuable to those planning for a career in academia. Graduate students with comparable prior teaching experience (e.g., through postgraduate degrees earned at UC Irvine or other comparable institution) may request a waiver of the teaching requirement.