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

M.P.H. for Health Professionals Program

Health and non-health working professionals who are unable to pursue a degree program during their regular working hours may earn the M.P.H. degree by completing course work in extended weekend sessions during the academic year. Courses are taught by the Fielding School of Public Health faculty and leading public health scholars and practitioners in clinical, social and/or behavioral sciences.

Admissions Requirements

Advising

An adviser is appointed for each new master’s student by the head of the department. The MPH|HP Program Director will serve as the advisor for all students in the Master of Public Health for Health Professionals program. The MPH|HP program is a lock-step program with required classes and electives built into the pre-set curriculum. Student and adviser together agree upon a study list for each academic quarter and any subsequent alterations must be approved by both the adviser and the Associate Dean of Student Affairs. Students are expected to meet with their advisers each quarter.

An adviser is responsible for 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 new adviser, the department chair, and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

Areas of Study

The M.P.H. degree with the MPH for Health Professionals program is offered in the Department of Community Health Sciences with a concentration in Health Education and Promotion.

Foreign Language Requirement

None.

Course Requirements

Community Health Sciences

The MPH|HP degree program is an executive-style program for working professionals with at least three years of full-time work experience. It is a two-year program requiring 15 full courses (60 units) and a Master’s Project. Required courses include Community Health Sciences 210, 211A, 211B, 212, 281, 282, 292, 400, 482, 487, and M216. Required School of Public Health courses include: Biostatistics 100A, Epidemiology 100, Health Policy and Management 100 and Environmental Health Sciences 100.

Courses taken for S/U grading may not be applied toward the degree requirements. 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 lieu of field training, students are required to complete a Master’s Project. The Master’s Project gives students an opportunity to apply knowledge and skills gained through course work to a specific problem of significance in the field of health education and health promotion. This project must include original work. It is completed over a one-year period and represents 8 units (CHS 400 & CHS 482) of work. It can describe original research, design of an intervention, an evaluation design or other work. The student and supervising faculty member (Project Supervisor) negotiate the nature and parameters.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required but optional.

Capstone Plan

The M.P.H for Health Professionals requires a Master’s Comprehensive Examination in the final year of the program. The M.P.H. for Health Professionals comprehensive examination follows the same format as the M.P.H. in Community Health Sciences comprehensive examination and may cover material from the program’s core courses, electives, and will include demonstrating proficiencies in the competencies. For guidelines concerning the Master’s Comprehensive Examination, please consult the program for more information. Students who fail the Master’s Comprehensive Examination may retake the exam once.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

From graduate admission to award of the degree, normal progress is two years of extended weekend sessions.

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

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.