Applicable only to students admitted during the 2015-2016 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, at least five 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-C200B, 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, for example 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. MS 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.

Thesis Plan (Plan I)

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.

Comprehensive Examination and Report Plan (Plan II)

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.

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
MS	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-C200B; 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.

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.

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
PhD	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.