Environmental Health Sciences Doctoral Degree Requirements

Program | Faculty | Master's | Doctoral | Courses

Doctor of Philosophy Degree Program

The goal of the Ph.D. program is to prepare professionals to assume leadership positions in teaching, research, and public service.

The Curriculum

The Department of Environmental Health Sciences considers for admission qualified candidates only after they have found a departmental faculty member willing to mentor them on a funded research project. For further information, call (413) 545-2288 or e-mail: jsortiz@schoolph.umass.edu. Applicants must have a background in natural sciences, engineering, mathematics, etc. The student selects a major concentration in either Toxicology or Industrial Hygiene and a minor either in Public Health or another Ph.D.-granting department within the University. Minimal expectations are 24 credit hours of study in the major concentration, 12 hours in the minor concentration, and participation in a research seminar. Most candidates will be involved in additional elective courses and/or individual studies. Students also complete 18 hours in dissertation credits.

Of total credits, at least six must be in research methodology, as determined by the Academic Policy and Curriculum Committee in con-sultation with the student and the major faculty adviser. This is in addition to the required interdisciplinary seminar in public health research, Bioepi 891 and Env Hl 891.

Before or soon after matriculation, the candidate and dissertation adviser outline a course of study in both major and minor areas. This specifies any deficiences in background that must be made up without credit toward the degree. The proposal is reviewed and approved by the Academic Policy and Curriculum Committee. This, in essence, becomes the candidate's individual contract with the faculty.

Each candidate takes a comprehensive examination, after completing course work, usual-ly after the fourth semester of full-time study. It must be completed before beginning the sixth semester. The examination is coordinated by the Graduate Program Director and consists of three parts. Two parts are written, one for the major and one for the minor. The third is an oral exam, to be taken after completion of the written parts.

The dissertation is conducted under the guidance of a dissertation committee comprising at least three members of the Graduate Faculty. At least one member must be from outside the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. The candidate negotiates the topic and substance of dissertation research with the dissertation committee.

A candidate who enters the program with a satisfactory background may expect to complete the program in three to four years.