Health Sciences Education (Ph.D.)
Offered by: Institute of Health Sciences Education (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences)
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy
Program Description
The Ph.D. in Health Sciences Education focuses on research training, including investigation into issues related to healthcare, health professions education, and health policy education in the biomedical and health social sciences.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Courses (9 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| HSED 701 | PhD Comprehensive Examination. | 0 |
PhD Comprehensive Examination. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 An examination process covering two components: a written component and an oral component. Submission of a written proposal for examination which, following responses or amendments and re-examination, is the basis of an oral examination. The comprehensive examination must be passed by all doctoral candidates in order to continue in the doctoral program. | ||
| HSED 702D1 | Advanced Topics in Health Sciences Education. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Health Sciences Education. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The relationship between research knowledge and health educational practice, including the continuum of knowledge creation and engagement; education and healthcare systems, including research on: policy, governance and regulation; program design and teaching and learning approaches in health sciences education (HSE); assessment and evaluation frameworks, including: quantitative and qualitative approaches; social accountability in HSE and HSE research including: equity, diversity and inclusion; and professional research skills, including: research management, academic communication in various genres, and research supervision. | ||
| HSED 702D2 | Advanced Topics in Health Sciences Education. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Health Sciences Education. Terms offered: Winter 2026 For description see HSED 702D1. | ||
| HSED 703 | Research Design for Health Sciences Education. | 3 |
Research Design for Health Sciences Education. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Various frameworks, theories and methodologies that contribute to health sciences education (HSE) research, and how these elements fit together to make a particular project coherent. Examination of the character of inter-disciplinary academic contributions and foci in HSE research. Emphasis on different types of research perspectives (such as constructionism, postmodernism and positivism) and approaches (qualitative, quantitative, participatory and mixed-methods). | ||
Complementary Courses (3 credits)
3 credits from the following:
Psychiatry
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| PSYT 625 | Qualitative Research in Health Care. | 3 |
Qualitative Research in Health Care. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Discussion and practice of qualitative methodologies for conducting rigorous and reflective qualitative research projects in health care sector including ethnographic fieldwork and community interviews. | ||
Family Medicine
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| FMED 509 | Epidemiology and Data Analysis in Primary Care 2. | 3 |
Epidemiology and Data Analysis in Primary Care 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Intermediate epidemiological concepts, data analysis, and methods applicable to primary care research. | ||
| FMED 604 | Advanced Participatory Research in Health. | 3 |
Advanced Participatory Research in Health. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Overview of participatory research with community, clinical, and organisational stakeholders. Content focuses on participatory engagement and data collection methods, while students have an opportunity to work through aspects of their participatory project with the help of group discussions, small group work, roleplay, and guest presentations from actual participatory projects. | ||
| FMED 625 | Introduction to Qualitative Research in Health. | 3 |
Introduction to Qualitative Research in Health. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction, discussion, and practice of qualitative methodologies and methods for conducting rigorous and reflective qualitative research projects in health, with particular focus on family medicine education and health professions education. | ||
| FMED 690 | Advanced Ethnography: Context, Complexity and Coordination. | 3 |
Advanced Ethnography: Context, Complexity and Coordination. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Addressing the rationale and assumptions of ethnography, including the practices, processes and strategies to set up, conduct, analyze, write up and provide feedback to participants. This exploration will come from a project based on deep and immersed observation in order to develop an understanding of shared meaning systems (i.e., culture). | ||
Nursing
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| NUR2 702 | Quantitative Research. | 3 |
Quantitative Research. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examination of various experimental, quasi-experimental, correlational, and survey designs with particular focus on the use of these designs in nursing research. | ||
| NUR2 706 | Qualitative Nursing Research. | 3 |
Qualitative Nursing Research. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced examination of the utilization of qualitative research in nursing. | ||
Management
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MGPO 701 | Seminar in Qualitative Methods. | 3 |
Seminar in Qualitative Methods. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Seminar on the foundations of qualitative methods, with emphasis on underlying principles. | ||
Education
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EDEC 707 | Interpretive Inquiry. | 3 |
Interpretive Inquiry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Focus on issues of voice, reflectivity, and representation when using interpretive frameworks in qualitative research. | ||
| EDPE 682 | Univariate/Multivariate Analysis. | 3 |
Univariate/Multivariate Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. General linear model as a unified data analytic system for estimation and hypothesis testing that subsumes regression, analysis of variance, and analysis of covariance for single dependent variables. Introduction to generalizations involving multiple dependent (criterion) variables. Applications oriented toward education, educational psychology and counselling psychology. Experience with data-analysis tools. | ||
| EDPE 687 | Qualitative Methods in Educational Psychology. | 3 |
Qualitative Methods in Educational Psychology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The logics of design and selection of phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, case study and mixed design methods with emphasis on data analysis in light of issues of research purpose, epistemology, reliability and validity. | ||
Sociology
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| SOCI 588 | Biosociology/Biodemography. | 3 |
Biosociology/Biodemography. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will explore linkages between social and biological systems, their influence on health and well-being over the life course, and on health disparities. Topics include classical sociological approaches to biosocial processes, sociobiology (reductionist, but population-based), and newer demographic studies on gen-environment, epigenetic, and stress-metabolic/allostatic processes. | ||
Electives (0-9)
Depending on the student's prior coursework and in consultation with the Supervisor and/or Doctoral Advisory Committee, an additional 0-9 credits of elective courses at the 500 level or higher may be required.