PRESENTATION
The Graduate Program in Collective Health (PPGSC) was created in 2005 with the Department of Preventive Medicine of the Paulista School of Medicine. This is a multidisciplinary program that covers the three areas of knowledge in Collective Health: 1) Epidemiology, 2) Policy, Planning and Health Management, and 3) Social and Human Sciences in Health. From its creation to today, most of the PPGSC faculty has renewed due to retirements and new teaching exams. When initially created, PPGSC had aging, indigenous health and diabetes as main axes of study. The faculty change over the years reflected the alteration of the main lines of research in the program. Today, they are: 1) "Health, Society and Ways of Life," 2) "Longevity, Chronic Conditions and Quality of Life," and 3) "Work and Care Management and/in Health." These lines of research address population aging, drug abuse and violence, immigration and health, Mindfulness, gender issues and sexual identity, humanization in health, as well as innovative proposals for management in the Unified Health System and interventions evaluation.
Most PPGSC professors have postdoctoral training, dedication of at least 20 hours per week to activities of the program, international partnership in top universities, and are highly specialized in at least one of the major areas of Collective Health. Most PPGSC students are health professionals, but some of them are master's and doctoral students graduated in statistics, sociology, social communication, pedagogy, law, business administration, among others. To deal with this diversity of training, PPGSC has offered disciplines at different levels of complexity, so that it can encompass the needs of students from different undergraduate trainings. In addition, PPGSC has encouraged students from different regions of Brazil to come and, now, from outside the country, reserving part of the scholarships for these students.
PPGSC has a wide social insertion with experience in the area of elderly health (Outpatient Clinic of Aging—linked to the Epidoso Project), in indigenous health (Xingu Project), in drug use and abuse (CEBRID and Epiprev), by the Centro Mente Aberta—Mindfulness, in extension level training on interculturality, mental health and immigration, in the Humanities Laboratory (linked to the Center for History and Philosophy of Health Sciences (CeHFi)), and by extension projects in public schools on drug use prevention. It is important to note that these activities are directly related to the advisors’ research projects, most of them with funding from various funding agencies and involving undergraduate and graduate students.
UNIFESP's PPGSC aims to train masters and doctors qualified to act as professors and/or researchers in the area of Collective Health. These are specific objectives: to qualify professionals who already work in the area (services, or national or foreign public/private HEIs) and to contribute to the formation of new research centers in the area of collective health.
Basic Standards for Master's and Doctorate
Master’s degree
Master's degree aims to graduate researchers mastering their field of knowledge and enable them to develop skills and competences for teaching. To obtain the title of master, the graduate student, approved in a selection process to join the program within a maximum period of 24 (twenty-four) months, must:
Have the research project approved by the Research Ethics Committee of UNIFESP;
Complete 48 (forty-eight) credit units in disciplines and scheduled activities (each unit is equal to 15 hours of class);
Complete and be approved in mandatory disciplines and activities;
Have been approved in the Qualification Exam to be carried out within 8 months after enrollment;
Present, at a scientific event of Collective Health or similar, at least one abstract with the partial or final results of the thesis, with the advisor as one of the authors;
Present to the advisor all the original data resulted from your research work;
Publicly defend the thesis on a date to be scheduled by presenting a document proving the submission of at least one article in an indexed journal (a letter from the journal acknowledging receipt of the articles submission for publication), with the student as author and the advisor as co-author;
Get approval for the thesis;
Hand in the thesis final version (after board correction) in the PPGSC board of education, with the advisor’s consent document, sent to the Pro-Rectory of Research and Graduate Studies with the minutes of the examination session, signed by the examination board, and documentation evidencing compliance with all PPGSC specific requirements, signed by the PPGSC advisor and coordinator.
Meet the other requirements provided for by the Graduate Studies Commission (CEPG) and the Graduate and Research Council (CPGPq).
Doctorate
The doctoral course aims to deepen the researcher’s training, being able to conduct original research, with mastery of Collective Health and related areas. To obtain the title of doctor the student must, within 48 months:
Have the research project approved by the Research Ethics Committee of UNIFESP;
Obtain 72 (seventy-two) credit units in disciplines and scheduled activities (each unit is equal to 15 hours of scheduled activity);
Complete and be approved in mandatory disciplines and activities;
Have been approved in the Qualification Exam to be carried out within 15 months after enrollment;
Present, at a scientific event of Collective Health or similar, at least one abstract with the partial or final results of the dissertation, with the advisor as one of the authors;
Present to the advisor all the original data resulted from your research work;
Submit half–yearly activity report to PPGSC coordination;
Publicly defend the dissertation on a date to be scheduled by presenting a document proving the submission of at least one article in an indexed journal (a letter from the journal acknowledging receipt of the articles submission for publication), with the student as author and the advisor as co-author;
Get approval for the dissertation;
Hand in the dissertation final version (after board correction) in the PPGSC board of education, with the advisor’s consent document, sent to the Pro-Rectory of Research and Graduate Studies with the minutes of the examination session, signed by the examination board, and documentation evidencing compliance with all PPGSC specific requirements, signed by the PPGSC advisor and coordinator.
Meet the other requirements provided for by the Graduate Studies Commission (CEPG) and the Graduate and Research Council (CPGPq).