Requirements

The Master’s and the PhD courses in Public Health have an annual application process which offers about 30 and 20 vacancies, respectively. The UFC Public Health Postgraduate Program provides opportunity of participation of health personnel (Medicine, Nursing, Physical Therapy, Nutrition, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine etc.) and related areas (Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, Psychology, Social Work, Geography, Biology, Engineering, Statistics, Business Administration etc.). It is considered the coherence and consistency with the areas of concentration and their respective lines of research. The maximum term for Master’s is 24 months and for PhD is 48 months.

The curriculum of the UFC Public Health Postgraduate Program covers a set of academic components such as disciplines, modules or academic activities and attend them is part of the requisites to obtain the diploma. These components are offered throughout the course and cover the disciplinary nuclei of the Collective Health in different levels: epidemiology, social and human sciences in health as well as policies, planning and organization in health services and systems. The disciplines are organized on a modular basis and classified as compulsory and optional. The dissertation and the thesis must be considered activities as well as the comprehensive exam and the foreign language proficiency.

The basic unit for evaluating intensity and term of postgraduate disciplines or modules is the credit, which corresponds to 16 (sixteen) hours of classes. Students evaluation will be expressed as final result in a scale from 0 (zero) to 10 (ten), with the maximum of a decimal place. To pass the discipline or module, the student has to present an attendance of 75% or more and a final result such as 5 (five) or more.

For the curricular components called activities, the student must do the enrollment in the current semester and in case it was not possible to finish it, he/she must repeat the enrollment the next semester until the conclusion. The evaluation of curricular components called activities will be expressed as final result by the concepts: successful or not successful.

The enrollment in dissertation or thesis will be permitted only to students who comply fully with the following conditions:

  1. Have been successful in all compulsory disciplines of the curriculum;
  2. Have obtained a grade point average (GPA) of 7 (seven) or more;
  3. Have passed the foreign language proficiency test;
  4. Have been successful in the comprehensive exam;

The student will be withdrawn from the postgraduate course, by means of cancellation, in case of:

  1. Have failed twice any discipline, module or activity, including the comprehensive exam;
  2. Not comply with the postgraduate program requirements;
  3. Have not enrolled any discipline, module or activity in the current term;

The comprehensive exam must be finished before the enrollment in dissertation or thesis. The evaluation of the comprehensive exam will be expressed by the following concepts: successful or not successful. The student who fails the comprehensive exam will have a second opportunity if he/she has not failed any other discipline, module or activity.

The dissertation committee (the examining committee at the defense) will consist of at least 3 (three) members and the thesis committee will consist of at least 4 (four) members who have been chosen by the adviser and evaluated by the postgraduate program coordination and faculty, according to established requirements.

It will be considered successful the student who receives the unanimous approval of the examining committee. To obtain a master’s or PhD degree in Public Health, the student has to comply fully with the following conditions:

  1. Be enrolled as a regular student, within the term established by the postgraduate program;
  2. Have been successful in dissertation or thesis, within the expected term;
  3. Have complied fully with the requirements established by the postgraduate program coordination and the UFC university library;

The university will grant the degrees and will issue the respective certificates for the students who have complied fully with the requirements. The certificates have to be requested by the postgraduate program coordination through a proper administrative process, including: the formal request signed by the coordinator; a copy of the dissertation defense report form; a declaration of dissertation defense issued by the coordination; a copy of bachelor’s or master’s degree certificate, according to the course; a copy of Identity Document and a clearance declaration issued by the UFC university library.