Admission Requirements

Admissions Criteria:

• Master’s degree or Professional degree, minimum A- average, and 
• Demonstrable evidence of capacity to undertake research at the doctoral level, and 
• Demonstrable experience (minimum 3 years) working or studying in a context relevant to global health. 
• International applicants should refer to the international credentials information for their country 
  

Application Requirements and Instructions:

• Transcripts 
  • Please provide transcripts from all undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs, including completed and incomplete degrees and degrees in progress. 
  • Unofficial copies are acceptable; they must be in English or French.  
  • Applicants with an offer of admission will later be invited to submit official transcripts. 

• Statement of Interest  
  • Please develop a statement responding to the following questions (up to 1500 words, single-spaced, no bibliography, avoid repeating the question) 
    1. Share a personal reflection of your motivation, interest, and capacity to pursue a PhD in Global Health.  
    2. Draft an outline of your proposed PhD research including topic, potential methods or frameworks, preferred setting or population, and relevance to global health.  
    3. Consider a minimum of two disciplines that you seek to draw upon, and how they will shape your PhD research. 
    4. State other courses or training you seek to undertake to support your PhD, aside from the required core courses of the program. Applicants who are interested in a cotutelle PhD (that is, a PhD in Global Health and a concurrent PhD from another program within/external to York University) may also use this space to state their interest and rationale, if applicable. 
• Writing sample 
  • Please provide a sample of scholarly written work for which you have been a sole or lead author, and that was developed in an academic or employment context (up to 10 pages, single-spaced). 

• Reference letters 
  • Please provide the contact details of two referees (name, email, position, institution, and department). Minimum 1 academic referee is strongly encouraged unless your last degree was awarded over 5 years ago. 
  • Referees should be able to speak to your experience and interest in global health, and capacity to undertake doctoral-level studies. They will be asked to rate your performance on a number of indicators (required), and invited to share additional comments (optional but highly recommended).
  • The application portal defaults to three referees but the School of Global Health will only review the first two references received.  

• Curriculum vitae 
  • Please showcase your qualifications and experience in global health, as follows (up to 3 pages, single-spaced):  
    1. Name  
    2. Contact information  
    3. Education, including complete, incomplete degrees, and degrees in progress 
    4. Work experience, including research, professional practice, teaching, voluntary, and other  
    5. Presentations, publications, and contributions to collective outputs (applicants should specify their role in collective outputs)  
    6. Other relevant experience or skills 

• Supplementary information 
  • Awards (response is optional). Applicants, particularly international applicants, are invited to indicate if they applied for or won an award to support their PhD. 
  • Language skills (response is required). Applicants are expected to rate their competency in English and other languages, where applicable. 
  • Ranked list of areas of specialization (response is not applicable). Applicants are expected to leave this field blank. 
  • Supervising professors (response is required). Applicants are expected to name up to three professors they hope to work with in order of preference. Proposed professors must be faculty members at the School of Global Health (minimum 1) and/or another program at York University. Applicants may expand on their correspondence with named professors within their statement of interest, where applicable.  
  • Self-identification statement and description of lived experience (response is optional). Applicants are invited to use this space to support their statement of purpose if they wish.  

• Other information collected during the application process: 
  • Name, identity, citizenship, language, address, contact information, demographic information, previous education including names of institutions, degrees, start and end dates, and a declaration and consent. 
  • Goal in full or part-time study, start date, and degree selected. Applicants are advised to state a start date of September/Fall 2024 and select the PhD in Global Health degree. Graduate program funding is only available to full-time domestic students.  
  • Evidence of English language proficiency is required of all applicants who earned their last degree in a country where English is not the first language (regardless of previous degrees, education, or citizenship).