Degrees Offered: College of Pharmacy

Doctor of Pharmacy Administration

 

• Comprehensive Exams
• Degree Requirements

 

The degree track in Pharmacy Administration consists of core courses in pharmacy administration, research methods and statistical analysis and specialty PhD level Pharmacy Administration courses. These courses provide essential training and preparation for the comprehensive exam and thesis defense. The course of study to complete the degree is anticipated to take approximately four years after obtaining a Master’s degree.

The student must complete a minimum of 70 hours for the Ph.D. degree, including 19 credit hours of dissertation research and defense and a minimum of 18 credit hours of graduate or doctoral degree courses approved by the departmental faculty. A maximum of 18 hours of related graduate coursework completed while the student has been a post-baccalaureate student at the University of Houston may be transferred upon the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies. In accordance with the University of Houston guidelines, the department may approve a maximum of 9 hours of transfer credits from another institution. Transferred credit will only be considered for coursework earning a grade of B or better. A minimum of 18 hours of elective courses are required of which 9 hours should be 7000 level or higher.

A minimum cumulative grade point average of at least 3.00 (A=4.00) must be maintained in all graduate-level courses required for the Ph.D. degree in order to obtain an advanced degree from the College of Pharmacy. Graduate-level courses are defined as all courses required for the Ph.D. degree as defined either by the department and/or dissertation committee.

Graduate students are allowed only 3 'C' grades throughout the PhD program. Students will be automatically put on probation upon receipt of their second 'C' grade and will be withdrawn from the program upon receipt of their third ‘C’ grade.  Additionally, students receiving a grade below 'C' in any core course are required to repeat the course during its next offering.  A student with a D, F, or I as the most recent grade in a graduate level course for a degree plan will not be eligible for graduation.

Comprehensive Exams

Students have to take a written comprehensive exam before taking the oral comprehensive exam.

Written Comprehensive Exam

All students will be required to pass a written comprehensive exam before collecting data for their dissertation.  Students will be eligible to take the comprehensive exams after completion of all courses in the core curriculum and at least 12 credit hours of electives of which 6 credit hours should be at the 7000 level or higher.  Students should inform their major advisor at least a semester in advance when they are ready to take their comprehensive exam. Comprehensive exams will be offered during the second week of the fall and spring semesters.

The written exam consists of three tests, each encompassing: pharmacy administration, statistics/research methods and area of emphasis.  Each test will be a 4 hour test and students will have to complete all three tests within a one week period. Students will be required to pass each test with a minimum of 80% competency to be considered to have passed the comprehensive exam.  Students that do not pass a specific test or the complete exam will be requested to take a similar test or the exam again, but within 2 months of receiving their results.  If the student fails the second attempt, the student will be recommended to withdraw from the program or the student along with the faculty advisor and the dissertation committee may petition to allow the student to take it the third time. This third attempt will be the final opportunity for the student to qualify to conduct the dissertation.  Failure to pass the exam during this third and final attempt will result in automatic expulsion from the program.

Oral Comprehensive Exam and Dissertation Proposal Defense

All students will be required to take an oral comprehensive exam.  This exam should be completed within one year of the completion of the written comprehensive exam.  The oral exam will be conducted during the student’s dissertation proposal by the student’s dissertation committee.  During the oral comprehensive exam, students will be expected to conduct a proposal presentation of their dissertation research topic.  During this proposal defense, students will be tested on the proposal as well as topics in pharmacy administration, statistics/research methods, and the students selected area of emphasis.  Students that pass the oral comprehensive exam will receive an official communication allowing them to proceed with their dissertation research.  Those that do not pass the oral comprehensive exam will be provided a second opportunity.  If the student is not able to defend the proposal a second time, the student will have a third and final opportunity, after which the student will be requested to discontinue with the PhD program.

The defense will begin with a brief (approx. 30-45 min) presentation by the student that summarizes the research study and the proposal.  The committee may examine the student to understand the student’s knowledge regarding the research topic but will not be restricted to the project.  The committee may also examine the student on relevant information related to the research project such as the literature in the area of the research project and any relevant information from prior course work that the student has completed. At the conclusion of the defense, should the committee make the recommendation to accept the proposal without modification the student will proceed with the proposed study as outlined in the proposal.

Required Didactic Courses

Pharmacy Administration Core Courses: 

PHCA 6305	Pharmacy Administration and Management I
PHCA 6306	Pharmacy Administration and Management II
PHCA 8301	Pharmacy Administration and Management III

Research Methods Core Courses:

PHCA 6316	Pharmacoepidemiology
PHCA 6307	Research Methods in Pharmacy Administration
PHCA 8302	Advanced Research Design in Pharmacy Administration

Statistical Analysis Core Courses:

PHCA 6308	Biostatistics and Experimental Design
PHCA 7301	Advanced Regression Analysis in Pharmacy Administration
PHCA 8303	Multivariate Analysis in Pharmacy Administration

Seminar Core Courses:

PHCA 6180, PHCA 6181, PHCA 7180, PHCA 7181	Seminar in Pharmacy Administration
PHCA 8180, PHCA 8181	Advanced Seminar in Pharmacy Administration
PHCA 8303	Multivariate Analysis in Pharmacy Administration

Dissertation Courses:

PHCA 8198, PHCA8298, PHCA 8398,PHCA 8698	Doctoral Dissertation Research
PHCA 8199	Doctoral Dissertation Defense

Elective Courses in Pharmacy Administration

Departmental Elective Courses:

PHCA 6309	Principles and Practices of Community Health
PHCA 6310	SAS Applications in Statistics
PHCA 6311	Financial Aspects of Health Care Management
PHCA 6312	Pharmacoeconomics in Outcomes Research
PHCA 6317	Secondary Data Analysis
PHCA 6396PHCA 6317	Master’s ProjectSecondary Data Analysis
PHCA 7302PHCA 6396	Scientific Writing and Grantsmanship Master’s Project
PHCA 7302	Scientific Writing and Grantsmanship
PHCA 7304	Advanced Pharmacoeconomic Analysis
PHCA 7310PHCA 7304	7610 Research PracticumAdvanced Pharmacoeconomic Analysis
PHCA 7311PHCA 7310	Teaching Practicum7610 Research Practicum
PHCA 8310PHCA 7311	Advanced Teaching Practicum Teaching Practicum
PHCA 8311PHCA 8310	Proposal DevelopmentAdvanced Teaching Practicum
PHCA 8311	Proposal Development
PHCA 8305	Risk Adjustment of Health Care Outcomes
PHCA 8305	Risk Adjustment of Health Care Outcomes
PHCA 8305	Risk Adjustment of Health Care Outcomes
PHCA 8305	Risk Adjustment of Health Care Outcomes

Non-Departmental Elective Courses: --  (CG)These courses require special permission from the instructor to enroll.  Space is not guaranteed based on enrollment of majors in each specific department.

DISC 7351	Forecasting Models
DISC 7352	Nonparametric Statistics
DISC 7353	DISC 7353
DISC 7354	Sampling
DISC 8364	Linear Models
DISC 8366	Multivariate Statistical Methods
DISC 8368	Time Series Analysis
ENTR 7336	Entrepreneurship Overview and Revenues
ENTR 7338	Entrepreneurship Business Plan and Implementation
INTB 7369	International Marketing
INTB 7360	International Finance
GENB 7335	Managing Cultural Diversity
GENB 7336	Women in Administration
GENB 7350	Business Ethics
GENB 7378	Crisis Management
GENB 7387	Negotiations and Cross-Cultural Communications
MANA 7336	Human Resource Management
MARK 7362	Management of Marketing Information
MARK 7366	Business to Business Marketing
MARK 7368	Integrated Marketing Communications
MARK 7369	International Marketing
MARK 7372	Services Marketing
MARK 7374	New Product Development
MARK 7375	Marketing Planning and Strategy
MARK 7378	Selling and Sales Management
MARK 8334	Marketing Systems
MARK 8335	Marketing Models
MARK 8349	Multivariate Methods in Marketing
EDRS 8382	Statistical Analyses in Education
SAER 7381	Field Methods in Educational Research
SAER 8321	Survey Methods in Educational Research
ECON 7331	Econometrics I
ECON 7342	Microeconomic Theory II
ECON 7344	Macroeconomic Theory II
ECON 7349	Game Theory and Economic Behavior
ECON 7380	Macroeconomic Modeling and Forecasting
ECON 8331	Econometrics II
PSYC 730	Structural Equations in Psychological Analysis
PSYC 8397	Attention and Perception

Degree Requirements

Required Credit Hours

	Credit Hours
Core Courses	27
Pharmacy Administration Core	9
Research Methods Core	9
Statistical Analysis Core	9
Electives	18
Seminar	6
Dissertation Research	18
Dissertation Defense	1
Minimum for graduation	70

Catalog Publish Date: January 14, 2013
This Page Last Updated: December 20, 2012