SYLLABI & COURSES STRUCTURE- Go University- Ghana/Global

 

FAQ: Applying to Graduate School- Go University

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Q:What is the purpose of graduate school?

 

Undergraduate education gives students a broad, general education. Graduate education provides students with more advanced learning in a specialized discipline or sub-discipline. Graduate school gives an in-depth understanding such that the student becomes something of an expert in the topic of study. A good graduate program also teaches advanced skills in such areas as problem-solving, mathematics, writing, oral presentation, and technology, each as applied to the particular field of study.

 

Q:What is the different between M.A./M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs?

 

M.A./M.S. and Ph.D. students usually take the same courses, although Ph.D. students may be required to take more courses than M.A./M.Sc. students (sometimes the opposite is true).The major difference between these degrees is in the level of original thinking that is expected. Ph.D.’s are trained to be leaders of research and research groups, conceiving and promoting new ideas. M.A./M.Sc. students, on the other hand, are trained to participate as part of a team carrying out advanced work. They may or may not become team leaders.

 

Q:When should I go to graduate school?

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Graduate school is appropriate at any age and stage of life. Some students go to graduate school directly after finishing their undergraduate education. However, many others undertake graduate studies after having been out of school for some period of time. You should go to graduate school when you are ready to get the most out of the experience. The purpose of graduate schooling is to learn material that you expect to use professionally or want to know for personal satisfaction.

 

Q:Where should I apply to graduate school?

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You should apply to graduate programs that offer courses of study that you are interested in and that have faculty who are known for their expertise in your area of interest. Always remember one thing: if you are in doubt about whether or not you are qualified for a graduate program, apply to that program and let them make the decision about whether or not they want you. You may not be a good judge about which graduate programs will want you as a student and which will not want you. JUST APPLY TO US NOW AND LET US BE THE JUDGE.

 

Q:How important are my test scores and gentsrades for my graduate school application?

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Graduate applications are evaluated by the department to which you apply, and every department evaluates graduate applications different. Include your undergraduate or advanced diploma certificates. Mature students with higher education or specialist education with long term working experience may apply.

 

Q:What is a Curriculum Vitae (CV)?

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You must attach your CV to your application. A CV is a summary document listing all of your professional experience and publications or other products. You should list and briefly summarize each professional position you have had, state all professional affiliations in professional societies (and any offices held), mention any awards or scholarships you have received, patents acquired, and list all publications, both those pertinent to you work as well as other published material of note. Special items such as project reports, computer programs, conferences organized, etc., should also be mentioned. A CV should be concise but informative about all aspects of your professional work.

 

Q:How should I write a statement of purpose?

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A statement of purpose is used by the faculty evaluating graduate applications to determine how well an applicant will fit into their graduate program. A statement of purpose will also be used to help match up a graduate student with interested faculty. Be as specific as possible about your goals for graduate study and for your professional aspirations beyond graduate school. Also, give a concise summary of any relevant work or experience in your background that has prepared you for graduate work or has honed your professional interests. Also, be sure your statement of purpose is well written, since it may be the only writing sample upon which your

written skills can be evaluated directly.

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Q:How important are letters of recommendation for my graduate school application?

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Letters of recommendation from faculty members who have taught you or supervised a major piece of work (i.e., undergraduate thesis, summer research project, laboratory research assistant, etc.) are the most valuable if they substantiate your capabilities, especially the ability to do creative work with minimal supervision. Letters from persons outside academia are less useful, since they seldom can evaluate the potential for outstanding academic performance.

 

Q:What financial aid is available for graduate school?

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Financial aid can take the form of  from government and private agencies. Government

and private loans are also available. There are many sources of graduate school funding available, and so it is to your advantage to learn about them and apply for them.

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Steps for Admission

Explore

With nearly 50 fields of study, your critical first step in the

admission process is to identify the field  in with which

you wish to study.

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Prepare

At Go University, graduate admissions decisions are made

by Graduate committee in your proposed field of study. 

Although the Graduate School coordinates the

admission process and establishes minimum requirements

for admission, application deadlines and additional

requirements vary by field of study and degree program.

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Apply

All application materials should be uploaded with your online application.  Please do not send unsolicited additional materials to your proposed field of study or the Graduate School.

 

Check your status

You may check the status of your application by mail. Please allow at least 7 days for your status to be updated.

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Ph.D. in Health Services Research

 

The Ph.D. program in Health Services Research prepares individuals to help inform government officials, corporate leaders, clinicians, health plan managers and others making choices about complex health-related problems and issues. Students in the Ph.D. Program in Health Services Research learn to apply research methods and scientific knowledge to the study of health services organizations and systems. Throughout the program, students acquire the skills of analytic and critical thinking essential to conducting health services research.

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Duration 2/3 years

 

 

Credit Hours, Modular and Semester System

 Credit Hours and Semester System

The unit of credit used is the semester hour. The University follows the semester system in which the academic year is divided into two instructional semesters with each having 20 weeks of instruction plus a final examination period. Additional instructional periods such as intersession, blocks, sessions, short, and extended class periods are offered. The amount of credit hours awarded for courses is based upon the instructional time and the type (lecture or lab) of course.

Students receives 2 lecture periods per day of 90 minutes per lecture or laboratory or presentation/assignment/selfstudy sessions.

=10 lectures per week x 90 minutes=900 minutes contact lectures per week

900 minutes x20 weeks in a semester=18000 lecture minutes=300 lecture hours per semester.

Laboratory and studio courses meet for the equivalent of 5 hours per week.  Courses which include both lecture and laboratory type meetings will utilize the appropriate combination of the above guidelines; as will all courses taken for credit, regardless of length.

College courses taught in a shorter period of time than regular semester courses described in this catalog shall meet the same number of hours for both lecture and laboratories as required if offered on a semester or summer session basis. Laboratory sessions and activity-type courses which are primarily characterized by hands-on, experimental, and skill-building activities shall be in session. Workshop courses may vary, depending on the situation. Some workshops fall into the hands-on, activity-type category while others are structured primarily as lecture classes taught in a more intensive, abbreviated format.

Some courses include "clinical" contact hours which represent the number of hours per week the course will meet in clinical experiences outside the classroom (i.e., nursing, physical therapy, etc.). Normally clinical hours will require three or more hours per week per hour of credit.

Courses with no standard lecture or laboratory contact hours indicate class time is spent outside the normal classroom environment (i.e., field study, internships, practicums, research, service learning, supervised teaching, thesis, etc.). The number of contact hours is determined by agreement between instructor and student.

 

Program Information

The content covered in these courses consists of the basic competencies regarding the healthcare system that are expected of Ph.D. graduates:

Foundation Courses (Taught Every Year)

• Health Care System

• Health Insurance Systems

• Intro to Management of HS Organizations

• Health Policy Theories

• Health Economics

• Epidemiology

• Statistics Methods for Research I

• Regression Analysis

  The following seminars cover the core areas of competency in health services research:

  Core Courses (Taught Every Other Year)

• Costs & Financing

• Access & Utilization

• Quality & Outcomes Health Sociology

• Health Services Organizational Research

• Health Policy Research

• Advanced Health Economics

  Health Services Research Methods Courses (Taught Every Year)

  These courses provide the quantitative skills required for a successful career in health services research. The supporting field or minor area methods course is chosen in conjunction with the student’s supporting program or minor area program of study:

• HSR Research Methods I

• HSR Research Methods II

• Survey Research Methods

• Supporting Field or Minor Area Methods

• Advanced Statistics

  Advanced Seminars

  Students take these courses to prepare for the preliminary examinations and the defense, and to further refine and hone their ability to become productive health services researchers:

• Advanced Seminar: Integrative (Each Semester)

• Advanced Seminar: Grant Proposal (Each Semester)

• Advanced Seminar: Defense (Each Semester)

• Advanced Seminar: Professional Development (Each Semester)

  Supporting Field or Minor Area

  Students must choose either a supporting field or a minor area. Students create these programs of study and submit them for approval by the faculty. A minor area must be approved by the relevant department at the University in addition to approval by the student’s Supervisory Committee. Examples of supporting programs, including related methods courses, are shown below. Other potential areas of supporting or minor programs could include health policy, health outcomes, finance, epidemiology, medical sociology and other health related areas.

  Example of Supporting Program: Organization Science

• Concepts and methods in the behavioral sciences

• Organization theory

• Organization behavior

• Complex organizations

• Seminar: research in social psychology

  Example of Supporting Program: Health Economics

• Econometric models and methods

• Microeconomic theory I

• Microeconomic theory II

• Welfare economics and the second best

•  Empirical public economics

   

  Electives

  Electives may be taken in areas that fit the student’s program of study and are approved by the student’s Supervisory Committee.

   

  Preliminary Examinations

  Taken near the end of the program course work (after the second year), preliminary examinations are intended to evaluate the student’s mastery of the field. The examinations assess the degree to which students can demonstrate (a) a thorough understanding of the body of knowledge composing the field of health services research and its practice ;(b) knowledge of the methodological approaches whereby health services research is conducted; and (c) ability to integrate the material.

  Qualifying Examination

  Subsequent to the successful completion of preliminary examinations, students in the Ph.D. program are required to prepare and submit a formal proposal outlining their anticipated dissertation research. The dissertation proposal will be submitted to the student’s Supervisory Committee, and a meeting will scheduled in which the proposal will be orally presented and defended by the student. Successful oral defense of an acceptable written dissertation proposal together constitute the program’s qualifying examination.

  Admission to Candidacy

  Ph.D. students are formally admitted to candidacy for the degree when they have successfully completed all required coursework, passed the preliminary examinations, and accomplished a successful oral defense of the dissertation research proposal.

  Dissertation

  Ph.D. students are required to prepare and submit a dissertation that demonstrates independent investigation and scholarship, meeting the format requirements of the Graduate School. The dissertation must be presented and orally defended before the student’s supervisory committee. Other faculty may also be present at the final defense. A minimum of two semesters must elapse between the successful defense of the dissertation proposal and the final defense of the completed dissertation. The semester in which the proposal is defended may count as one of the two required semesters only if oral defense of the dissertation proposal takes place prior to the midpoint of the semester.

  Admission to the Program

   Completion of a high-quality, rigorous doctoral education in Health Services Research requires that students devote their attention to passionate and devoted study. The program admits students with diverse education, work, and life experiences who have demonstrated a capacity to pursue a rigorous course of doctoral study.

   

   

   

  Competencies

• Know how to apply alternative theoretical and conceptual models from a range of relevant disciplines to HSR.

• Apply in-depth disciplinary knowledge and skills relevant to health services research.

• Use knowledge of the structures, performance, quality, policy, and environmental context of health and health care to formulate solutions for health policy problems.

• Pose innovative and important research questions, informed by systematic reviews of the literature, stakeholder needs, and relevant theoretical and conceptual models.

• Select appropriate interventional (experimental and quasi-experimental) or observational (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods) study designs to address specific health services research questions.

• Know how to collect primary health and health care data obtained by survey, qualitative, or mixed methods.

• Know how to assemble secondary data from existing public and private sources.

• Use a conceptual model to specify study constructs for a health services research question and develop variables that reliably and validly measure these constructs.

• Implement research protocols with standardized procedures that ensure reproducibility of the science.

• Ensure the ethical and responsible conduct of research in the design, implementation, and dissemination of health services research.

• Work collaboratively in multi-disciplinary teams.

• Use appropriate analytical methods to clarify associations between variables and to delineate causal inferences.

• Effectively communicate the findings and implications of health services research through multiple modalities to technical and lay audiences.

• Understand the importance of collaborating with policymakers, organizations, and communities to plan, conduct, and translate health services research into policy and practice.

   

   

  Ph.D. Course Descriptions

  -Internship in Health Services Research - Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Supervised fieldwork.

  -Supervised Research

  -Research Seminar in Health Services Research- Research presentations

  -Supervised Teaching

  -Seminar in Health Care Access and Utilization  Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Overview of context and processes in which individuals seek and obtain health care services; distributional issues; equity.

   – Health Services Organizational Research  Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Major perspectives in organization theory and their applications to health care sector.

   – Research Foundations of Health Policy  Prerequisite: permission of instructor. In-depth examination of  Britain health policy issues concerning cost, quality, and access, and interdisciplinary research methods used to address such issues.

   – Seminar in Health Care Costs and financing  Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Examination of health services research related to costs and financing. Cost measurement and analysis, health insurance, sources and methods of payment, current policy.

   – Society, Health, and Medical Care Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Overview of health and medical care as sociocultural phenomena; health behaviors, health care organizations, and health services delivery in social and historical context.

  – Advanced Health Economics  Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Exposure to advanced economics models of health care sector, including static and dynamic models of consumer and producer behavior, risk selection in insurance markets, and optimal reimbursement mechanisms.

   – Health Services Research Methods I  Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Current and historical thinking about philosophy of science and scientific modeling. Experimental and quasi-experimental design. Introduction to measurement and sampling.

   – Health Services Research Methods II  Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Review and appraisal of methods. Findings and examples from historical and contemporary studies. Introduction to qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

   – Quality and Outcomes in Health Services Research Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Current research concerning small area variation, outcomes, appropriateness, and effectiveness. Theory and specifics of alternative quality improvement and assurance approaches. History of approaches to health care quality assessment.

   – Advanced Individual Study in Health Services Research

   – Advanced Seminar in Health Services Research  Prerequisite: completion of graduate core program and preliminary dissertation topic.

  – Advanced Research Research for doctoral students before admission to candidacy. Designed for students with a master’s degree in the field of study or for students who have been accepted for a doctoral program.

   – Research for Doctoral Dissertation

   

  PhD Plan of Study

PhD Program in Health Services Research

COURSE          TITLE               CREDITS

 

 

INTRODUCTORY                      

no credit

Introduction to Public Health

 0

FOUNDATIONS                         (Taught Every Year)

 Health Care System

 3

Health Insurance System

 3

Health Economics

 3

Introduction to Bio statistical Methods

 3

Regression Methods for Health & Life Sciences

 3

Principles of Epidemiology

 3

 

                                    (Taught Every Other Year)

Healthcare Costs & Financing

 5

Health Care Access & Utilization

 5

Quality & Outcomes in Health Services Research

 5

Health Services Organizational Research

 5

Society, Health & Medicine

 5

Research Foundations of Health Policy

 5

Advanced Health Economics

 5

 

HSR METHODS                         (Taught Every Year)

Health Services Research Methods I

 10

Health Services Research Methods II

 10

Survey Research Methods

 5

Methods Elective

 5

 

SUPPORTING FIELD

Supporting Field Course I

 5

Supporting Field Course II

 5

Supporting Field Course III

 5

Supporting Field Course IV

 5

 

ADVANCED SEMINARS

Advanced Seminar in Health Services Research   (integrative)

 10

Advanced Seminar in Health Services Research           (grant proposal)

 10

 

 

Advanced Research (Dissertation Proposal)

 15

Research for Doctoral Dissertation

15

 

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

Practical Supervised Research

 variable

Supervised Teaching

 variable

Research Seminar in Health Services Research

 10

Scientific Writing for the Rehabilitation Professional

 3

                                                                         

 

 

PhD Course Syllabi

 

•  Health Services Research Methods II

•  PH Quality and Outcomes

•  Advanced Health Economics

   

•  Health Services Research Methods II

•  Research Foundations of Health Policy

•  Health Services Organizational Research Methods

•  Research Seminar

   

•  Health Care Access & Utilization

•  Health Care Cost & Financing

   

•  Health Services Research Methods II

•  Advanced Health Economics

•  Public Health Quality and Outcomes

•  Research Seminar

•  Health Service Research Methods I

•  Research Seminar

   

   

NB: Extra info; refer Go university Research Methodology outfit in the course catalouge in your selfstudy login portal after enrollment