Degree Requirements
Introduction
The PhD concentration in Community Health Practice & Methods program requires a minimum of 96 semester hours, although more hours are often necessary. PhD students in Community Health Sciences are required to select a major area of concentration relevant to community health and obtain advisor approval in all course selections. MCH PhD Scholars may have more specific requirements than those listed below.
Students with a master’s degree in public health or a related area may receive up to 32 SH of credit towards the 96 SH total. The 32 SH of credit would apply to the required 37-44 elective hours.
The PhD concentration in Community Health Practice & Methods includes the following course requirements:
PhD Student Handbook
School-Wide Core Requirements (12 semester hours)
- BSTT 400 – Biostatistics I (3 semester hours)*
- BSTT 401 – Biostatistics II (3 semester hours)*
- EPID 403 – Introduction to Epidemiology: Principles and Methods (3 semester hours)
- IPHS 450 – Foundations and Determinants of Public Health (3 semester hours)*
*If not previously taken at the master’s level
Required Non-Credit Training
- Title IX Training – Sexual Harassment
- IPHS 421 – SPH Success
- SPH & UIC Policies Module
- Human Subjects Research (HSR)
- SPH Academic Integrity Tutorial (AIT)
Divisional Core Requirements (2 semester hours)
- IPHS 595 – Doctoral Seminar (1 SH – take two semesters for 2 SH total)
If appropriate sections of CHSC 595 are available, students may select CHSC 595 to fulfill this requirement.
Course Areas
In addition, PhD students in the Community Health Practice & Methods concentration are required to take courses from three specific areas: 1) Community Health Sciences Theory and Methods, 2) Advanced Research Methods, and 3) Advanced Analytic Methods. Students must complete all courses from Community Health Sciences Theory and Methods, and at least three courses from the combined Advanced Research Methods and Advanced Analytic Methods lists, at least one course coming from each list.
Students must select 3-6 semester hours each from an approved menu for both the advanced analytic methods and the advanced research methods course requirements, for a total of 9 hours of advanced analytic and research methods. Registration in CHSC 593 is required every semester in the program for at least 6 hours in total. Students who are otherwise eligible to register for 0 hours will also be eligible to register for CHSC 593 for 0 hours.
Courses
- CHSC 550 – Advanced Theories and Topics in Community Health Sciences (3 semester hours)
- CHSC 551 – Advanced Research Methods for Community Health Sciences (3 SH)
- CHSC 552 – Advanced Analytic Methods for Community Health Sciences (3 SH)
- CHSC 593 – Doctoral Laboratory in Community Health Sciences Research Development (required each semester) (0-1 SH)
Courses
- ANTH / GEOG 418 – Ethnographic and Qualitative Research Methods (4 semester hours)
- BHIS 508 – Q Research Methodology? Qualitative Research (3 SH
- BSTT 426 – Analytics Using Python (3 SH)
- BSTT 529 – Investigations (2 SH)
- CHSC 434 – Introduction to Qualitative Methods in Public Health (3 SH)
- CHSC / PA 447 – Survey Planning and Design (3 SH)
- CHSC / PA 577 – Survey Questionnaire Design (3 SH)
- CHSC 588 – Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis (3 SH)
- CHSC 594 – Social Networks and Health (3 SH)
- CLJ 561 – Qualitative Methods and Design (4 SH)
- CLI 563 – Evaluation Research in Criminology, Law and Justice (4 SH)
- DHD 546 – Qualitative Methods in Disability Research (4 SH)
- ED 501 – Data and Interpretation in Educational Inquiry (4 SH)
- ED 502 – Essentials of Qualitative Inquiry in Education (4 SH)
- EPSY 550 – Rating Scale and Questionnaire Design and Analysis (4 SH)
- EPSY 560 – Educational Program Evaluation ( 4 SH)
- EPSY 564 – Evaluation Principles and Methods (4 SH)
- NUEL 548 – Methodological Issues for Cross-Cultural Research (3 SH)
- NURS 574 – Qualitative Research in Nursing (4 SH)
- OT 553 / DHD 543 – Program Evaluation: Documenting the Impact of Human Services (3 SH)
- PA 528 – Public Program Evaluation (4 SH)
- PSCH 531 – Community Research (3 SH)
- SOCW 578 – Qualitative Methods in Social Work Research (3 SH)
- UPP 461 – Geographic Information Systems for Planning (4 SH)
- UPP 462 – Intermediate GIS for Planning (4 SH)
Courses
- BHIS 540 – Essentials of Health Data Science (3 semester hours)
- BHIS 541 – Health Data Analytics (3 SH)
- BSTT 505 – Logistic Regression and Survival Analysis (2 SH)
- BSTT 527 – Statistical Learning (3 SH)
- BSTT 528 – Machine Learning (3 SH)
- CHSC / EPID 518 – Epidemiology or Pediatric Diseases (3 SH)
- CHSC 534 – Management and Analysis of Qualitative Data (3 SH)
- CHSC / EPID 545 (with lab) – Reproductive & Perinatal Health (3 SH)
- CHSC / EPID 549 – Advanced Applied Methods in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology (3 SH)
- DHD 515 – Statistical Methods and SPSS in Disability Research (3 SH)
- EPID 404 – Intermediate Epidemiologic Methods (4 SH)
- EPID 500 – Applied Methods for the Analysis of Epidemiologic Data (4 SH)
- EPID 501 – Advanced Quantitative Methods in Epidemiology (4 SH)
- EPSY 514 – Non-Parametric Modeling (4 SH)
- EPSY 543 – Advanced Analysis of Variance in Educational Research (4 SH)
- EPSY 546 – Educational Measurement (4 SH)
- EPSY 547 – Multiple Regression in Educational Research (4 SH)
- EPSY 551 – Item Response Theory/Rasch Measurement (4 SH)
- EPSY 583 – Multivariate Analysis of Educational Data (4 SH)
- EPSY 584 – Hierarchical Linear Models (4 SH)
- HPA 564 – GIS Application in Public Health (3 SH)
- HPA 592 – Spatial Data Analysis and Visualization (3 SH)
- IDS 561 – Analytics for Big Data (4 SH)
- PSCH 541 & 543 – Intro to Computing in PSCH/Research Design & Analysis (1 + 4 SH)
- PSCH 545 – Multivariate Analysis (3 SH)
- PA 541 / POLS 501 – Advanced Data Analysis I (4 SH)
- PA 542 / POLS 502 – Advanced Data Analysis II (4 SH)
- PA 588 – Applied Survey Sampling and Analysis (4 SH)
- SOCW 597 – Applied Linear and Generalized Linear Regression Models (3 SH)
Courses
The following courses must be taken if an equivalent course was not completed in the student’s master’s program:
- BSTT 400 – Biostatistics 1 (4 SH)
- BSTT 401 – Biostatistics II (4 SH)
- CHSC 421 – Community Health 1: Assessing, Promoting and Improving Community Health (4 SH)
- CHSC 422 – Community Health 2: Evidence-Informed Community Health Interventions (4 SH)
- CHSC 446 – Research Methods in Community Health (3 SH)
- EPID 403 – Introduction to Epidemiology: Principles and Methods (3 SH)
- For MCH PhD Scholars, two of:
- CHSC 510 – Maternal and Child Health Inequities and Responses I (4 semester hours)
- CHSC 511 – Maternal and Child Health Inequities and Responses II (4 semester hours)
- CHSC 543 – Maternal and Child Health Policy and Advocacy (3 semester hours)
Courses
Select 12 semester hours in an approved concentration area; at least 9 semester hours must be 500-level courses. The 595 seminar series may not be counted towards fulfillment of this requirement. Note: Students must complete the number of electives necessary to bring total program hours to a minimum of 96 semester hours.
Dissertation (32 semester hours)
Dissertation Proposal : Required.
Dissertation: Required. Students must register for IPHS 599 for at least 32 semester hours.
Secondary Concentration
Select 12 hours for the secondary concentration.
Students can enter the PhD in MCH Epidemiology (MCHEPI) program through the Division of Community Health Sciences or the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (EPID-BSTT). Regardless of division, MCHEPI PhD students are required to take courses in both Epidemiology and Maternal and Child Health (MCH), along with courses from other disciplines that focus on the substantive, analytic, and technical aspects of the public health planning cycle. A limited amount of specially targeted federal funding is available for MCHEPI students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
See the PhD in Epidemiology, Concentration in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology for program requirements.