Applicable only to students admitted during the 2018-2019 academic year.

Environmental Health Sciences

School of Public Health

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Environmental Health Sciences offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Environmental Health Sciences.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

A faculty academic adviser is appointed for each new master’s student by the department chair. The student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter and any subsequent alterations must be approved by the student’s adviser. Students are expected to meet with their adviser each quarter.

The faculty adviser is responsible for monitoring the student’s academic progress. Progress is evaluated on an ongoing basis. At the end of each quarter, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs reviews academic listings of students and notifies them and the advisers when the cumulative grade-point average is below 3.0. Advisers review each case with their advisees and make recommendations to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs for continuance or dismissal. Students who wish to change advisers must file a petition which must be approved by the old adviser, the new adviser, the department chair, and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Areas of Study

Students may choose from: air, ecology, economics, exposure assessment, industrial hygiene, toxicology, and water.  For students that focus on industrial hygiene, there is a specific curriculum because there is a federal training grant in this area: https://ehs.ph.ucla.edu/pages/industrial_hygiene.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students must complete at least one year of graduate residence at the University of California and a minimum of 10 full courses (59 units), at least five (44 units) of which must be graduate courses in the 200 or 500 series. Only one 596 course (four units) and one 598 course (four units) may be applied toward the total course requirement; only four units of either course may be applied toward the minimum graduate course requirement. Environmental Health Sciences 597 may not be applied toward the degree requirements.

Mandatory core courses include Biostatistics 100A, 100B, Epidemiology 100, Environmental Health Sciences C200A,C200C, 201, C240, 411 (to be taken two times: once in the fall and once in the spring, within the first two years), and either 596 (for comprehensive examination/report plan) or 598 (for thesis plan). Students must take one advanced laboratory course (3 or more units) on a topic in or related to environmental health sciences, such as Environmental Health Sciences 207, 410B, M166L, 252F, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics 100L, or Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology 104AL. The advanced laboratory course may be waived with the faculty advisor and Department Chair’s consent if the student has previous lab experience. Students who request to waive the advanced laboratory course are required to submit a blue petition indicating the request to waive the advanced laboratory course with previous lab experience and make up the 3 units with an additional elective course.  In addition, at least 18 units of elective courses are required and should be selected in consultation with the graduate adviser.

Students who have not previously taken and passed a course in Public Health at the undergraduate or graduate level are required to complete one of the following:

• Public Health 150: Contemporary Health Issues
• Health Policy & Management M242: Determinants of Health
• Attend six FSPH Grand Rounds or any FSPH seminars outside of EHS over the course of two years.  Students choosing this option must meet with the Student Affairs Officer to discuss the requirements prior to attending the first presentation and document their attendance at each seminar by either signing the sign-in form for Grand Rounds presentations or submitting a summary of 100-150 words for each seminar to their faculty adviser.

M.S. students may not count 296, 596, 597, 598, or 599 courses towards the elective requirement. A departmental required course may be waived if the student either has taken a similar university-level course elsewhere and/or passes a waiver examination.

Only courses in which a grade of C- or better is received may be applied toward the requirements for a master’s degree. Students must maintain an average of no less than 3.0 (B) in all courses required or elected during graduate residence at the University of California.

In addition to the above course requirements, students must complete a thesis (Plan I) or a report and a comprehensive examination (Plan II).

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

If the student selects the comprehensive examination & report option (Plan II), the candidate must pass a comprehensive examination on the major area of study. This examination is prepared by a committee of at least three faculty members.  If the examination is failed, the student may be reexamined once. In addition, the student must complete a research activity (Environmental Health Sciences 596) of at least four units and prepare an in-depth written report on this activity.  For the report, the student also has the option of submitting an externally peer-reviewed publication (e.g. journal article, book chapter) that was completed while a student. Either report option must be approved by the adviser and at least one other faculty member.  The comprehensive examination/report option (Plan II) consists of two elements, (1) an examination and (2) a MS report.

Thesis Plan 

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

If the student selects the thesis option (Plan I), a thesis committee of three faculty members is established. The committee approves the thesis before the student graduates. An externally peer-reviewed publication (e.g. journal article or book chapter) may be submitted as the thesis, with appropriate format modification.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time-to-degree from initial enrollment to graduation is six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	6	6	15

Doctoral Degree

Advising

An academic adviser is assigned to each new student by the head of the department. Student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter within the parameters set forth below; any subsequent alterations must be approved both by the adviser and the department chair. During the first year students must set up a two-member guidance committee that includes the academic adviser. One of these members may be from outside the department. Students also must file Doctoral Form 1.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students may choose to concentrate on any field of environmental health sciences. Such areas of academic focus may include: air quality; environmental biology; environmental chemistry; environmental health practice and policy; industrial hygiene; toxicology; or water quality. Interdisciplinary research is also recommended.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students select a course of study upon consultation with their guidance committee. The following courses are required: Environmental Health Sciences C200A and C200C; Environmental Health Sciences 411 (to be taken two times: once in the fall and once in the spring, before advancing to candidacy); Environmental Health Sciences M414 (Fall Quarter of the second year); one full course (four units or more) at the 100 or 200 level in epidemiology; and the appropriate Environmental Health Sciences 296 course for each quarter in residence. Also, proficiency in biostatistics/statistics is required. Each specific, required, letter-graded course may be waived if the student successfully completed an equivalent course with a grade of B or better.

Students who have not previously taken and passed a course in Public Health at the undergraduate or graduate level are required to complete one of the following:

• Public Health 150: Contemporary Health Issues
• Health Policy & Management M242: Determinants of Health
• Attend six FSPH Grand Rounds or any FSPH seminars outside of EHS over the course of two years. Students choosing this option must meet with the Student Affairs Officer to discuss the requirements prior to attending the first presentation and document their attendance at each seminar by either signing the sign-in form for Grand Rounds presentations or submitting a summary of 100-150 words for each seminar to their faculty advisor.

For students who do not have a degree in the field of public health, the following additional courses are recommended: two full courses in biostatistics/statistics.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is recommended but not required for the doctoral degree.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Before advancement to candidacy, students must complete the courses required for the doctoral degree (see Course Requirements). Students must also pass a written examination in the area of specialization and the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Normally, no more than one reexamination is allowed. A doctoral committee, consisting of at least four faculty members who hold professorial appointments at UCLA, is nominated when the student is ready to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Students should review the current regulations governing doctoral committee membership in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

After passing the University Oral Qualifying Examination, the student may be advanced to candidacy and commence work on a dissertation in the principal field of study. The doctoral committee supervises the student’s progress toward completion of the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time from initial enrollment to advancement to candidacy is six to nine quarters (two to three calendar years), and from advancement to candidacy to filing of dissertation is six to nine quarters (two to three calendar years).

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	9	18	24

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for termination for failure to complete the required course work within seven quarters of matriculation.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for termination for: failure to maintain a 3.00 grade point average for two consecutive quarters following matriculation into the doctoral program; a second failure in the written qualifying examination; a second failure of either oral examination; or exceeding enrollment time limits.

A student may appeal a recommendation for termination first to the departmental chair, then to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, then to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and finally to the Dean of the school.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Environmental Health Sciences

School of Public Health

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Environmental Health Sciences offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Environmental Health Sciences.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

A faculty academic advisor is appointed for each new master’s student by the department chair. The student and advisor together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter and any subsequent alterations must be approved by the student’s advisor. Students are expected to meet with their advisor at least each quarter.

The faculty adviser is responsible for monitoring the student’s academic progress. Progress is evaluated on an ongoing basis. At the end of each quarter, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs reviews academic listings of students and notifies them and the advisers when the cumulative grade-point average is below 3.0. Advisers review each case with their advisees and make recommendations to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs for continuance or academic disqualification. Students who wish to change advisers must file a petition which must be approved by the old adviser, the new adviser, the department chair, and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Areas of Study

Students may choose from: air, ecology, economics, exposure assessment, industrial hygiene, toxicology, and water. For students that focus on industrial hygiene, there is a specific curriculum because there is a federal training grant in this area: https://ehs.ph.ucla.edu/pages/industrial_hygiene.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Master’s students must also complete at least four quarters in residence at the University of California, including at least two quarters in residence at UCLA, and 17 courses (65 units) of which at least six (28 units) must be graduate courses in the 200 or 500 series. Only one Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) 596 course (four units) and one EHS 598 course (four units) count toward the total course and minimum graduate unit requirements. EHS 597 is not eligible for degree requirements. Upon petition to Graduate Division, courses completed at other UCs may fulfill up to one-half of the total course requirement, one-half of the graduate course requirement, and one-third of the academic residence requirement.

There are 10 mandatory core courses (38 units): Biostatistics 100A, 100B, Epidemiology 100, EHS C200A, C200C, 200D, C240, C257, M411 (to be taken once a year for two years), and either EHS 596 (for the comprehensive examination/report plan) or EHS 598 (for the thesis plan).

Students must also successfully complete a written examination in Chemistry when they enter the program, or else they will be required to take EHS 101. In addition, they must take one advanced laboratory course (3 or more units) on a topic in or related to environmental health sciences, such as EHS 207, 410B, M166L, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics 100L, or Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology 104AL. The advanced laboratory course may be waived with the faculty advisor’s and Department Chair’s consents if the student has previous lab experience. Students who request to waive the advanced laboratory course are required to submit a blue petition indicating the request to waive the advanced laboratory course because of previous lab experience and make up the four units with an additional elective course. A mandatory core course may be waived if the student either has taken a similar university-level course elsewhere and/or passes a waiver examination. If a core course is waived, the student should make up the units with a substitute course that should be selected in consultation with the graduate advisor.

In addition to the core courses, at least 20 units of upper division (200 level) or grad level (400 level) elective courses are required and should be selected in consultation with the graduate adviser. 296, 596, 597, 598, or 599 courses may not be counted towards the elective requirement.

Students interested in Industrial Hygiene may choose to complete an additional 13 elective courses (46-50 units) that prepare them to enter the workforce and may assist in becoming a Certified Industrial Hygienists (see http://abih.org/). These additional courses allow industrial hygiene students in the Environmental Health Sciences department to receive additional training on occupational exposure to chemicals; physical, biological, and mechanical agents; psychosocial factors, and ergonomic factors. Identification/recognition/anticipation, evaluation, control and prevention of hazards and risks are the primary goals. These required courses are (two units each): EHS 230A, 230B, 230C and (four units each): EHS 252D, 252E, 253, 255, 259A, 259B, 410A, 454. EHS 252G is required if no field sampling has been done by Spring quarter of 2nd year. An additional four-unit course from a list of electives is required. U.S. citizens (or Green Card holders) applicants may qualify for fees and stipend support from the NIOSH Southern California Education and Research Center (http://erc.ucla.edu/industrial-hygiene/). If you have questions, please contact the IH Director, Professor Shane Que Hee at squehee@ucla.edu.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor, master or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health C201: Contemporary Health Issues.

Only courses in which a grade of C or better is received may be applied toward the requirements for a master’s degree.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

The comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II) consists of two elements, (1) an examination and (2) a M.S. report. If the student selects the comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II), the candidate must pass a comprehensive examination on the major area of study. This examination is prepared by a committee of at least three faculty members. If the examination is failed, the student may be reexamined once. In addition, the student must complete a research activity while enrolled in Environmental Health Sciences 596 for at least four units. For the M.S. report, the student must either prepare an in-depth written report on this research activity, or submit an article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) that was completed while a student. Either report option must be approved by the full committee.

Thesis Plan 

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

If the student selects the thesis option (Plan I), a thesis committee of three faculty members is established. The committee approves the thesis before the student graduates. An article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) may be submitted as the thesis, with appropriate format modification.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time-to-degree from initial enrollment to graduation is six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	6	6	15

Doctoral Degree

Advising

An academic adviser is assigned to each new student by the head of the department. Student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter within the parameters set forth below; any subsequent alterations must be approved both by the adviser and the department chair. During the first year students must set up a two-member guidance committee that includes the academic adviser. One of these members may be from outside the department. The student’s guidance committee is responsible for making course recommendations. Students also must file Doctoral Form 1, which establishes their guidance committee and proposed course of study, by the end of the third quarter of doctoral study.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students may choose to concentrate on any field of environmental health sciences. Such areas of academic focus may include: air quality; environmental biology; environmental chemistry; environmental health practice and policy; occupational health including industrial hygiene; toxicology; or water quality. Interdisciplinary research is also recommended.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students select a course of study upon consultation with their guidance committee. The following courses are required: Environmental Health Sciences 200C; Environmental Health Sciences 411 (to be taken once a year for two years); Environmental Health Sciences 414A and 414B; and one full course (four units or more) at the 100 or 200 level in epidemiology; and the appropriate Environmental Health Sciences 296 course for each quarter in residence. Also, proficiency in biostatistics/statistics is required. Each specific, required, letter-graded course may be waived if the student successfully completed an equivalent course with a grade of B or better.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health 201: Contemporary Health Issues.

For students who do not have an undergraduate or graduate degree in the field of public health, the following additional courses are recommended: two full courses in biostatistics/statistics.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is recommended but not required for the doctoral degree.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Before advancement to candidacy, students must complete the courses required for the doctoral degree (see Course Requirements). Students must also pass a written examination in the area of specialization. The format of the Exam is decided by the Advisor and by the Guidance Committee that administers and evaluates the Examination. The student should discuss the format of the exam with the student’s Advisor, but some commonly used formats are described below. Although these examples illustrate the range of approaches that can be taken for the written exam, other approaches are possible. The student should confirm with the student’s Advisor the particular format of the student’s exam.

Example 1: Critical evaluation of a scientific paper.
The student is given a set of 5 papers for study two weeks before the exam. The papers are chosen to be generally related to the student’s Ph.D. research topic, but typically emphasize a broader set of knowledge (perhaps with particular reference to the environmental health sciences curriculum). The papers are chosen by and agreed upon by the entire Guidance Committee. The student must answer a set of questions about one of the papers; the questions are given to the student beforehand so the student can plan how to answer the questions for each paper.

One paper to be used in the exam will be chosen by the committee in advance but not known to the student until the day of the exam. The exam is done on campus for three hours (in isolation, without access to any documents; a laptop computer can be provided so the answers can be typed as long as the computer does not have internet access or any relevant documents on it).

Example 2: Preparation of a research proposal.
The student completes a research proposal on the dissertation research topic. The proposal should be written in the format of NIH, NSF, or another funding agency, as determined by the student’s Advisor and Guidance Committee.

Example 3: Questions and a research proposal.
A first section of the exam consists of answering questions about the general research area. The goal of this section of the exam is to determine if the student possesses the necessary knowledge about the major field. The questions are determined by the Advisor and Guidance Committee.

A second section of the exam consists of a research proposal on a hypothesis related to the student’s research area. The goal of this section is to demonstrate that the student can write a NIH/NSF/EPA research grant. The format of the proposal is determined by the Advisor and Guidance Committee.Students must also pass the University Oral Qualifying Examination no later than the end of their ninth quarter.

The three possible outcomes of each examination are Pass, Retake, and Fail. Normally, no more than one reexamination is allowed. A doctoral committee, consisting of at least four faculty members who hold professorial appointments at UCLA, is nominated when the student is ready to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Students should review the current regulations governing doctoral committee membership in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

After passing the University Oral Qualifying Examination, the student advances to candidacy and finishes work on a dissertation in the principal field of study. The doctoral committee supervises the student’s progress toward completion of the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time from initial enrollment to advancement to candidacy is nine quarters (three calendar years), and from advancement to candidacy to filing of dissertation is nine quarters (three calendar years).

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	9	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for failure to complete the required course work within seven quarters of matriculation, one quarter beyond normative time to advance to master’s candidacy.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for: failure to maintain a 3.00 grade point average for two consecutive quarters following matriculation into the doctoral program; a second failure in the written qualifying examination; a second failure of either the oral qualifying examination or the final oral examination; or exceeding enrollment time limits.

A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification first to the department Chair, then to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, then to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, and finally to the Dean of the school.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Environmental Health Sciences

School of Public Health

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Environmental Health Sciences offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Environmental Health Sciences.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

A faculty academic advisor is appointed for each new master’s student by the department chair. The student and advisor together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter and any subsequent alterations must be approved by the student’s advisor. Students are expected to meet with their advisor at least each quarter.

The faculty adviser is responsible for monitoring the student’s academic progress. Progress is evaluated on an ongoing basis. At the end of each quarter, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs reviews academic listings of students and notifies them and the advisers when the cumulative grade-point average is below 3.0. Advisers review each case with their advisees and make recommendations to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs for continuance or academic disqualification. Students who wish to change advisers must file a petition which must be approved by the old adviser, the new adviser, the department chair, and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Areas of Study

Students may choose from: air quality, water quality, climate and health, exposure assessment, environmental and occupational biological effects, industrial hygiene, environmental chemistry, environmental and occupational health practice and policy, environmental justice, and molecular toxicology. For students that focus on industrial hygiene, there is a specific curriculum and requirements if students participate in a federal training grant in this area such as: https://erc.ucla.edu/industrial-hygiene/ and https://erc.ucla.edu/r25/.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Master’s students must also complete at least four quarters in residence at the University of California, including at least two quarters in residence at UCLA, and 17 courses (65 units) of which at least six (28 units) must be graduate courses in the 200 or 500 series. EHS 597 is not eligible for degree requirements. Upon petition to Division of Graduate Education, courses completed at other UCs may fulfill up to one-half of the total course requirement, one-half of the graduate course requirement, and one-third of the academic residence requirement.

There are 9 mandatory core courses (34 units): Biostatistics 201A, 201B, Epidemiology 100, EHS C200A, C200C, 200D, C240, M411 (to be taken once a year for two years), and either EHS 596 (for the comprehensive examination/report plan) or EHS 598 (for the thesis plan). A mandatory core course may be waived if the student either has taken a similar university-level course elsewhere and/or passes a waiver examination. If a core course is waived, the student should make up the units with a substitute course that should be selected in consultation with the graduate advisor.

Students must also successfully complete a written examination in Chemistry when they enter the program, or else they will be required to take EHS 101. In addition, they must take one advanced laboratory course (3 or more units) on a topic in or related to environmental health sciencesThe advanced laboratory course may be waived with the consent of the faculty advisor and Department Chair  if the student has previous lab experience. Students who request to waive the advanced laboratory course are required to submit a blue petition indicating the request to waive the advanced laboratory course because of previous lab experience and make up the four units with an additional elective course.

In addition to the core courses, at least 24 units of upper division (200 level) or grad level (400 level) elective courses are required and should be selected in consultation with the graduate adviser. 296, 596, 597, 598, or 599 courses may not be counted towards the elective requirement.

Students interested in Industrial Hygiene (IH) may choose to complete additional IH core and elective courses that prepare them for a career in this field and to become Certified Industrial Hygienists (see https://gobgc.org/cih/). These additional courses provide training on occupational exposure to chemical, physical, biological, and mechanical agents, psychosocial factors, and ergonomic factors. Students will learn IH principles including identification, recognition, anticipation, evaluation, control and prevention of hazards and risks in the workplace environments. These required core courses are EHS 252D, 252E, 253, 255, 259A and 454 (24 units). Additional courses are required of students that participate in an IH training program through the NIOSH Southern California Education and Research Center (https://erc.ucla.edu/) and NIEHS Superfund Research Program: Emerging Nano & Technologies Training Program (https://erc.ucla.edu/r25/). Students who are U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents (Green Card holders) may qualify and apply to participate in one of these training programs and receive traineeship with financial support. If you have questions, please contact the IH Program, Director, Professor Candace Tsai.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor, master or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health C201: Contemporary Health Issues.

Only courses in which a grade of C or better is received may be applied toward the requirements for a master’s degree.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

The comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II) consists of two elements, (1) an examination and (2) a M.S. report. If the student selects the comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II), the candidate must pass a comprehensive examination on the major area of study. This examination is prepared by a committee of at least three faculty members. If the examination is failed, the student may be reexamined once. In addition, the student must complete a research activity while enrolled in Environmental Health Sciences 596 for at least four units. For the M.S. report, the student must either prepare an in-depth written report on this research activity, or submit an article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) that was completed while a student. The report option must be approved by the full committee.

Thesis Plan 

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

If the student selects the thesis option (Plan I), a thesis committee of three faculty members is established. The committee approves the thesis before the student graduates. An article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) may be submitted as the thesis, with appropriate format modification.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time-to-degree from initial enrollment to graduation is six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	6	6	15

Doctoral Degree

Advising

An academic adviser is assigned to each new student by the head of the department. Student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter within the parameters set forth below; any subsequent alterations must be approved both by the adviser and the department chair. During the first year students must set up a two-member guidance committee that includes the academic adviser. One of these members may be from outside the department. The student’s guidance committee is responsible for making course recommendations. Students also must file Doctoral Form 1, which establishes their guidance committee and proposed course of study, by the end of the third quarter of doctoral study.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students may choose to concentrate on any field of environmental health sciences. Such areas of academic focus may include:  air quality, water quality, climate and health, exposure assessment, environmental and occupational biological effects, industrial hygiene, environmental chemistry, environmental and occupational health practice and policy, environmental justice, and molecular toxicology Interdisciplinary research is also recommended.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students select a course of study upon consultation with their guidance committee. The following courses are required: Environmental Health Sciences 200C; Environmental Health Sciences 411 (to be taken once a year for two years); Environmental Health Sciences 414A and 414B; and one full course (four units or more) at the 100 or 200 level in epidemiology; and the appropriate Environmental Health Sciences 296 course for each quarter in residence. Also, proficiency in biostatistics/statistics is required. Each specific, required, letter-graded course may be waived if the student successfully completed an equivalent course with a grade of B or better.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health 201: Contemporary Health Issues.

For students who do not have an undergraduate or graduate degree in the field of public health, the following additional courses are recommended: two full courses in biostatistics/statistics.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is recommended but not required for the doctoral degree.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Before advancement to candidacy, students must complete the courses required for the doctoral degree (see Course Requirements). Students must also pass a written examination in the area of specialization. The format of the Exam is decided by the Advisor and by the Guidance Committee that administers and evaluates the Examination. The student should discuss the format of the exam with the student’s  Advisor. Some commonly used formats include the critical evaluation of a set of scientific papers or the preparation of a research proposal. Although these examples illustrate the range of approaches that can be taken for the written examination, other approaches are possible. The student should confirm with the student’s Advisor the particular format of the student’s exam.

Students must also pass the University Oral Qualifying Examination no later than the end of their ninth quarter. A doctoral committee consisting of at least four faculty members is nominated when the student is ready to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Students should review the current regulations governing doctoral committee membership in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA. Students should consult with their doctoral committee to confirm the format of the University Oral Qualifying Examination.

The three possible outcomes of each examination are Pass, Retake, and Fail. Normally, no more than one reexamination is allowed. After passing the University Oral Qualifying Examination, the student advances to candidacy and finishes work on a dissertation in the principal field of study. The doctoral committee supervises the student’s progress toward completion of the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time from initial enrollment to advancement to candidacy is nine quarters (three calendar years), and from advancement to candidacy to filing of dissertation is nine quarters (three calendar years).

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	9	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for failure to complete the required course work within seven quarters of matriculation, one quarter beyond normative time to advance to master’s candidacy.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for: failure to maintain a 3.00 grade point average for two consecutive quarters following matriculation into the doctoral program; a second failure in the written qualifying examination; a second failure of either the oral qualifying examination or the final oral examination; or exceeding enrollment time limits.

A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification first to the department Chair, then to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, then to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, and finally to the Dean of the school.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2023-2024 academic year.

Environmental Health Sciences

School of Public Health

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Environmental Health Sciences offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Environmental Health Sciences.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

A faculty academic advisor is appointed for each new master’s student by the department chair. The student and advisor together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter and any subsequent alterations must be approved by the student’s advisor. Students are expected to meet with their advisor at least each quarter.

The faculty adviser is responsible for monitoring the student’s academic progress. Progress is evaluated on an ongoing basis. At the end of each quarter, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs reviews academic listings of students and notifies them and the advisers when the cumulative grade-point average is below 3.0. Advisers review each case with their advisees and make recommendations to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs for continuance or academic disqualification. Students who wish to change advisers must file a petition which must be approved by the old adviser, the new adviser, the department chair, and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Areas of Study

Students may choose from: air, ecology, economics, exposure assessment, industrial hygiene, toxicology, and water. For students that focus on industrial hygiene, there is a specific curriculum because there is a federal training grant in this area: https://ehs.ph.ucla.edu/pages/industrial_hygiene.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Master’s students must also complete at least four quarters in residence at the University of California, including at least two quarters in residence at UCLA, and 17 courses (65 units) of which at least six (28 units) must be graduate courses in the 200 or 500 series. Only one Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) 596 course (four units) and one EHS 598 course (four units) count toward the total course and minimum graduate unit requirements. EHS 597 is not eligible for degree requirements. Upon petition to Graduate Division, courses completed at other UCs may fulfill up to one-half of the total course requirement, one-half of the graduate course requirement, and one-third of the academic residence requirement.

There are 10 mandatory core courses (38 units): Biostatistics 100A, 100B, Epidemiology 100, EHS C200A, C200C, 200D, C240, C257, M411 (to be taken once a year for two years), and either EHS 596 (for the comprehensive examination/report plan) or EHS 598 (for the thesis plan).

Students must also successfully complete a written examination in Chemistry when they enter the program, or else they will be required to take EHS 101. In addition, they must take one advanced laboratory course (3 or more units) on a topic in or related to environmental health sciences, such as EHS 207, 410B, M166L, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics 100L, or Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology 104AL. The advanced laboratory course may be waived with the faculty advisor’s and Department Chair’s consents if the student has previous lab experience. Students who request to waive the advanced laboratory course are required to submit a blue petition indicating the request to waive the advanced laboratory course because of previous lab experience and make up the four units with an additional elective course. A mandatory core course may be waived if the student either has taken a similar university-level course elsewhere and/or passes a waiver examination. If a core course is waived, the student should make up the units with a substitute course that should be selected in consultation with the graduate advisor.

In addition to the core courses, at least 20 units of upper division (200 level) or grad level (400 level) elective courses are required and should be selected in consultation with the graduate adviser. 296, 596, 597, 598, or 599 courses may not be counted towards the elective requirement.

Students interested in Industrial Hygiene may choose to complete an additional 13 elective courses (46-50 units) that prepare them to enter the workforce and may assist in becoming a Certified Industrial Hygienists (see http://abih.org/). These additional courses allow industrial hygiene students in the Environmental Health Sciences department to receive additional training on occupational exposure to chemicals; physical, biological, and mechanical agents; psychosocial factors, and ergonomic factors. Identification/recognition/anticipation, evaluation, control and prevention of hazards and risks are the primary goals. These required courses are (two units each): EHS 230A, 230B, 230C and (four units each): EHS 252D, 252E, 253, 255, 259A, 259B, 410A, 454. EHS 252G is required if no field sampling has been done by Spring quarter of 2nd year. An additional four-unit course from a list of electives is required. U.S. citizens (or Green Card holders) applicants may qualify for fees and stipend support from the NIOSH Southern California Education and Research Center (http://erc.ucla.edu/industrial-hygiene/). If you have questions, please contact the IH Director, Professor Shane Que Hee at squehee@ucla.edu.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor, master or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health C201: Contemporary Health Issues.

Only courses in which a grade of C or better is received may be applied toward the requirements for a master’s degree.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

The comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II) consists of two elements, (1) an examination and (2) a M.S. report. If the student selects the comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II), the candidate must pass a comprehensive examination on the major area of study. This examination is prepared by a committee of at least three faculty members. If the examination is failed, the student may be reexamined once. In addition, the student must complete a research activity while enrolled in Environmental Health Sciences 596 for at least four units. For the M.S. report, the student must either prepare an in-depth written report on this research activity, or submit an article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) that was completed while a student. Either report option must be approved by the full committee.

Thesis Plan 

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

If the student selects the thesis option (Plan I), a thesis committee of three faculty members is established. The committee approves the thesis before the student graduates. An article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) may be submitted as the thesis, with appropriate format modification.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time-to-degree from initial enrollment to graduation is six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	6	6	15

Doctoral Degree

Advising

An academic adviser is assigned to each new student by the head of the department. Student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter within the parameters set forth below; any subsequent alterations must be approved both by the adviser and the department chair. During the first year students must set up a two-member guidance committee that includes the academic adviser. One of these members may be from outside the department. The student’s guidance committee is responsible for making course recommendations. Students also must file Doctoral Form 1, which establishes their guidance committee and proposed course of study, by the end of the third quarter of doctoral study.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students may choose to concentrate on any field of environmental health sciences. Such areas of academic focus may include: air quality; environmental biology; environmental chemistry; environmental health practice and policy; occupational health including industrial hygiene; toxicology; or water quality. Interdisciplinary research is also recommended.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students select a course of study upon consultation with their guidance committee. The following courses are required: Environmental Health Sciences 200C; Environmental Health Sciences 411 (to be taken once a year for two years); Environmental Health Sciences 414A and 414B; and one full course (four units or more) at the 100 or 200 level in epidemiology; and the appropriate Environmental Health Sciences 296 course for each quarter in residence. Also, proficiency in biostatistics/statistics is required. Each specific, required, letter-graded course may be waived if the student successfully completed an equivalent course with a grade of B or better.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health 201: Contemporary Health Issues.

For students who do not have an undergraduate or graduate degree in the field of public health, the following additional courses are recommended: two full courses in biostatistics/statistics.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is recommended but not required for the doctoral degree.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Before advancement to candidacy, students must complete the courses required for the doctoral degree (see Course Requirements). Students must also pass a written examination in the area of specialization. The format of the Exam is decided by the Advisor and by the Guidance Committee that administers and evaluates the Examination. The student should discuss the format of the exam with the student’s Advisor, but some commonly used formats are described below. Although these examples illustrate the range of approaches that can be taken for the written exam, other approaches are possible. The student should confirm with the student’s Advisor the particular format of the student’s exam.

Example 1: Critical evaluation of a scientific paper.
The student is given a set of 5 papers for study two weeks before the exam. The papers are chosen to be generally related to the student’s Ph.D. research topic, but typically emphasize a broader set of knowledge (perhaps with particular reference to the environmental health sciences curriculum). The papers are chosen by and agreed upon by the entire Guidance Committee. The student must answer a set of questions about one of the papers; the questions are given to the student beforehand so the student can plan how to answer the questions for each paper.

One paper to be used in the exam will be chosen by the committee in advance but not known to the student until the day of the exam. The exam is done on campus for three hours (in isolation, without access to any documents; a laptop computer can be provided so the answers can be typed as long as the computer does not have internet access or any relevant documents on it).

Example 2: Preparation of a research proposal.
The student completes a research proposal on the dissertation research topic. The proposal should be written in the format of NIH, NSF, or another funding agency, as determined by the student’s Advisor and Guidance Committee.

Example 3: Questions and a research proposal.
A first section of the exam consists of answering questions about the general research area. The goal of this section of the exam is to determine if the student possesses the necessary knowledge about the major field. The questions are determined by the Advisor and Guidance Committee.

A second section of the exam consists of a research proposal on a hypothesis related to the student’s research area. The goal of this section is to demonstrate that the student can write a NIH/NSF/EPA research grant. The format of the proposal is determined by the Advisor and Guidance Committee.Students must also pass the University Oral Qualifying Examination no later than the end of their ninth quarter.

The three possible outcomes of each examination are Pass, Retake, and Fail. Normally, no more than one reexamination is allowed. A doctoral committee, consisting of at least four faculty members who hold professorial appointments at UCLA, is nominated when the student is ready to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Students should review the current regulations governing doctoral committee membership in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

After passing the University Oral Qualifying Examination, the student advances to candidacy and finishes work on a dissertation in the principal field of study. The doctoral committee supervises the student’s progress toward completion of the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time from initial enrollment to advancement to candidacy is nine quarters (three calendar years), and from advancement to candidacy to filing of dissertation is nine quarters (three calendar years).

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	9	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for failure to complete the required course work within seven quarters of matriculation, one quarter beyond normative time to advance to master’s candidacy.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for: failure to maintain a 3.00 grade point average for two consecutive quarters following matriculation into the doctoral program; a second failure in the written qualifying examination; a second failure of either the oral qualifying examination or the final oral examination; or exceeding enrollment time limits.

A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification first to the department Chair, then to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, then to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, and finally to the Dean of the school.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Environmental Health Sciences

School of Public Health

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Environmental Health Sciences offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Environmental Health Sciences.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

A faculty academic advisor is appointed for each new master’s student by the department chair. The student and advisor together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter and any subsequent alterations must be approved by the student’s advisor. Students are expected to meet with their advisor at least each quarter.

The faculty adviser is responsible for monitoring the student’s academic progress. Progress is evaluated on an ongoing basis. At the end of each quarter, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs reviews academic listings of students and notifies them and the advisers when the cumulative grade-point average is below 3.0. Advisers review each case with their advisees and make recommendations to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs for continuance or academic disqualification. Students who wish to change advisers must file a petition which must be approved by the old adviser, the new adviser, the department chair, and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Areas of Study

Students may choose from: air, ecology, economics, exposure assessment, industrial hygiene, toxicology, and water. For students that focus on industrial hygiene, there is a specific curriculum because there is a federal training grant in this area: https://ehs.ph.ucla.edu/pages/industrial_hygiene.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Master’s students must also complete at least four quarters in residence at the University of California, including at least two quarters in residence at UCLA, and 17 courses (65 units) of which at least six (28 units) must be graduate courses in the 200 or 500 series. Only one Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) 596 course (four units) and one EHS 598 course (four units) count toward the total course and minimum graduate unit requirements. EHS 597 is not eligible for degree requirements. Upon petition to Graduate Division, courses completed at other UCs may fulfill up to one-half of the total course requirement, one-half of the graduate course requirement, and one-third of the academic residence requirement.

There are 10 mandatory core courses (38 units): Biostatistics 100A, 100B, Epidemiology 100, EHS C200A, C200C, 200D, C240, C257, M411 (to be taken once a year for two years), and either EHS 596 (for the comprehensive examination/report plan) or EHS 598 (for the thesis plan).

Students must also successfully complete a written examination in Chemistry when they enter the program, or else they will be required to take EHS 101. In addition, they must take one advanced laboratory course (3 or more units) on a topic in or related to environmental health sciences, such as EHS 207, 410B, M166L, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics 100L, or Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology 104AL. The advanced laboratory course may be waived with the faculty advisor’s and Department Chair’s consents if the student has previous lab experience. Students who request to waive the advanced laboratory course are required to submit a blue petition indicating the request to waive the advanced laboratory course because of previous lab experience and make up the four units with an additional elective course. A mandatory core course may be waived if the student either has taken a similar university-level course elsewhere and/or passes a waiver examination. If a core course is waived, the student should make up the units with a substitute course that should be selected in consultation with the graduate advisor.

In addition to the core courses, at least 20 units of upper division (200 level) or grad level (400 level) elective courses are required and should be selected in consultation with the graduate adviser. 296, 596, 597, 598, or 599 courses may not be counted towards the elective requirement.

Students interested in Industrial Hygiene may choose to complete an additional 13 elective courses (46-50 units) that prepare them to enter the workforce and may assist in becoming a Certified Industrial Hygienists (see http://abih.org/). These additional courses allow industrial hygiene students in the Environmental Health Sciences department to receive additional training on occupational exposure to chemicals; physical, biological, and mechanical agents; psychosocial factors, and ergonomic factors. Identification/recognition/anticipation, evaluation, control and prevention of hazards and risks are the primary goals. These required courses are (two units each): EHS 230A, 230B, 230C and (four units each): EHS 252D, 252E, 253, 255, 259A, 259B, 410A, 454. EHS 252G is required if no field sampling has been done by Spring quarter of 2nd year. An additional four-unit course from a list of electives is required. U.S. citizens (or Green Card holders) applicants may qualify for fees and stipend support from the NIOSH Southern California Education and Research Center (http://erc.ucla.edu/industrial-hygiene/). If you have questions, please contact the IH Director, Professor Shane Que Hee at squehee@ucla.edu.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor, master or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health C201: Contemporary Health Issues.

Only courses in which a grade of C or better is received may be applied toward the requirements for a master’s degree.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

The comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II) consists of two elements, (1) an examination and (2) a M.S. report. If the student selects the comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II), the candidate must pass a comprehensive examination on the major area of study. This examination is prepared by a committee of at least three faculty members. If the examination is failed, the student may be reexamined once. In addition, the student must complete a research activity while enrolled in Environmental Health Sciences 596 for at least four units. For the M.S. report, the student must either prepare an in-depth written report on this research activity, or submit an article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) that was completed while a student. Either report option must be approved by the full committee.

Thesis Plan 

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

If the student selects the thesis option (Plan I), a thesis committee of three faculty members is established. The committee approves the thesis before the student graduates. An article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) may be submitted as the thesis, with appropriate format modification.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time-to-degree from initial enrollment to graduation is six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	6	6	15

Doctoral Degree

Advising

An academic adviser is assigned to each new student by the head of the department. Student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter within the parameters set forth below; any subsequent alterations must be approved both by the adviser and the department chair. During the first year students must set up a two-member guidance committee that includes the academic adviser. One of these members may be from outside the department. The student’s guidance committee is responsible for making course recommendations. Students also must file Doctoral Form 1, which establishes their guidance committee and proposed course of study, by the end of the third quarter of doctoral study.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students may choose to concentrate on any field of environmental health sciences. Such areas of academic focus may include: air quality; environmental biology; environmental chemistry; environmental health practice and policy; occupational health including industrial hygiene; toxicology; or water quality. Interdisciplinary research is also recommended.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students select a course of study upon consultation with their guidance committee. The following courses are required: Environmental Health Sciences 200C; Environmental Health Sciences 411 (to be taken once a year for two years); Environmental Health Sciences 414A and 414B; and one full course (four units or more) at the 100 or 200 level in epidemiology; and the appropriate Environmental Health Sciences 296 course for each quarter in residence. Also, proficiency in biostatistics/statistics is required. Each specific, required, letter-graded course may be waived if the student successfully completed an equivalent course with a grade of B or better.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health 201: Contemporary Health Issues.

For students who do not have an undergraduate or graduate degree in the field of public health, the following additional courses are recommended: two full courses in biostatistics/statistics.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is recommended but not required for the doctoral degree.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Before advancement to candidacy, students must complete the courses required for the doctoral degree (see Course Requirements). Students must also pass a written examination in the area of specialization. The format of the Exam is decided by the Advisor and by the Guidance Committee that administers and evaluates the Examination. The student should discuss the format of the exam with the student’s Advisor, but some commonly used formats are described below. Although these examples illustrate the range of approaches that can be taken for the written exam, other approaches are possible. The student should confirm with the student’s Advisor the particular format of the student’s exam.

Example 1: Critical evaluation of a scientific paper.
The student is given a set of 5 papers for study two weeks before the exam. The papers are chosen to be generally related to the student’s Ph.D. research topic, but typically emphasize a broader set of knowledge (perhaps with particular reference to the environmental health sciences curriculum). The papers are chosen by and agreed upon by the entire Guidance Committee. The student must answer a set of questions about one of the papers; the questions are given to the student beforehand so the student can plan how to answer the questions for each paper.

One paper to be used in the exam will be chosen by the committee in advance but not known to the student until the day of the exam. The exam is done on campus for three hours (in isolation, without access to any documents; a laptop computer can be provided so the answers can be typed as long as the computer does not have internet access or any relevant documents on it).

Example 2: Preparation of a research proposal.
The student completes a research proposal on the dissertation research topic. The proposal should be written in the format of NIH, NSF, or another funding agency, as determined by the student’s Advisor and Guidance Committee.

Example 3: Questions and a research proposal.
A first section of the exam consists of answering questions about the general research area. The goal of this section of the exam is to determine if the student possesses the necessary knowledge about the major field. The questions are determined by the Advisor and Guidance Committee.

A second section of the exam consists of a research proposal on a hypothesis related to the student’s research area. The goal of this section is to demonstrate that the student can write a NIH/NSF/EPA research grant. The format of the proposal is determined by the Advisor and Guidance Committee.Students must also pass the University Oral Qualifying Examination no later than the end of their ninth quarter.

The three possible outcomes of each examination are Pass, Retake, and Fail. Normally, no more than one reexamination is allowed. A doctoral committee, consisting of at least four faculty members who hold professorial appointments at UCLA, is nominated when the student is ready to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Students should review the current regulations governing doctoral committee membership in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

After passing the University Oral Qualifying Examination, the student advances to candidacy and finishes work on a dissertation in the principal field of study. The doctoral committee supervises the student’s progress toward completion of the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time from initial enrollment to advancement to candidacy is nine quarters (three calendar years), and from advancement to candidacy to filing of dissertation is nine quarters (three calendar years).

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	9	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for failure to complete the required course work within seven quarters of matriculation, one quarter beyond normative time to advance to master’s candidacy.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for: failure to maintain a 3.00 grade point average for two consecutive quarters following matriculation into the doctoral program; a second failure in the written qualifying examination; a second failure of either the oral qualifying examination or the final oral examination; or exceeding enrollment time limits.

A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification first to the department Chair, then to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, then to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, and finally to the Dean of the school.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Environmental Health Sciences

School of Public Health

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Environmental Health Sciences offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Environmental Health Sciences.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

A faculty academic advisor is appointed for each new master’s student by the department chair. The student and advisor together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter and any subsequent alterations must be approved by the student’s advisor. Students are expected to meet with their advisor at least each quarter.

The faculty adviser is responsible for monitoring the student’s academic progress. Progress is evaluated on an ongoing basis. At the end of each quarter, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs reviews academic listings of students and notifies them and the advisers when the cumulative grade-point average is below 3.0. Advisers review each case with their advisees and make recommendations to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs for continuance or academic disqualification. Students who wish to change advisers must file a petition which must be approved by the old adviser, the new adviser, the department chair, and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Areas of Study

Students may choose from: air, ecology, economics, exposure assessment, industrial hygiene, toxicology, and water. For students that focus on industrial hygiene, there is a specific curriculum because there is a federal training grant in this area: https://ehs.ph.ucla.edu/pages/industrial_hygiene.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Master’s students must also complete at least four quarters in residence at the University of California, including at least two quarters in residence at UCLA, and 17 courses (65 units) of which at least six (28 units) must be graduate courses in the 200 or 500 series. Only one Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) 596 course (four units) and one EHS 598 course (four units) count toward the total course and minimum graduate unit requirements. EHS 597 is not eligible for degree requirements. Upon petition to Graduate Division, courses completed at other UCs may fulfill up to one-half of the total course requirement, one-half of the graduate course requirement, and one-third of the academic residence requirement.

There are 10 mandatory core courses (40 units): Biostatistics 100A, 100B, Epidemiology 100, EHS C200A, C200C, 200D, C240, C257, M411 (to be taken once a year for two years), and either EHS 596 (for the comprehensive examination/report plan) or EHS 598 (for the thesis plan).

Students must also successfully complete a written examination in Chemistry when they enter the program, or else they will be required to take EHS 101. In addition, they must take one advanced laboratory course (3 or more units) on a topic in or related to environmental health sciences, such as EHS 207, 410B, M166L,Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics 100L, or Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology 104AL. The advanced laboratory course may be waived with the faculty advisor’s and Department Chair’s consents if the student has previous lab experience. Students who request to waive the advanced laboratory course are required to submit a blue petition indicating the request to waive the advanced laboratory course because of previous lab experience and make up the four units with an additional elective course. A mandatory core course may be waived if the student either has taken a similar university-level course elsewhere and/or passes a waiver examination. If a core course is waived, the student should make up the units with a substitute course that should be selected in consultation with the graduate advisor.

In addition to the core courses, at least 20 units of upper division (200 level) or grad level (400 level) elective courses are required and should be selected in consultation with the graduate adviser. 296, 596, 597, 598, or 599 courses may not be counted towards the elective requirement.

Students interested in Industrial Hygiene may choose to complete an additional 13 elective courses (46-50 units) that prepare them to enter the workforce and may assist in becoming a Certified Industrial Hygienists (see http://abih.org/). These additional courses allow industrial hygiene students in the Environmental Health Sciences department to receive additional training on occupational exposure to chemicals; physical, biological, and mechanical agents; psychosocial factors, and ergonomic factors. Identification/recognition/anticipation, evaluation, control and prevention of hazards and risks are the primary goals. These required courses are (two units each): EHS 230A, 230B, 230C; (four units each): EHS 252D, 252E, 253, 255, 259A, 259B, 410A, 454. EHS 252G is required if no field sampling has been done by Spring quarter of 2nd year. An additional four-unit course from a list of electives is required. U.S. citizens (or Green Card holders) applicants may qualify for fees and stipend support from the NIOSH Southern California Education and Research Center (http://erc.ucla.edu/industrial-hygiene/). If you have questions, please contact the IH Director, Professor Shane Que Hee at squehee@ucla.edu.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor, master or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health C201: Contemporary Health Issues.

Only courses in which a grade of C or better is received may be applied toward the requirements for a master’s degree.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

The comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II) consists of two elements, (1) an examination and (2) a M.S. report. If the student selects the comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II), the candidate must pass a comprehensive examination on the major area of study. This examination is prepared by a committee of at least three faculty members. If the examination is failed, the student may be reexamined once. In addition, the student must complete a research activity while enrolled in Environmental Health Sciences 596 for at least four units. For the M.S. report, the student must either prepare an in-depth written report on this research activity, or submit an article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) that was completed while a student. Either report option must be approved by the full committee.

Thesis Plan 

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

If the student selects the thesis option (Plan I), a thesis committee of three faculty members is established. The committee approves the thesis before the student graduates. An article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) may be submitted as the thesis, with appropriate format modification.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time-to-degree from initial enrollment to graduation is six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	6	6	15

Doctoral Degree

Advising

An academic adviser is assigned to each new student by the head of the department. Student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter within the parameters set forth below; any subsequent alterations must be approved both by the adviser and the department chair. During the first year students must set up a two-member guidance committee that includes the academic adviser. One of these members may be from outside the department. The student’s guidance committee is responsible for making course recommendations. Students also must file Doctoral Form 1, which establishes their guidance committee and proposed course of study, by the end of the third quarter of doctoral study.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students may choose to concentrate on any field of environmental health sciences. Such areas of academic focus may include: air quality; environmental biology; environmental chemistry; environmental health practice and policy; occupational health including industrial hygiene; toxicology; or water quality. Interdisciplinary research is also recommended.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students select a course of study upon consultation with their guidance committee. The following courses are required: Environmental Health Sciences C200A and C200C; Environmental Health Sciences 411 (to be taken once a year for two years); Environmental Health Sciences M414 (Fall Quarter of the second year); one full course (four units or more) at the 100 or 200 level in epidemiology; and the appropriate Environmental Health Sciences 296 course for each quarter in residence. Also, proficiency in biostatistics/statistics is required. Each specific, required, letter-graded course may be waived if the student successfully completed an equivalent course with a grade of B or better.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health 150: Contemporary Health Issues.

For students who do not have an undergraduate or graduate degree in the field of public health, the following additional courses are recommended: two full courses in biostatistics/statistics.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is recommended but not required for the doctoral degree.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Before advancement to candidacy, students must complete the courses required for the doctoral degree (see Course Requirements). Students must also pass a written examination in the area of specialization. The format of the Exam is decided by the Advisor and by the Guidance Committee that administers and evaluates the Examination. The student should discuss the format of the exam with the student’s Advisor, but some commonly used formats are described below. Although these examples illustrate the range of approaches that can be taken for the written exam, other approaches are possible. The student should confirm with the student’s Advisor the particular format of the student’s exam.

Example 1: Critical evaluation of a scientific paper.
The student is given a set of 5 papers for study two weeks before the exam. The papers are chosen to be generally related to the student’s Ph.D. research topic, but typically emphasize a broader set of knowledge (perhaps with particular reference to the environmental health sciences curriculum). The papers are chosen by and agreed upon by the entire Guidance Committee. The student must answer a set of questions about one of the papers; the questions are given to the student beforehand so the student can plan how to answer the questions for each paper.

One paper to be used in the exam will be chosen by the committee in advance but not known to the student until the day of the exam. The exam is done on campus for three hours (in isolation, without access to any documents; a laptop computer can be provided so the answers can be typed as long as the computer does not have internet access or any relevant documents on it).

Example 2: Preparation of a research proposal.
The student completes a research proposal on the dissertation research topic. The proposal should be written in the format of NIH, NSF, or another funding agency, as determined by the student’s Advisor and Guidance Committee.

Example 3: Questions and a research proposal.
A first section of the exam consists of answering questions about the general research area. The goal of this section of the exam is to determine if the student possesses the necessary knowledge about the major field. The questions are determined by the Advisor and Guidance Committee.

A second section of the exam consists of a research proposal on a hypothesis related to the student’s research area. The goal of this section is to demonstrate that the student can write a NIH/NSF/EPA research grant. The format of the proposal is determined by the Advisor and Guidance Committee.

Students must also pass the University Oral Qualifying Examination no later than the end of their ninth quarter. The three possible outcomes of each examination are Pass, Retake, and Fail. Normally, no more than one reexamination is allowed. A doctoral committee, consisting of at least four faculty members who hold professorial appointments at UCLA, is nominated when the student is ready to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Students should review the current regulations governing doctoral committee membership in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

After passing the University Oral Qualifying Examination, the student advances to candidacy and finishes work on a dissertation in the principal field of study. The doctoral committee supervises the student’s progress toward completion of the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time from initial enrollment to advancement to candidacy is nine quarters (three calendar years), and from advancement to candidacy to filing of dissertation is nine quarters (three calendar years).

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	9	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for failure to complete the required course work within seven quarters of matriculation, one quarter beyond normative time to advance to master’s candidacy.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for: failure to maintain a 3.00 grade point average for two consecutive quarters following matriculation into the doctoral program; a second failure in the written qualifying examination; a second failure of either the oral qualifying examination or the final oral examination; or exceeding enrollment time limits.

A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification first to the departmental chair, then to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, then to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, and finally to the Dean of the school.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2017-2018 academic year.

Environmental Health Sciences

School of Public Health

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Environmental Health Sciences offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Environmental Health Sciences.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

A faculty academic adviser is appointed for each new master’s student by the department chair. The student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter and any subsequent alterations must be approved by the student’s adviser. Students are expected to meet with their adviser each quarter.

The faculty adviser is responsible for monitoring the student’s academic progress. Progress is evaluated on an ongoing basis. At the end of each quarter, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs reviews academic listings of students and notifies them and the advisers when the cumulative grade-point average is below 3.0. Advisers review each case with their advisees and make recommendations to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs for continuance or dismissal. Students who wish to change advisers must file a petition which must be approved by the old adviser, the new adviser, the department chair, and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Areas of Study

Students may choose to focus on Industrial Hygiene. The M.S. program in Industrial Hygiene is fully accredited by the Applied Science Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology http://www.abet.org (ABET-ASAC).

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students must complete at least one year of graduate residence at the University of California and a minimum of 10 full courses (59 units), at least five (44 units) of which must be graduate courses in the 200 or 500 series. Only one 596 course (four units) and one 598 course (four units) may be applied toward the total course requirement; only four units of either course may be applied toward the minimum graduate course requirement. Environmental Health Sciences 597 may not be applied toward the degree requirements.

Mandatory core courses include Biostatistics 100A, 100B, Epidemiology 100, Environmental Health Sciences C200A,C200C, 201, C240, 411 (taken once a year for two years), and either 596 (for comprehensive examination/report plan) or 598 (for thesis plan). Students must take one advanced laboratory course (3 or more units) on a topic in or related to environmental health sciences, such as Environmental Health Sciences 207, 410B, M166L, 252F, Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics 100L, or Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology 104AL. In addition, at least 18 units of elective courses are required and should be selected in consultation with the graduate adviser.

Students who have not previously taken and passed a course in Public Health at the undergraduate or graduate level are required to complete one of the following:

• Public Health 150: Contemporary Health Issues
• Health Policy & Management M242: Determinants of Health
• Attend six FSPH Grand Rounds or any FSPH seminars outside of EHS over the course of two years.  Students choosing this option must meet with the Student Affairs Officer to discuss the requirements prior to attending the first presentation and document their attendance at each seminar by either signing the sign-in form for Grand Rounds presentations or submitting a summary of 100-150 words for each seminar to their faculty adviser.

M.S. students may not count 296, 596, 597, 598, or 599 courses towards the elective requirement. A departmental required course may be waived if the student either has taken a similar university-level course elsewhere and/or passes a waiver examination.

Only courses in which a grade of C- or better is received may be applied toward the requirements for a master’s degree. Students must maintain an average of no less than 3.0 (B) in all courses required or elected during graduate residence at the University of California.

In addition to the above course requirements, students must complete a thesis (Plan I) or a report and a comprehensive examination (Plan II).

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

If the student selects the comprehensive examination & report option (Plan II), the candidate must pass a comprehensive examination on the major area of study. This examination is prepared by a committee of at least three faculty members.  If the examination is failed, the student may be reexamined once. In addition, the student must complete a research activity (Environmental Health Sciences 596) of at least four units and prepare an in-depth written report on this activity.  For the report, the student also has the option of submitting an externally peer-reviewed publication (e.g. journal article, book chapter) that was completed while a student. Either report option must be approved by the adviser and at least one other faculty member.

Thesis Plan 

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

If the student selects the thesis option (Plan I), a thesis committee of three faculty members is established. The committee approves the thesis prospectus before the student files for advancement to candidacy. An externally peer-reviewed publication (e.g. journal article or book chapter) completed while a student, may be submitted as the thesis, with appropriate format modification.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time-to-degree from initial enrollment to graduation is six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	6	6	15

Doctoral Degree

Advising

An academic adviser is assigned to each new student by the head of the department. Student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter within the parameters set forth below; any subsequent alterations must be approved both by the adviser and the department chair. During the first year students must set up a two-member guidance committee that includes the academic adviser. One of these members may be from outside the department. Students also must file Doctoral Form 1.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students may choose to concentrate on any field of environmental health sciences. Such areas of academic focus may include: air quality; environmental biology; environmental chemistry; environmental health practice and policy; industrial hygiene; toxicology; or water quality. Interdisciplinary research is also recommended.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students select a course of study upon consultation with their guidance committee. The following courses are required: either Environmental Health Sciences 100 or C200A and C200C; Environmental Health Sciences 411 (required once a year for the first two years); Environmental Health Sciences M414 (Fall Quarter of the second year); one full course (four units or more) at the 100 or 200 level in epidemiology; and the appropriate Environmental Health Sciences 296 course for each quarter in residence. Also, proficiency in biostatistics/statistics is required. Each specific, required, letter-graded course may be waived if the student successfully completed an equivalent course with a grade of B or better.

Students who have not previously taken and passed a course in Public Health at the undergraduate or graduate level are required to complete one of the following:

• Public Health 150: Contemporary Health Issues
• Health Policy & Management M242: Determinants of Health
• Attend six FSPH Grand Rounds or any FSPH seminars outside of EHS over the course of two years. Students choosing this option must meet with the Student Affairs Officer to discuss the requirements prior to attending the first presentation and document their attendance at each seminar by either signing the sign-in form for Grand Rounds presentations or submitting a summary of 100-150 words for each seminar to their faculty advisor.

For students who do not have a degree in the field of public health, the following additional courses are recommended: two full courses in biostatistics/statistics.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is recommended but not required for the doctoral degree.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Before advancement to candidacy, students must complete the courses required for the doctoral degree (see Course Requirements). Students must also pass a written examination in the area of specialization and the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Normally, no more than one reexamination is allowed. A doctoral committee, consisting of at least four faculty members who hold professorial appointments at UCLA, is nominated when the student is ready to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Students should review the current regulations governing doctoral committee membership in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

After passing the University Oral Qualifying Examination, the student may be advanced to candidacy and commence work on a dissertation in the principal field of study. The doctoral committee supervises the student’s progress toward completion of the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time from initial enrollment to advancement to candidacy is six to nine quarters (two to three calendar years), and from advancement to candidacy to filing of dissertation is six to nine quarters (two to three calendar years).

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	9	18	24

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for termination for failure to complete the required course work within seven quarters of matriculation.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for termination for: failure to maintain a 3.00 grade point average for two consecutive quarters following matriculation into the doctoral program; a second failure in the written qualifying examination; a second failure of either oral examination; or exceeding enrollment time limits.

A student may appeal a recommendation for termination first to the departmental chair, then to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, then to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and finally to the Dean of the school.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Environmental Health Sciences

School of Public Health

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Environmental Health Sciences offers the Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Environmental Health Sciences.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

A faculty academic advisor is appointed for each new master’s student by the department chair. The student and advisor together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter and any subsequent alterations must be approved by the student’s advisor. Students are expected to meet with their advisor at least each quarter.

The faculty adviser is responsible for monitoring the student’s academic progress. Progress is evaluated on an ongoing basis. At the end of each quarter, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs reviews academic listings of students and notifies them and the advisers when the cumulative grade-point average is below 3.0. Advisers review each case with their advisees and make recommendations to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs for continuance or academic disqualification. Students who wish to change advisers must file a petition which must be approved by the old adviser, the new adviser, the department chair, and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Areas of Study

Students may choose from: air quality, water quality, climate and health, exposure assessment, environmental and occupational biological effects, industrial hygiene, environmental chemistry, environmental and occupational health practice and policy, environmental justice, and molecular toxicology. For students that focus on industrial hygiene, there is a specific curriculum and requirements if students participate in a federal training grant in this area such as: https://erc.ucla.edu/industrial-hygiene/ and https://erc.ucla.edu/r25/.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Master’s students must also complete at least four quarters in residence at the University of California, including at least two quarters in residence at UCLA, and 17 courses (65 units) of which at least six (28 units) must be graduate courses in the 200 or 500 series. EHS 597 is not eligible for degree requirements. Upon petition to Division of Graduate Education, courses completed at other UCs may fulfill up to one-half of the total course requirement, one-half of the graduate course requirement, and one-third of the academic residence requirement.

There are 9 mandatory core courses (34 units): Biostatistics 201A, 201B, Epidemiology 100, EHS C200A, C200C, 200D, C240, M411 (to be taken once a year for two years), and either EHS 596 (for the comprehensive examination/report plan) or EHS 598 (for the thesis plan). A mandatory core course may be waived if the student either has taken a similar university-level course elsewhere and/or passes a waiver examination. If a core course is waived, the student should make up the units with a substitute course that should be selected in consultation with the graduate advisor.

Students must also successfully complete a written examination in Chemistry when they enter the program, or else they will be required to take EHS 101. In addition, they must take one advanced laboratory course (3 or more units) on a topic in or related to environmental health sciencesThe advanced laboratory course may be waived with the consent of the faculty advisor and Department Chair  if the student has previous lab experience. Students who request to waive the advanced laboratory course are required to submit a blue petition indicating the request to waive the advanced laboratory course because of previous lab experience and make up the four units with an additional elective course.

In addition to the core courses, at least 24 units of upper division (200 level) or grad level (400 level) elective courses are required and should be selected in consultation with the graduate adviser. 296, 596, 597, 598, or 599 courses may not be counted towards the elective requirement.

Students interested in Industrial Hygiene (IH) may choose to complete additional IH core and elective courses that prepare them for a career in this field and to become Certified Industrial Hygienists (see https://gobgc.org/cih/). These additional courses provide training on occupational exposure to chemical, physical, biological, and mechanical agents, psychosocial factors, and ergonomic factors. Students will learn IH principles including identification, recognition, anticipation, evaluation, control and prevention of hazards and risks in the workplace environments. These required core courses are EHS 252D, 252E, 253, 255, 259A and 454 (24 units). Additional courses are required of students that participate in an IH training program through the NIOSH Southern California Education and Research Center (https://erc.ucla.edu/) and NIEHS Superfund Research Program: Emerging Nano & Technologies Training Program (https://erc.ucla.edu/r25/). Students who are U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents (Green Card holders) may qualify and apply to participate in one of these training programs and receive traineeship with financial support. If you have questions, please contact the IH Program, Director, Professor Candace Tsai.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor, master or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health C201: Contemporary Health Issues.

Only courses in which a grade of C or better is received may be applied toward the requirements for a master’s degree.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

The comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II) consists of two elements, (1) an examination and (2) a M.S. report. If the student selects the comprehensive examination and report option (Plan II), the candidate must pass a comprehensive examination on the major area of study. This examination is prepared by a committee of at least three faculty members. If the examination is failed, the student may be reexamined once. In addition, the student must complete a research activity while enrolled in Environmental Health Sciences 596 for at least four units. For the M.S. report, the student must either prepare an in-depth written report on this research activity, or submit an article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) that was completed while a student. The report option must be approved by the full committee.

Thesis Plan 

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

If the student selects the thesis option (Plan I), a thesis committee of three faculty members is established. The committee approves the thesis before the student graduates. An article of publishable quality (e.g. externally peer-reviewed journal article or book chapter) may be submitted as the thesis, with appropriate format modification.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time-to-degree from initial enrollment to graduation is six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.S.	6	6	15

Doctoral Degree

Advising

An academic adviser is assigned to each new student by the head of the department. Student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter within the parameters set forth below; any subsequent alterations must be approved both by the adviser and the department chair. During the first year students must set up a two-member guidance committee that includes the academic adviser. One of these members may be from outside the department. The student’s guidance committee is responsible for making course recommendations. Students also must file Doctoral Form 1, which establishes their guidance committee and proposed course of study, by the end of the third quarter of doctoral study.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Students may choose to concentrate on any field of environmental health sciences. Such areas of academic focus may include:  air quality, water quality, climate and health, exposure assessment, environmental and occupational biological effects, industrial hygiene, environmental chemistry, environmental and occupational health practice and policy, environmental justice, and molecular toxicology Interdisciplinary research is also recommended.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Students select a course of study upon consultation with their guidance committee. The following courses are required: Environmental Health Sciences 200C; Environmental Health Sciences 411 (to be taken once a year for two years); Environmental Health Sciences 414A and 414B; and one full course (four units or more) at the 100 or 200 level in epidemiology; and the appropriate Environmental Health Sciences 296 course for each quarter in residence. Also, proficiency in biostatistics/statistics is required. Each specific, required, letter-graded course may be waived if the student successfully completed an equivalent course with a grade of B or better.

Students who have not previously completed a Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited degree (bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree) are required to complete Public Health 201: Contemporary Health Issues.

For students who do not have an undergraduate or graduate degree in the field of public health, the following additional courses are recommended: two full courses in biostatistics/statistics.

Teaching Experience

Teaching experience is recommended but not required for the doctoral degree.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Before advancement to candidacy, students must complete the courses required for the doctoral degree (see Course Requirements). Students must also pass a written examination in the area of specialization. The format of the Exam is decided by the Advisor and by the Guidance Committee that administers and evaluates the Examination. The student should discuss the format of the exam with the student’s  Advisor. Some commonly used formats include the critical evaluation of a set of scientific papers or the preparation of a research proposal. Although these examples illustrate the range of approaches that can be taken for the written examination, other approaches are possible. The student should confirm with the student’s Advisor the particular format of the student’s exam.

Students must also pass the University Oral Qualifying Examination no later than the end of their ninth quarter. A doctoral committee consisting of at least four faculty members is nominated when the student is ready to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. Students should review the current regulations governing doctoral committee membership in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA. Students should consult with their doctoral committee to confirm the format of the University Oral Qualifying Examination.

The three possible outcomes of each examination are Pass, Retake, and Fail. Normally, no more than one reexamination is allowed. After passing the University Oral Qualifying Examination, the student advances to candidacy and finishes work on a dissertation in the principal field of study. The doctoral committee supervises the student’s progress toward completion of the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

Normative time from initial enrollment to advancement to candidacy is nine quarters (three calendar years), and from advancement to candidacy to filing of dissertation is nine quarters (three calendar years).

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	9	18	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

Master’s

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for failure to complete the required course work within seven quarters of matriculation, one quarter beyond normative time to advance to master’s candidacy.

Doctoral

In addition to the standard reasons outlined above, a student may be recommended for academic disqualification for: failure to maintain a 3.00 grade point average for two consecutive quarters following matriculation into the doctoral program; a second failure in the written qualifying examination; a second failure of either the oral qualifying examination or the final oral examination; or exceeding enrollment time limits.

A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification first to the department Chair, then to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs, then to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, and finally to the Dean of the school.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2025-2026 academic year.

English

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of English offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in English.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

See under Doctoral Degree.

Areas of Study

Literatures in English. See under Course Requirements.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students who do not intend to continue for the Ph.D. degree may fulfill the language requirement by demonstrating a reading knowledge of any language other than English (see under Doctoral Degree). This requirement should be satisfied no later than the mid-point of the quarter in which all degree requirements are completed.

Course Requirements

All graduate students in the program are required to take a minimum of 12 units or three courses per quarter. Though all students are admitted directly into the Ph.D. program, students may decide to leave the program with an M.A. degree if they complete degree requirements under the Thesis Plan or the Capstone Plan. Nine letter-graded English courses are required for the M.A. degree; these courses must be at the graduate level (200 series).

Students at any stage of the program may take courses for S/U grading, but such courses cannot be used to satisfy degree requirements. The work required to receive a grade of Satisfactory must be agreed on in advance with the instructor of the course.

Teaching Experience

Although teaching experience is not required, students have the opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant after passing the English 495A requirement and spending at least one year in the program. Teaching assignments are not automatically offered to students but are awarded on the basis of merit.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

Students in the Ph.D. program who do not already hold an M.A. in English receive the M.A. degree after they have satisfied one language requirement, completed course requirements, and passed the first qualifying examination (see Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations under Doctoral Degree) which also serves as the master’s comprehensive examination.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

Students may select the thesis plan for the M.A. degree after a maximum of two years in the program. They must request a committee from the Vice Chair a minimum of two quarters before completion of the program. The committee consists of three faculty members who meet as a group with the student to consider the thesis proposal. The thesis must not be less than 10,000 words or more than 15,000 words in length. Students who elect to write an M.A. thesis take English 598 each quarter.

Time-to-Degree

Students who select the thesis option must file the thesis no later than the tenth quarter after admission. Students in the Ph.D. program receive the M.A. degree after satisfying one foreign language requirement and passing the First Qualifying Examination, which fulfills the master’s comprehensive examination requirement.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	9	9	12 (by petition)

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The general adviser for graduate students is the Vice Chair for Graduate Studies. The Vice Chair and a second member of the faculty also serve as the personal advisers for first-year students. These two advisers meet with entering students, approve their plans for study each quarter of their first year, counsel them as the need arises, and evaluate their academic progress periodically. Among the factors considered in the evaluations are course grades, written evaluations of performance in seminars and other courses, and progress toward the satisfaction of degree requirements.

The department encourages students to consult, as early as possible in their graduate careers and frequently thereafter, with any and all faculty, and in particular with those in their special fields of interest. The Graduate Counselor should be consulted on any questions or problems that arise.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Literatures in English.

Foreign Language Requirement

In practical terms, the purpose of the language requirement is to prepare students to read literary and critical works in languages other than English. However, departmental faculty believe that there is also an intrinsic value in linguistic study for anyone seriously interested in literature. Students in the Ph.D. program are expected to demonstrate reading proficiency in a language other than English. The language requirement must be completed before taking the first qualifying exam. Examinations requiring translation of literary and critical passages are offered by the department each quarter in French, German, and Spanish and once a year in Italian. Other languages are acceptable as long as comparable examinations can be arranged by the student in another UCLA department.

A basic reading knowledge of a language may be established in one of the following ways: (1) by passing a special reading examination offered by the English Department or certain UCLA language departments; (2) by passing the special reading course for graduate students offered by various language departments, e.g., Italian 1G, German 1G, or French 1G; (3) by passing with a letter grade of B or higher the elementary language course offered by various language departments, e.g., Spanish 3, Japanese 3, Persian 1C or by passing a higher level language course which requires an elementary course as a prerequisite; (4) by passing with a letter grade of B or higher the summer intensive language course offered by various language departments, e.g., Arabic 8, French 8 or Latin 16; (5) by passing with a letter grade of B or higher English 211, Old English; (6) by passing with a letter grade of B or higher an upper division or graduate level course in the literature (not in translation) of the language. Students may petition to have prior course work count as fulfillment of the requirement, but work done more than two years before entering the program is not accepted.

The language requirement must be fulfilled before the student is permitted to take the first qualifying examination.

Course Requirements

Fourteen letter-graded courses are required. These courses must be selected from this department’s course offerings at the graduate level (200 or above) or from equivalent courses taught by faculty from this department in other departments or programs on campus. All students are required to take English 200 (Graduate Proseminar) in their first year, which they may count toward their 14-course minimum. With the approval of the Vice Chair, Ph.D. students may apply to the fourteen-course requirement up to three courses offered by faculty in departments other than English (such as literature in another language, history, art history, Afro-American studies, film, women’s studies).

Students who enter the program with an M.A. degree may petition the Graduate Vice Chair to grant credit toward the 14-course requirement for letter-graded graduate courses taken in their M.A. programs. At the Vice Chair’s discretion, a maximum of four such courses may be credited toward the degree.

Students who pursue the doctorate take English 596 (Directed Study) each quarter in Stage One, either under an individual professor or the Vice Chair. Students who elect to write an M.A. thesis take English 598 each quarter. While students may take English 596 for fulfilling the necessary units for a full course load, a maximum of two letter-graded English 596 courses and no more than one a year can count toward the 14-course requirement. For a letter-graded section of English 596 to count toward the 14-course requirement, its syllabus should reflect the reading and writing (or other media) assignments of a typical seminar and must be approved by the Vice Chair no later than the first week of the quarter.

Breadth. Of the 14 letter-graded courses for the Ph.D., a minimum of two courses must be in periods before 1800, two in periods after 1800, and two in theory, genre, or methods.

All students at any stage of the program may take courses for S/U grades, but such courses cannot be used to satisfy any requirements for a degree. The work required for an S must be agreed on in advance with the instructor of the course.

Teaching Experience

Although teaching experience is not required, students have the opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant after passing the English 495A requirement and spending at least one year in the program. Teaching assignments are not automatically offered to students but are awarded on the basis of merit.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

First Stage Evaluation. At the end of each quarter of the student’s first year in the program, the Graduate Vice Chair meets with the student’s seminar instructors to review overall academic performance and to identify specific areas needing special attention. The Vice Chair reports on the student’s overall progress, including the findings of this review, to the Graduate Committee by the end of the subsequent fall quarter and advises the student as to their progress in the program.

First Qualifying Examination. Students are required to finalize the membership of their examination committee by the winter quarter of their second year. They are required to finalize their reading lists by fall quarter of the third year and to take the exam no later than the spring quarter of their third year. In case of extenuating circumstances that delay the formation of a committee for the Part I exam, students are required to submit a petition to the Vice Chair to take their exam no later than a year after finalizing the membership of their examination committee. Under the supervision of the Examination Committee, the student devises three reading lists, each consisting of approximately 30 primary texts (or equivalent bodies of work, as in the case of poems, short fiction, essays, etc.), and 10 critical texts that have been important to the development of the field, each list representing a coherent field of literary study. At least two of these fields must be historical, chosen in most cases from among currently recognized historical periods and including a substantial number of canonical works by major authors. The third exam topic may be an additional historical period, a special topic, or one devised by the student. Where the third field is a special topic or a newly-devised topic, its list is to consist entirely of works not included on either of the two other lists. The first purpose of the examination is to test the student’s understanding of the principal works and contours of at least two historical periods. In designing the lists, students and faculty are expected to balance the interests of (1) establishing expertise in a recognized professional field of study, and (2) accommodating students’ intellectual interests and preparation for the dissertation. Previous lists are kept on file in the Graduate Counselor’s office, and may be consulted as useful models for later examinees.

Once the student and faculty members complete the lists, all three lists together must be approved by the Examination Committee. The lists are then submitted to the Vice Chair for approval, and the First Qualifying Examination can be scheduled. The exam centers on a two-hour oral examination. The written component of this exam, required by the university, consists of an unrevised paper that the student wrote for an English seminar and which best represents their critical skills and thinking. This paper is submitted two weeks before the exam. Although not required, it is preferable that the student select a paper that is relevant to the fields in which they are being examined.

In order for a student to receive a Pass on the examination, all examiners must agree that the student has passed all three sections of the examination. If a student fails one section, the student will receive a Fail and will be required to retake that section. If a student fails two sections, the student will be required to take all three sections again. The examinations may be retaken only once. Before any failed examination is retaken, the Graduate Committee reviews the record as a whole and offers, through the Vice Chair, advice on how students should proceed.

Second Stage. As soon as possible after successful completion of the First Qualifying Examination, students nominate their doctoral committees and begin to prepare the dissertation prospectus. The doctoral committee is formed in accordance with UCLA’s Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution. In addition to these minimum standards, the English department requires that at least two of the three required UCLA faculty members serving on the committee hold faculty appointments in English. The departmental members may include those who served on the First Qualifying Examination committee, but this is not required. The inclusion on the doctoral committee of a member or members from outside the department will be at the discretion of the committee chair or co-chairs. Once students advance to this stage, they may take up to 12 units of English 597 per quarter with the dissertation chair(s). Students are required to update the dissertation chair(s) on progress in order to receive a satisfactory grade for each quarter. Students are also encouraged to take any seminars that might prove useful.

Second Qualifying Examination. Students are required to pass the Second Qualifying Exam no later than the Spring quarter of their 4th year.”
Third Stage. When students pass the second qualifying examination, they advance to candidacy and receive the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree. Students proceed with preparing the dissertation and enroll each quarter in English 599 to reflect this ongoing research and writing. Students are encouraged to enroll in seminars in their field whenever they are offered. All course requirements (oral reports and term papers) may be satisfied through work connected with the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

Standard time to degree is 6-7 years. The maximum allowed by the department under normal circumstances is 8 years, after which there is a requirement of departmental petition

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	12	21	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for termination is made by the Vice Chair for Graduate Studies, after consultation with the Graduate Committee and confirmed by the graduate faculty. A student may appeal a recommendation for termination to the Graduate Committee.

Applicable only to students admitted during the 2023-2024 academic year.

English

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of English offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in English.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

See under Doctoral Degree.

Areas of Study

Literatures in English. See under Course Requirements.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students who do not intend to continue for the Ph.D. degree may fulfill the language requirement by demonstrating a reading knowledge of any language other than English (see under Doctoral Degree). This requirement should be satisfied no later than the mid-point of the quarter in which all degree requirements are completed.

Course Requirements

All graduate students in the program are required to take a minimum of 12 units or three courses per quarter. Though all students are admitted directly into the Ph.D. program, students may decide to leave the program with an M.A. degree if they complete degree requirements under the Thesis Plan or the Capstone Plan. Nine letter-graded English courses are required for the M.A. degree; these courses must be at the graduate level (200 series).

Students at any stage of the program may take courses for S/U grading, but such courses cannot be used to satisfy degree requirements. The work required to receive a grade of Satisfactory must be agreed on in advance with the instructor of the course.

Teaching Experience

Although teaching experience is not required, students have the opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant after passing the English 495A requirement and spending at least one year in the program. Teaching assignments are not automatically offered to students but are awarded on the basis of merit.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

Students in the Ph.D. program who do not already hold an M.A. in English receive the M.A. degree after they have satisfied one language requirement, completed course requirements, and passed the first qualifying examination (see Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations under Doctoral Degree) which also serves as the master’s comprehensive examination.

Thesis Plan

Every master’s degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research.

Students may select the thesis plan for the M.A. degree after a maximum of two years in the program. They must request a committee from the Vice Chair a minimum of two quarters before completion of the program. The committee consists of three faculty members who meet as a group with the student to consider the thesis proposal. The thesis must not be less than 10,000 words or more than 15,000 words in length. Students who elect to write an M.A. thesis take English 598 each quarter.

Time-to-Degree

Students who select the thesis option must file the thesis no later than the tenth quarter after admission. Students in the Ph.D. program receive the M.A. degree after satisfying one foreign language requirement and passing the First Qualifying Examination, which fulfills the master’s comprehensive examination requirement.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	9	9	12 (by petition)

Doctoral Degree

Advising

The general adviser for graduate students is the Vice Chair for Graduate Studies. The Vice Chair and a second member of the faculty also serve as the personal advisers for first-year students. These two advisers meet with entering students, approve their plans for study each quarter of their first year, counsel them as the need arises, and evaluate their academic progress periodically. Among the factors considered in the evaluations are course grades, written evaluations of performance in seminars and other courses, and progress toward the satisfaction of degree requirements.

The department encourages students to consult, as early as possible in their graduate careers and frequently thereafter, with any and all faculty, and in particular with those in their special fields of interest. The Graduate Counselor should be consulted on any questions or problems that arise.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Literatures in English.

Foreign Language Requirement

In practical terms, the purpose of the language requirement is to prepare students to read literary and critical works in languages other than English. However, departmental faculty believe that there is also an intrinsic value in linguistic study for anyone seriously interested in literature. Students in the Ph.D. program are expected to demonstrate reading proficiency in a language other than English. The language requirement must be completed before taking the first qualifying exam. Examinations requiring translation of literary and critical passages are offered by the department each quarter in French, German, and Spanish and once a year in Italian. Other languages are acceptable as long as comparable examinations can be arranged by the student in another UCLA department.

A basic reading knowledge of a language may be established in one of the following ways: (1) by passing a special reading examination offered by the English Department or certain UCLA language departments; (2) by passing the special reading course for graduate students offered by various language departments, e.g., Italian 1G, German 1G, or French 1G; (3) by passing with a letter grade of B or higher the elementary language course offered by various language departments, e.g., Spanish 3, Japanese 3, Persian 1C or by passing a higher level language course which requires an elementary course as a prerequisite; (4) by passing with a letter grade of B or higher the summer intensive language course offered by various language departments, e.g., Arabic 8, French 8 or Latin 16; (5) by passing with a letter grade of B or higher English 211, Old English; (6) by passing with a letter grade of B or higher an upper division or graduate level course in the literature (not in translation) of the language. Students may petition to have prior course work count as fulfillment of the requirement, but work done more than two years before entering the program is not accepted.

The language requirement must be fulfilled before the student is permitted to take the first qualifying examination.

Course Requirements

Fourteen letter-graded courses are required. These courses must be selected from this department’s course offerings at the graduate level (200 or above) or from equivalent courses taught by faculty from this department in other departments or programs on campus. All students are required to take English 200 (Graduate Proseminar) in their first year, which they may count toward their 14-course minimum. With the approval of the Vice Chair, Ph.D. students may apply to the fourteen-course requirement up to three courses offered by faculty in departments other than English (such as literature in another language, history, art history, Afro-American studies, film, women’s studies).

Students who enter the program with an M.A. degree may petition the Graduate Vice Chair to grant credit toward the 14-course requirement for letter-graded graduate courses taken in their M.A. programs. At the Vice Chair’s discretion, a maximum of four such courses may be credited toward the degree.

Students who pursue the doctorate take English 596 (Directed Study) each quarter in Stage One, either under an individual professor or the Vice Chair. Students who elect to write an M.A. thesis take English 598 each quarter. While students may take English 596 for fulfilling the necessary units for a full course load, a maximum of two letter-graded English 596 courses and no more than one a year can count toward the 14-course requirement. For a letter-graded section of English 596 to count toward the 14-course requirement, its syllabus should reflect the reading and writing (or other media) assignments of a typical seminar and must be approved by the Vice Chair no later than the first week of the quarter.

Breadth. Of the 14 letter-graded courses for the Ph.D., a minimum of two courses must be in periods before 1800, two in periods after 1800, and two in theory, genre, or methods.

All students at any stage of the program may take courses for S/U grades, but such courses cannot be used to satisfy any requirements for a degree. The work required for an S must be agreed on in advance with the instructor of the course.

Teaching Experience

Although teaching experience is not required, students have the opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant after passing the English 495A requirement and spending at least one year in the program. Teaching assignments are not automatically offered to students but are awarded on the basis of merit.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

First Stage Evaluation. At the end of each quarter of the student’s first year in the program, the Graduate Vice Chair meets with the student’s seminar instructors to review overall academic performance and to identify specific areas needing special attention. The Vice Chair reports on the student’s overall progress, including the findings of this review, to the Graduate Committee by the end of the subsequent fall quarter and advises the student as to their progress in the program.

First Qualifying Examination. Students are required to finalize the membership of their examination committee by the winter quarter of their second year. They are required to finalize their reading lists by fall quarter of the third year and to take the exam no later than the spring quarter of their third year. In case of extenuating circumstances that delay the formation of a committee for the Part I exam, students are required to submit a petition to the Vice Chair to take their exam no later than a year after finalizing the membership of their examination committee. Under the supervision of the Examination Committee, the student devises three reading lists, each consisting of approximately 30 primary texts (or equivalent bodies of work, as in the case of poems, short fiction, essays, etc.), and 10 critical texts that have been important to the development of the field, each list representing a coherent field of literary study. At least two of these fields must be historical, chosen in most cases from among currently recognized historical periods and including a substantial number of canonical works by major authors. The third exam topic may be an additional historical period, a special topic, or one devised by the student. Where the third field is a special topic or a newly-devised topic, its list is to consist entirely of works not included on either of the two other lists. The first purpose of the examination is to test the student’s understanding of the principal works and contours of at least two historical periods. In designing the lists, students and faculty are expected to balance the interests of (1) establishing expertise in a recognized professional field of study, and (2) accommodating students’ intellectual interests and preparation for the dissertation. Previous lists are kept on file in the Graduate Counselor’s office, and may be consulted as useful models for later examinees.

Once the student and faculty members complete the lists, all three lists together must be approved by the Examination Committee. The lists are then submitted to the Vice Chair for approval, and the First Qualifying Examination can be scheduled. The exam centers on a two-hour oral examination. The written component of this exam, required by the university, consists of an unrevised paper that the student wrote for an English seminar and which best represents their critical skills and thinking. This paper is submitted two weeks before the exam. Although not required, it is preferable that the student select a paper that is relevant to the fields in which they are being examined.

In order for a student to receive a Pass on the examination, all examiners must agree that the student has passed all three sections of the examination. If a student fails one section, the student will receive a Fail and will be required to retake that section. If a student fails two sections, the student will be required to take all three sections again. The examinations may be retaken only once. Before any failed examination is retaken, the Graduate Committee reviews the record as a whole and offers, through the Vice Chair, advice on how students should proceed.

Second Stage. As soon as possible after successful completion of the First Qualifying Examination, students nominate their doctoral committees and begin to prepare the dissertation prospectus. The doctoral committee is formed in accordance with UCLA’s Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution. In addition to these minimum standards, the English department requires that at least two of the three required UCLA faculty members serving on the committee hold faculty appointments in English. The departmental members may include those who served on the First Qualifying Examination committee, but this is not required. The inclusion on the doctoral committee of a member or members from outside the department will be at the discretion of the committee chair or co-chairs. Once students advance to this stage, they may take up to 12 units of English 597 per quarter with the dissertation chair(s). Students are required to update the dissertation chair(s) on progress in order to receive a satisfactory grade for each quarter. Students are also encouraged to take any seminars that might prove useful.

Second Qualifying Examination. Students are required to pass the Second Qualifying Exam no later than the Spring quarter of their 4th year.”
Third Stage. When students pass the second qualifying examination, they advance to candidacy and receive the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree. Students proceed with preparing the dissertation and enroll each quarter in English 599 to reflect this ongoing research and writing. Students are encouraged to enroll in seminars in their field whenever they are offered. All course requirements (oral reports and term papers) may be satisfied through work connected with the dissertation.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of the Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

Standard time to degree is 6-7 years. The maximum allowed by the department under normal circumstances is 8 years, after which there is a requirement of departmental petition

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	12	21	24

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for termination is made by the Vice Chair for Graduate Studies, after consultation with the Graduate Committee and confirmed by the graduate faculty. A student may appeal a recommendation for termination to the Graduate Committee.