Admission requirements

Applicants applying for doctoral degrees are required to hold a master's degree in an appropriate discipline from a recognized university.

Applicants must meet the general requirements set out by the Faculty of Graduate Studies in the Graduate Studies calendar.

Ordinarily a B+ average (6.0 GPA) in the last two years of university work is a minimum requirement for admission to the program.

Applicants may request consideration on the basis of life or work experience equivalency. Applications will be reviewed by the Faculty of Graduate Studies, the SDH graduate advisors and other SDH faculty members.

Supervisory committee

The structure of a student's supervisory committee must meet the requirements set out by the Faculty of Graduate Studies for interdisciplinary students. 

For doctoral students, 2 co-supervisors who are members of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, at least one of whom is on the SDH faculty membership list. One member must have also successfully supervised candidates for graduate degrees in the past.

One of the co-supervisors will accept the role of lead co-supervisor and must confirm their willingness to supervise before a student can be admitted. Normally, co-supervisors will come from two different disciplinary affiliations in order to reflect the interdisciplinary spirit of the program. At least one additional faculty member must be added to the supervisory committee either at the time of application or following admission. At the time of the comprehensive examination, at least one additional member must be added to the examination committee.

Additional coursework may be required

In cases where students have insufficient background in health research, additional coursework may be required as part of the student's program. This will be determined by the SDH Graduate Advisor in consultation with the student's co-supervisors, and communicated to the student in writing at the time of acceptance into the program. These courses will be taken as electives in addition to the 3.0 units of electives required by the SDH program.

Laddering up to the doctoral program

After two terms in a UVic master's program, exceptional students may request a transfer to the doctoral program. Such requests are submitted by the supervisory committee to the SDH Graduate Advisor and must be approved by the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Additional application requirements

Statement of intended study

Details concerning your research interests/plans, reasons for choosing the program, and post-degree plans are often included. Indicate your confirmed supervisor(s) (name and email address) and your rationale for selecting them based on their expertise and research experience. A letter of intent should be no longer than two single-spaced pages.

Sample of written work

A recent sample of your written work such as a research paper, essay, published article, thesis chapter, etc.

Two graduate assessment reports 

Ideally completed by former academic supervisors / course instructors.

Curriculum vitae

We recommend including at least the following sections:

• education previous degrees — include thesis supervisor and titles if applicable)
• fellowships, honours, and awards applied or awarded, if any monetary value, indicate amount
• presentations and publications (academic and non-academic)
• other scholarly activities(e.g. relationship/partnership building, capacity-building efforts, unpublished reports)
• professional and leadership activities (e.g. peer-reviewing, service/administrative activities, training/supervising/mentoring activities, workshops attended, conference organization, research assistantships, teaching assistantships, community volunteer positions)