Admission requirements

Applicants applying for master's degrees are required to hold a bachelor's degree in an appropriate discipline from a recognized university.

Applicants applying for the Master of Arts program must meet the general requirements set out by the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) calendar.

Applicants applying for the Master of Science program must meet the general requirements set out by the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) calendar.

Ordinarily a B+ average (6.0 GPA) in the last two years of university work is a minimum requirement for admission to the program. You may request consideration on the basis of life or work experience equivalency. Applications are reviewed by FGS, the SDH Graduate Advisors and other SDH faculty members on the SDH Program Committee.

Supervisory committee

The structure of your supervisory committee must meet the requirements set out by FGS for interdisciplinary students. 

For master's students, 2 co-supervisors who are members of the FGS, at least one of whom has successfully supervised candidates for graduate degrees in the past, must confirm their willingness to supervise before a student can be admitted.

One of the co-supervisors will accept the role of lead co-supervisor. Normally, co-supervisors will come from two different disciplinary affiliations in order to reflect the interdisciplinary spirit of the program. At the time of the thesis defense, at least one additional member must be added to the examination committee.

Students without an appropriate background in health research may be required to take additional undergraduate or graduate courses to make up any deficiencies in their training. This will be determined by the SDH Graduate Advisor in consultation with the student's co-supervisors, and communicated to the student in writing at the time of acceptance into the program. These courses will be taken as electives in addition to the 3.0 units of electives required by the SDH program.

Degree designation

You can apply for either a Master of Arts (MA) or Master of Science (MSc) degree.

The designation of degree for each student will be decided by the student's co-supervisors in consultation with the SDH Graduate Advisor based on the disciplinary affiliations of the co-supervisors, the student's background and training, expressed area of research interest, methodological perspective and associated coursework.

This decision will be made and communicated to the student at the time of acceptance. Once admitted to the program, students may apply to transfer from one degree designation to the other provided there are good reasons to do so and with the mutual agreement of the supervisory committee, SDH Graduate Advisor and Dean of FGS.

Additional requirements to be submitted with application.

Statement of intended study

  • details concerning your research interests/plans, reasons for choosing the program, and post-degree plans are often included
  • indicate your proposed supervisors (name and email address) and provide confirmation (typically in the form of an email from them) that they have agreed to supervise you.
  • a letter of intent should be no longer than two pages single-spaced.

Sample of written work

A recent sample of your written work such as a research paper, essay, published article, thesis chapter, etc. and 2 graduate assessment reports, ideally completed by former academic supervisors / course instructors.

Curriculum vitae

We recommend including at least the following sections:

  • education (previous degrees — include thesis supervisor and titles if applicable)
  • fellowships, honours, and awards (applied or awarded, if any monetary value, indicate amount)
  • presentations and publications (academic and non-academic) other scholarly activities (e.g. relationship/partnership building, capacity-building efforts, unpublished reports)
  • professional and leadership activities (e.g. peer-reviewing, service/administrative activities, training/supervising/mentoring activities, workshops attended, conference organization, research assistantships, teaching assistantships, community volunteer positions)