UC San Diego/SDSU Global Health Joint Doctoral Program

Global Health Track in the JDP in Public Health

Since 2007, a PhD in public health with a concentration in global health has been offered by multidisciplinary faculty in UC San Diego’s School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University. Global health relates to health issues and concerns that transcend national borders, class, race, ethnicity, and culture, stresses the commonality of health issues, and calls for collective, partnership-based action to resolve these issues. Accordingly, emphasis is on preparing graduates with the fundamental knowledge, understanding, and specific skills necessary to become public health researchers and professional leaders in global health settings.

Proximity to the U.S./Mexico border and expertise of many current faculty support and encourage a focus on infectious diseases (e.g., HIV, TB, STDs) and health of migrant populations, although students are expected to develop other areas of specialization within the global health concentration. These may be content areas, such as chronic/infectious disease surveillance and prevention, environmental health, health policy, and substance abuse, or methodological areas such as quantitative, qualitative, and spatial research methodologies that are applied to address health problems of global health significance.

Requirements for the joint doctoral degree include:

  • Successful completion of required course work
  • Passing written and oral qualifying examinations
  • Demonstrated proficiency in teaching
  • Demonstrated cultural competence appropriate to dissertation area
  • Completion and successful formal defense of a dissertation

Resources

Co-Directors: