The Department of Public Health Sciences at UConn Health offers the Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees. The M.P.H. focuses on Interprofessional Public Health Practice for students anticipating careers working with local Governmental or non-Governmental agencies in delivering essential public health services. The M.P.H. degree integrates coursework on foundational topics in public health and experiential requirements that demonstrate competency as a public health practitioner with elective options on substantive areas of study (e.g., epidemiology, behavioral science, health systems administration, etc.). The Ph.D. degree focuses on the Social and Behavioral Determinants of Health and rigorously prepares individuals for careers in academic and research institutes, federal agencies and private sector business and industry. 

Location

• UConn Health Campus

Modality

• In Person

Requirements

Doctorate in Public Health (Ph.D.)

This program rigorously prepares public health professionals, scholars, and research scientists needed in a wide variety of settings to meet the health challenges of the 21st century. The degree reinforces foundational principles and advanced methodologies for application in both population-wide and community-level public health research. The Ph.D. degree requires the completion of a total of 60 credits: 45 in coursework beyond the Master’s degree, and 15 credits of dissertation research. Students must maintain a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 with no course receiving below a B- grade. 

Required Courses

Course List

Course	Title	Credits
Required Core Courses
PUBH 5406	Law and Public Health	3
or PUBH 5460	Health and Human Rights
PUBH 5434	Topics in Intermediate Biostatistics (or advanced statistical elective)	3
PUBH 5436	Intermediate Epidemiology (or advanced epidemiology elective)	3
PUBH 5453	Chronic Disease Control (or equivalent courses approved by the student's advisory committee)	3
PUBH 6496	Public Health Doctoral Seminar: Scholarship and Professional Development (suggested enrollment is near the conclusion of coursework as preparation for the General Examination and Dissertation Research Proposal)	3
Required Core Courses total 15 credits.
Required Electives
Beyond the five required core courses, students must complete at least one advanced course, each, in the topics of population research methods, biostatistics, and epidemiology.		21
Electives
Based on student's interests.		9

Post-Coursework Milestones

Successful completion of the General Examination and Dissertation Research Proposal in accordance with University stipulations.

Doctoral Dissertation Research

15 credits of GRAD 6950 Doctoral Dissertation Research or GRAD 6960 Full-Time Doctoral Research.

Learning Objectives

1. Knowledge: Demonstrate comprehension of breadth and depth of relevant knowledge in the following disciplinary areas: social and behavioral determinants of health (e.g., nutrition, physical activity, environmental and occupational settings); chronic disease and conditions across the lifespan (e.g., mental health, addiction, cancer, developmental and physical disabilities, aging); and, advanced methodological and analytic techniques.
2. Applied Skills: Develop novel and well-substantiated study questions; and, describe essential elements of scholarly output (e.g., research proposals, manuscripts, abstracts).
3. Communication: Demonstrate clear and effective presentation skills in the classroom, national and regional conferences, and in teaching opportunities within faculty-led courses. Solicit and incorporate multi-disciplinary expert feedback on work output.
4. Career Development: Describe public health career trajectories (e.g., post-doctoral positions, faculty tracks, government agencies) and the job application process.