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By Kate Hunger 

The School of Health Professions is adding a Ph.D. in Health Sciences to help meet the demand for allied health faculty and researchers with doctoral degrees.

The program also will help support evidence-based practice and outcomes research in allied health, said School of Health Professions Dean David C. Shelledy, Ph.D., RRT, FAARC, FASAHP.

“This will be helpful for our school, other schools of allied health in Texas and for colleges and universities around the country,” Shelledy said.

The program will be offered online and in face-to-face blended formats to students accepted throughout Texas and the U.S. Core courses will be offered online, and specialty courses will be mentored and will be able to be completed remotely, while elective courses will be taken at approved colleges and universities.

“Most students in this program will already be allied health professionals,” Shelledy said.

The program’s coursework falls into three core areas: teaching and education, research methods and statistics, and leadership. Students will be required to complete a doctoral dissertation that involves designing and completing a research study that contributes significant new knowledge to their discipline, Shelledy noted.

“That will be a game-changer for our school,” he said of the dissertation requirement.

Plans call for the program, which is expected to take three years for most students to finish, to enroll five students in its first year and add five students each successive year, bringing the program to a total of 20 students by its fourth year.

The program is pending approval by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges in spring 2020.