Doctor of Philosophy in Population Health

The population health doctoral program is offered through a collaboration of five faculties: the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Telfer School of Management, and the Faculty of Law (Common Law Section).

The program is administratively hosted by the Faculty of Health Sciences. This program is modeled on a framework that encompasses population health issues, determinants and causes of health illness inequities, and population health interventions, including programs, policies and resource distribution systems.

Unique in Canada, this program draws on a wide range of disciplines, both basic and applied. It brings together the insights of social, biological, clinical, organizational, and political sciences, among others. It also draws on and combines the strengths of quantitative and qualitative methods. The transdisciplinary approach of the program recognizes the inherent complexity of many population health problems and the need to tackle these issues through both health and other sectors.

The program is designed to meet the needs of a wide variety of candidates, such as health professionals and health administrators, demographers, epidemiologists and biostatisticians, social, behavioural and legal scholars, environmental scientists, and biologists with an interest in human population health.

Students are encouraged to apply the science of their individual background disciplines to issues of population health. They acquire a broad knowledge of population health through courses and the comprehensive examination, and pursue in-depth study in an area of specialization within the population health framework. Students undertake their research in a range of settings (from local to global).

To be eligible, candidates must:
Have a master's degree, with a minimum average of 75% (B+) or equivalent, in a field related to population health (for example, epidemiology, human kinetics, interdisciplinary health sciences, audiology, physiotherapy, nursing, medicine, social work, law, environmental studies, sociology, psychology, criminology, and biology).
Notes: International candidates must check the admission equivalencies for the diploma they received in their country of origin.

An applicant whose master's degree did not include a thesis must demonstrate the ability to undertake an independent research project.
Be knowledgeable in several of the following key areas:
health sciences,
social and behavioural sciences,
advanced research methods,
graduate-level statistics, and
epidemiology.
Those who lack knowledge in three or more of these key areas must successfully complete prerequisite courses prior to admission. Applicants lacking knowledge in two or fewer of these knowledge areas may be offered admission on condition that they take a course or courses as co-requisites. These courses would be additional to the 18 units required of all students in the program.

Identify at least one professor who is willing to supervise their research and thesis. We recommend that you contact potential thesis supervisors as soon as possible.

TOEFL 550 / IELTS Overall 6.5 - Individual 5.0 (Paper-based)
TOEFL 79-80 / IELTS Overall 6.5 - Individual 5.0 (Internet-based)