Admission Requirements
Applicants to the PhD program will normally have previous training in a discipline relevant to their area(s) of interest in health sciences. Admission to the PhD program will depend on the availability of faculty to supervise the student. FHS requires applicants to identify from the faculty a Senior Supervisor who will agree to supervise the student, if accepted into the program.
To qualify for admission, applicants must satisfy all University admission requirements as outlined in theSFU Calendar under Graduate General Regulations.
This includes one of the following:
- a Master’s degree from a recognized university, or the equivalent, or
- a Bachelor’s degree, with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.5 (on a 4.33 scale), from a recognized university, or the equivalent, or
- completion of at least 75% of the course work units required for the relevant department’s Master’s program, with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.5. All graduate courses, whether completed at this University of another university, shall be considered in the calculation.
And:
- Submitted evidence that the applicant is capable of undertaking substantial original research. Normally, such capability will be judged from letters of reference from qualified referees, and the completion of a master’s thesis, projects, published papers, or other scholarly work.
In addition, international students from countries where English is not the primary language must provide test scores from the TWE, TOEFL, or IELTS examinations. Minimum scores are indicated in the SFU Graduate General Regulation 1.3.12.
Admission is competitive: meeting these minimum standards does not guarantee admission to the program.Transferring to the PhD Program
Master of science (MSc) or master of public health (MPH) students who show exceptional abilities may apply to transfer to the PhD program only if the student can demonstrate their ability to carry out innovative, independent and original PhD level research in that field, has obtained high academic standing in previous university work, and has the support of their master's supervisor. All university regulations governing transfers must be met (SFU Graduate Regulations 1.3.4). Transfers are only permitted when the student has been in the master’s program for two but not more than five terms. Transfer applications must be approved by the student’s supervisory committee, the FHS graduate studies committee, and the Dean of Graduate Studies. Students transferring from the master's program will be eligible to earn only the PhD degree. Students will not be eligible to transfer to the PhD program beyond six semesters of full-time equivalent course work in the MSc program.
