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The School of Public Health and Family Medicine has an active doctoral program, with over 30 PhD students registered at any one time. Our PhD is by research thesis only, i.e. there is no coursework component. Candidates work individually under supervision. However, where a candidate requires strengthening in a particular skills area, the Department may recommend that the candidate register for and complete one or more modules in our MPH programme as a prerequisite.

PhDs in the program cover a wide range of subject areas, including: infectious and non-communicable disease; occupational health; environmental health; women's health; health economics, health policy analysis and other health systems research; and health and human rights. Methodology may be drawn from epidemiology, policy studies, economics or other social and behavioural sciences.

There is a very high demand for doctoral placements in our School, and we are only able to accept fewer than 5% of applicants each year. This is partly due to a limited capacity to supervise PhD students, but also because many of the applications we receive do not fit the areas of expertise of senior staff in our School. Anyone interested in applying to our School for PhD study should therefore carefully review the guidelines below to check whether you meet all the requirements fully before submitting an application.

Who should apply for PhD studies in our Department?

There are two pre-requisites for being considered for acceptance for PhD studies in our School:

• You must have the necessary training to undertake doctoral level research on your chosen topic. In general, this means that you must have successfully completed a masters degree (most frequently an MPH) that includes all the background coursework to equip you to undertake research in your chosen area. For example, if you are intending to undertake an epidemiological study, you must have a MPH degree from a well-recognised university that included several courses in epidemiology and biostatistics. Similarly, if you wish to undertake health economics research, you require a masters degree that includes a range of health economics courses. If you intend undertaking mixed methods research in your PhD, you need to already have received training in qualitative and quantitative methods. You should also have undertaken research before, e.g. a masters dissertation. Finally, you must be proficient in written English (we may require you to take a proficiency test).
• Your proposed PhD research topic should be in line with our School's areas of expertise making it possible to identify a supervisor with the necessary content knowledge to provide effective supervisory support. It is your responsibility to review the areas of expertise of our current PhD supervisors carefully to ensure a good fit between your topic and our expertise. We provide a summary of supervisors' areas of interest on this page and a link to each person's webpage. We suggest you review information on potential supervisors' research projects and publications on their webpage and where there is inadequate information on their webpage, Google their publications. Please do not contact potential supervisors directly as they are not able to respond to queries due to time constraints. We will only consider complete applications at the four dates specified below. All information required for completing your application is contained on this webpage and the associated links.

We consider PhD applications four times a year. The closing dates for applications are:

• 31 January
• 30 April
• 31 July
• 31 October

Four sets of documents must be submitted to Faranaaz Bennett:

• A detailed curriculum vitae (including a list of any publications, using an accepted journal citation method, and a description of your role in any unpublished research projects in which you have participated).
• An electronic copy of academic transcripts for previous degrees, which should indicate what courses you have completed and the mark achieved for each course (this is essential for assessing your level of preparedness to undertake doctoral level research with respect to research methodology and content area).
• A concept note of the research envisaged in the PhD, of about 3-5 pages. This should include a brief introduction outlining the rationale for the research, initial research questions, aim and objectives and a brief description of the envisaged methods. The rationale should indicate why you think the research is original, as this is a requirement for doctoral work.
• A covering letter that explains why you want to undertake PhD research (especially how the PhD fits into your career plan), and that provides the name of a potential supervisor(s) within the School (i.e. indicating the member(s) of staff who you believe is (are) actively engaged in research related to your proposed PhD research topic).

What is the process if your application is successful?

If a possible supervisor within the Department is identified, they will support you to develop your research idea into a detailed research proposal. This proposal must then be presented in a Departmental seminar, which is attended by staff and other postgraduate students. Three senior staff will comprise a committee, which will review the written proposal before the seminar and provide feedback during the seminar. This seminar allows for a full assessment of the feasibility of the proposed research for a doctoral thesis and the ability of the candidate to successfully complete the proposed thesis.

Still have questions?

Due to the volume of enquiries we receive about PhD studies, we may be unable to respond individually and timeously to specific queries. Usually, the answers to these questions are available in the general documentation on PhD studies at UCT. We would request that you review this documentation carefully as most of the questions sent to us are already addressed in these documents. We also provide responses to some FAQs below.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a specific date on which I can start my PhD studies?

You can start working on your PhD at any time during the year - there is no specific date for registration.

Is the PhD full-time or could I do it part-time?

You can either do a PhD full-time or part-time. We generally expect someone to complete their PhD within 3 years if registered full-time and within 5 years if registered part-time. UCT has a requirement of a minimum registration of 2 years before the PhD thesis can be submitted for examination and a maximum registration period of 5 years. You should be committed to completing your thesis within 5 years if you would like to undertake your PhD on a part-time basis.

If I am not based in Cape Town, how much of my time do I need to spend there?

Some of our doctoral students are based in other parts of South Africa or in another African country. We do offer a 'sandwich' PhD option, which means that you spend about 6 months (or more depending on your progress) in Cape Town undertaking a detailed literature review and preparing your full proposal and methodological tools. After your proposal has been approved by our doctoral thesis committee, you can return home to undertake data collection and initial data analysis. During this time, you can continue engagement with your supervisor via e-mail, Skype and other means. We recommend that you then spend up to a year in Cape Town to finalise your analysis, draft your thesis and finalise your thesis. The proposal development and thesis write-up periods are critical times for you to have frequent, direct one-on-one engagement with your supervisor. UCT has a requirement that a PhD candidate should "attend at the University for a period or periods totalling at least one year" (i.e. in general, you should spend a total of at least one year based at UCT).

What is the cost of PhD studies?

University fees are set on an annual basis, so you should look at the Fees Handbook to get the latest information. There is a standard PhD fee as well as an international fee that applies to students from outside South Africa or other SADC countries. Please see the Fees handbook

Does UCT offer a 'PhD by papers?'

UCT does not accept a 'PhD by papers' in the sense in which it is sometimes used, i.e. by accumulating a number of articles you have written and binding them together for submission.

You are allowed to include previously published material, i.e. you can include articles that have been published during the time you have been working on your PhD, but they need to 'fit' coherently into the overall thesis. Each article included needs to be strongly related to the rest of the thesis and there needs to be a single aim and set of objectives for the whole PhD. The PhD thesis that incorporates published articles needs to be comparable to a monograph PhD thesis, in that it must have a detailed introduction, a very detailed literature review, either separate methods and results chapters or chapters that include the methods and results of that sub-study, a chapter which discusses in detail the overall findings and a concluding chapter. The articles need to have a common theme and fit together as a coherent whole. In summary, the thesis cannot just be a collection of articles - the introduction, literature review, overall discussion and conclusion chapters are unlikely to be feasible to present in the form of publishable articles. It is important to note that you can only include articles where the research has been undertaken while under PhD supervision.

Masters by Dissertation

Our major masters programme is the Masters in Public Health, which combines course work with a dissertation. However, occasionally, we do accept students who wish to undertake a masters consisting only of dissertation research. The process for applying to undertake a masters by dissertation research is the same as for a PhD.

You need to submit the same documentation by the same dates, and should give the same consideration to the fit between your desired area of research and our staff's research expertise. The main distinction between masters by dissertation and a PhD is that masters research is less extensive and has a much shorter dissertation. In addition, while a PhD has to represent a major new contribution to knowledge, this is not required in a Masters dissertation.

Departmental staff who are able to supervise PhD students

Name	Key areas of research interest and expertise	Link to detailed biography
Boulle, Andrew	HIV cohort epidemiology Infectious disease clinical epidemiology HIV, TB and chronic disease programme evaluation	http://www.cider.uct.ac.za/staff/staff_boulle.php
Cleary, Susan	Health care access Health care organizational culture Patient-centered care Priority setting and decision-making	http://heu-uct.org.za/about-heu/staff/dr-susan-cleary/
Colvin, Christopher	Community/health system engagement Community health workers, task optimization in infectious disease, maternal and child health Health activism and health citizenship Masculinity and HIV/AIDS Qualitative research methods in health	http://www.cider.uct.ac.za/staff/staff_colvin.php
Cooper, Diane	Socio-behavioural research in the areas of: Sexual and Reproductive Health with a particular focus on: Contraception HIV and Reproductive Health linkages Safer conception in the context of HIV Women's Health Gender and Health Qualitative research methods in health
Dalvie, Aqiel	Occupational and environmental health effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals with particular focus on: agricultural pesticides, DDT, reproduction, pubertal development, respiration, exposure assessment, pollution Occupational and environmental health effects of toxic metals	http://www.coehr.uct.ac.za/staff/staff_dalvie.php
Ehrlich, Rodney	Occupational medicine/health, including compensation systems; Epidemiology of chronic lung disease including tuberculosis; Social epidemiology; Epidemiology of hypertension.	http://www.coehr.uct.ac.za/staff/staff_ehrlich.php
Gilson, Lucy	Health system governance and decision-making Health policy implementation and health system change Health policy analysis Equity and health system development	http://heu-uct.org.za/about-heu/staff/professor-lucy-gilson/
Harries, Jane	Social and behavioural research including: Sexual and reproductive health and rights Women's health and gender
Honda, Ayako	Health financing and universal coverage Analysis of implementation processes for health system strengthening from the organisational and institutional perspectives Incentives and social norms in health worker motivation and retention	http://heu-uct.org.za/about-heu/staff/dr-ayako-honda/
Jeebhay, Mohamed	Workplace allergens and asthma (with a special focus on seafood): exposure characterization markers for allergic sensitisation and inflammation risk factors exposure-response relationships interventions for occupational asthma Occupational health services development, occupational health and safety law and worker's compensation in South Africa	http://www.coehr.uct.ac.za/staff/staff_jeebhay.php
Johnson, Leigh	Mathematical modelling of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections	http://www.cider.uct.ac.za/staff/staff_johnson.php
London, Leslie	Occupational and environmental health: Occupational health of farm workers Hazards of pesticides and neurotoxic chemicals Environmental justice TB hazards for health workers and their prevention Human rights and health policy The right to health and community participation as a vehicle for health rights; community voice in health policy Public health ethics Dual loyalty, human rights and professional practice Workplace discrimination and HIV Ethical issues in managing drug-resistant TB Alcohol policy and prevention, including prevention of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome	http://www.coehr.uct.ac.za/staff/staff_london.php
Mathews, Cathy	Adolescent sexual and reproductive health HIV prevention Women's health and gender	http://www.mrc.ac.za/healthsystems/contact.htm
McIntyre, Diane	Health financing reforms for universal coverage: Evaluation of health system relative to universal coverage goal and identifying reform options Monitoring and evaluation of universal coverage reform implementation Equity and efficiency in health service purchasing, including provider payment mechanisms Equity in access to health services	http://heu-uct.org.za/about-heu/staff/professor-di-mcintyre/
Moodley, Jennifer	Women's Health including: cervical cancer, breast cancer, contraception, termination of pregnancy, HIV and reproductive health
Myer, Landon	Maternal and child health, including pregnancy/ postpartum health issues, contraception, and service delivery concerns, with particular focus on HIV/AIDS Infectious diseases epidemiology focusing on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections	http://www.cider.uct.ac.za/staff/staff_myer.php
Myers, Jonny	Occupational health Epidemiology	http://www.coehr.uct.ac.za/staff/staff_myers.php
Reid, Steve	Primary Health Care Rural Health Community-oriented primary care Human resources for health, especially in underserved areas Compulsory community service Medical education for rural practice / Social accountability Family Medicine in Africa Healthcare and the Arts / Medical humanities
Rother, Andrea	Occupational and environmental health including: Chemicals and pesticides Policy analysis Exposure assessment Social and behavioural research Qualitative research methods Health interventions Climate change Sustainable agriculture Social & environmental justice & ethics Health Risk Management with particular focus on risk communication, risk perception, risk analysis, risk governance	http://www.coehr.uct.ac.za/staff/staff_rother.php
Sinanovic, Edina	Economic evaluation of health hare interventions, especially in relation to tuberculosis Economic considerations in vaccination Scaling up health interventions Public-private partnerships	http://heu-uct.org.za/about-heu/staff/dr-edina-sinanovic/

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