Academic Master's and Doctorate Degree in Health Sciences

The University of Caxias do Sul pioneered the implementation of undergraduate courses in the field of health, in the northeast region of Rio Grande do Sul, and has an acknowledged tradition in the field of Medicine, Nursing, Physical Education, Pharmacy and Physiotherapy. Recently, having opened new degree courses such as Radiology, Nutrition, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine, combined with a regular number of specialization and MBA courses, the University has consolidated its role in training health care professionals.

The implementation of the Graduate Program in Health Sciences, in 2016, with the beginning of activities of the Academic Master's Degree, approved and recommended by CAPES, the Coordinating Agency for the Improvement of Personnel in Higher Education, which awarded it 4 points in the classification of academic quality, confirms the intention of continuing the University commitment to:

• Produce scientific knowledge and consolidate research by training researchers, teachers, and other professionals to work in the field of health, having interdisciplinarity as methodological reference.
• Form critical and reflective professionals, capable of intervening in the reality and producing specific knowledge, in order to supply the demands of people and vocational training courses in this area.

The Program seeks greater integration between graduation and post-graduation, encouraging a culture of learning and the dissemination of knowledge, with the expansion of the spectrum of intra and inter-institutional relations on a national and international level. Thus, the aim is to develop, in undergraduate and graduate students, a critical and reflective spirit, and the ability to solve technical and scientific problems.

In 2018 the Program proposed the implementation of a Doctorate course in this field to the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES, and was approved.

Concentration Areas and Lines of Research

Concentration Area 1 - Biomedical Science

Dedicated to studying the conceptual and methodological research base as a tool to study the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of diseases as well as to investigate exposure and molecular and cellular responses to active substances, aggression, stimulation and biomaterials.

Lines of Research

• Pharmacology and Biomarkers and
• Engineering and Cell Therapy
• Biomaterials to be applied in the field of health - DOCTORATE

Concentration Area 2 - Clinical Sciences

Focused on teaching conceptual bases of the different types of clinical and epidemiological studies to test, develop and improve diagnostic methods, procedures, measuring instruments, education, information and intelligent tutoring in health systems.

Lines of Research

• Clinical and Epidemiological Research and
• Maternal and Child Health
• Computer science applied to health sciences - DOCTORATE

Target Audience

Graduates of higher education courses in Health Sciences, Life Sciences, Economics and Exact Sciences

Profile of graduates of the Master's and Doctorate degree in Health Sciences

It establishes the goal of graduating Doctors who are qualified to work as teachers and high level researchers, with autonomous learning, enabling them to improve their skills. The training is necessary to systematize, innovate and generate technical-scientific knowledge in the field of basic and clinical research, to seek positive repercussions on the quality of human life.

At the end of the Doctorate degree in Health Sciences, the professional who bears the title of Doctors should be able to:

• Based on their interests, they should be able to further research the central topic on Health, with a solid theoretical interdisciplinary base;.
• Appropriate scientific knowledge, that allows them to evaluate the different professional performance situations and to develop strategies that result in improvements and changes in population health;
• Act efficiently as an agent of social change, able to better insert themselves into the communities, joining solid knowledge with a capacity of critical and reflexive professional performance;
• Conceive, formulate and implement health actions and policies as well as being capable of developing research applied to concrete problem-solving in different fields, in a perspective integrating knowledge, actions, attitudes and procedures;
• Deal with constant technological changes, exploring creativity and critical reasoning in their professional performance; and
• Execute research projects, based on ethical principles, scientific methodology, epidemiology and statistics

Selection Process

The selection process to enter the Master's and Doctorate in Health Sciences will be held annually, and the number of places in each process will be 12 students for the Master's degree and 16 students for Doctorate one, as per the specific notice issued by the Vice-Presidency of Research and Graduate Studies.

Criteria to obtain the Master's Degree

In order to acquire the title of Master in Health Sciences at least 24 credits will be required, 16 of them in mandatory subjects and the 8 others in elective subjects, English language proficiency, submitting an article for publication to a scientific journal, and defending a dissertation. The subjects with a similar content and workload, offered in this program and in others may be shared. There is also the possibility of accepting equivalent credits taken at other universities. A committee, appointed by the Program's Collegial Body, must evaluate the proposal for subject equivalence.

Criteria to obtain the Doctorate Degree

In order to acquire the title of Doctorate in Health Sciences is necessary:
(1) at least 36 credits will be required, 16 of them in mandatory subjects and the 20 others in elective subjects;
(2) two languages proficiency and, one of them, need necessary be the English language;
(3) submit to the examination to qualify the Thesis in up to six months before they defend it, through presentation of the partial results of their work to the Examining Committee.
(4) to present proof of the submission of two articles for publication in an indexed journal that is classified at least as QUALIS level A2, containing results included in the final paper;
(5) to be enrolled in the course for 2 years at least, or for 4.5 years at most;
(6) defending the Thesis dissertation.
The scientific article, together with the proof of submission, must be accompanied by the full thesis to be presented and defended in a public session. The members of the Jury will be three professors with the title of Doctor, at least one from another institution of higher education.
The student who has obtained all the credits but has not defended the thesis may request a certificate of specialization, as long as they fulfill the appropriate legal requirements.

Program Coordinator

José Mauro Madi