The Master of Science (MS) in Education for Healthcare Professionals (EDHP) Program provides the training necessary to produce effective leaders in health care professions education. The program prepares health professionals who have, or are seeking, educational leadership positions and provides the background and skills necessary to be excellent teachers in their specialty.

The interprofessional Master of Science degree will provide greater access to faculty and students, as well as clinicians and healthcare professionals, who have an interest in academia. Specific program features includes; a distance education thesis, a distance education non-thesis, or a distance education certificate and full-time or part-time status.

Program features:

• Online curriculum
• Part-time or full-time status available
• Designed specifically for healthcare professionals
• Non-thesis concludes in an educational project
• Certificate culminates in a guided practicum

Those interested in the certificate should review the EDHP Master's and Certificate webpage.

This program is also approved for delivery via asynchronous distance education technology.

For more information about our program, please visit the EDHP Program website.

Steps to Fulfill a Masters Program

Program Requirements

• Student's Advisory Committee
• Degree Plan
• Credit Requirements
• Transfer of Credit
• Limitations on the Use of Transfer, Extension and Certain Other Courses
• Final Examination

Student’s Advisory Committee

Distance Education Degree Program

After receiving admission to graduate studies and enrolling for coursework, the student will consult with the head of his or her major or administrative department (or intercollegiate faculty, if applicable) concerning appointment of the chair of his or her advisory committee. The student’s advisory committee for the MS degree will consist of no fewer than three members of the graduate faculty, representative of the student’s fields of study and research. The chair or the co-chair of the advisory committee must be from the student’s major department (or intercollegiate faculty, if applicable), and at least one or more of the members must have an appointment to a department other than the student’s major department. The outside member for students in an interdisciplinary program must have an appointment to a department different from the chair of the student’s committee.

The chair, in consultation with the student, will select the remainder of the advisory committee. The student will interview each prospective committee member to determine whether they are willing to serve. Only graduate faculty members located on Texas A&M University campuses may serve as chair of a student’s advisory committee. Other graduate faculty members located off campus may serve as a member or co-chair (but not chair) with a member as the chair. The chair of the committee, who usually has immediate supervision of the student’s research and thesis, has the responsibility for calling required meetings of the committee and for calling meetings at any other time considered desirable.

If the chair of a student’s advisory committee voluntarily leaves the university and the student is near completion of the degree and wants the chair to continue to serve in this role, the student is responsible for securing a current member of the University Graduate Faculty, from the student’s academic program and located near the Texas A&M University campus site, to serve as the co-chair of the committee. The department head or chair of intercollegiate faculty may request in writing to the associate provost and dean of the Graduate and Professional School that a faculty member who is on an approved leave of absence or has voluntarily separated from the university, be allowed to continue to serve in the role of chair of a student’s advisory committee without a co-chair for up to one year. The students should be near completion of the degree. Extensions beyond the one year period can be granted with additional approval of the dean.

If the chair of the student’s advisory committee is unavailable for an extended time in any academic period during which the student is involved in activities relating to an internship, thesis or professional paper, and is registered for courses such as 684, 691, 692, or 693, the student may request, in writing, that the department head appoint an alternate advisory committee chair during the interim period.

The duties of the committee include responsibility for the proposed degree plan and guidance through the progression of the student's proposed scholarly project. In addition, the committee as a group and as individual members are responsible for advising the student on academic matters, and, in the case of academic deficiency, initiating recommendations to the Graduate and Professional School.

The committee members’ approval on the degree plan indicate their willingness to accept the responsibility for guiding and directing the entire academic program of the student and for initiating all academic actions concerning the student. Although individual committee members may be replaced by petition for valid reasons, a committee cannot resign en masse.

Degree Plan

Distance Education Degree Program

The student’s advisory committee, in consultation with the student, will develop the proposed degree plan. The degree plan must be completed and filed with the Graduate and Professional School.

A student should submit the degree plan using the online Document Processing Submission System.

A student submitting a proposed degree plan for a Master of Science degree should designate on the official degree plan the appropriate program option.

Additional coursework may be added to the approved degree plan by petition if it is deemed necessary by the advisory committee to correct deficiencies in the student’s academic preparation. No changes can be made to the degree plan once the student’s Request for Final Examination or Request for Final Examination Exemption is approved by the Graduate and Professional School.

Credit Requirements

Distance Education Degree Program

A minimum of 36 semester credit hours of approved coursework is required for the non-thesis option (project) for the Master of Science degree.

Ordinarily, the student will devote the major portion of his or her time to work in one or two closely related fields. Other work will be in supporting fields of interest.

Transfer of Credit

Distance Education Degree Program

A student who has earned 12 hours of graduate credit in residence at Texas A&M University may be authorized to transfer courses in excess of the limits prescribed below upon the advice of the advisory committee and with the approval of the Graduate and Professional School. Courses taken in residence at an accredited U.S. institution or approved international institution with a final grade of B or greater may be considered for transfer credit if, at the time the courses were completed, the courses would be accepted for credit toward a similar degree for a student in degree-seeking status at the host institution. Otherwise, the limitations stated in the following section apply. Coursework in which no formal grades are given or in which grades other than letter grades (A or B) are earned (for example, CR, P, S, U, H, etc.) is not accepted for transfer credit. Courses appearing on the degree plan with grades of D, F or U may not be absolved by transfer work. Credit for coursework submitted for transfer from any college or university must be shown in semester credit hours or equated to semester credit hours. An official transcript from the university at which the transfer coursework was taken must be sent directly to the Office of Admissions.

Courses used toward a degree at another institution may not be applied for graduate credit. If the course to be transferred was taken prior to the conferral of a degree at the transfer institution, a letter from the registrar at that institution stating that the course was not applied for credit toward the degree must be submitted to the Graduate and Professional School.

Grades for courses completed at other institutions are not included in computing the GPA.

Limitations on the Use of Transfer, Extension and Certain Other Courses

Distance Education Degree Program

Some departments may have more restrictive requirements for transfer work. If otherwise acceptable, certain courses may be used toward meeting credit-hour requirements for the master’s degree under the following limitations.

1. The maximum number of credit hours which may be considered for transfer credit is the greater of 12 hours or one-third (1/3) of the total hours of a degree plan. The following restrictions apply:
   • Graduate and/or upper-level undergraduate courses taken in residence at an accredited U.S. institution, or approved international institution with a final grade of B or greater will be considered for transfer credit if, at the time the courses were completed, the student was in degree-seeking status at Texas A&M University, or the student was in degree-seeking status at the institution at which the courses were taken; and if the courses would be accepted for credit toward a similar degree for a student in degree-seeking status at the host institution.
   • Courses previously used for another degree are not acceptable for degree plan credit.
2. The maximum number of credit hours taken in post-baccalaureate non-degree (G6) classification at Texas A&M University which may be considered for application to the degree plan is 12.
3. A zero credit 684 or 685 course is only allowed for non-thesis option master's students. A zero credit 681 course can be used for either thesis or non-thesis option master’s students. Other courses, including 691 (Research) hours, are not eligible for zero credit.
4. Not more than 12 hours may be used in any combination of the following categories:
   • Not more than 8 hours in the combination of 691 (Research), 684 (Professional Internship), or SOPH 680 may be used. Under normal circumstances, non-thesis masters students may not use 691 hours on their degree plan. However, for non-thesis masters students who are using 691 hours on the degree plan, see the Non-Thesis Option section on the Program Requirements page in the graduate catalog for the degree they are pursuing.
   • Not more than 8 hours of 685 (Directed Studies) may be used.
   • Not more than 3 hours of 690 (Theory of Research) may be used.
   • Not more than 3 hours of 695 (Frontiers in Research) may be used.
5. A maximum of 2 hours of 681 (Seminar).
6. A maximum of 9 hours of advanced undergraduate courses (300- or 400-level).
7. For graduate courses of three weeks’ duration or less, taken at other institutions, up to 1 hour of credit may be obtained for each five-day week of coursework. Each week of coursework must include at least 15 contact hours.
8. Continuing education courses may not be used for graduate credit.
9. Extension courses are not acceptable for credit.

10. For non-distance degree programs, no more than 50 percent of the non-research coursework required for the program may be completed through distance education courses.

11. To receive a graduate degree from Texas A&M University, students must earn one-third or more of the credits through the institution’s own direct instruction. This limitation also applies to joint degree programs. 

Exceptions will be permitted only in unusual cases and when petitioned by the student’s advisory committee and approved by the Graduate and Professional School.

Final Examination

Distance Education Degree Program

The Final Examination is not required for the non-thesis Master of Science in Education for Health Care Professionals.

A student pursuing the non-thesis option is not allowed to enroll in 691 (Research) for any reason and 691 may not be used for credit toward a non-thesis option Master of Science degree. A maximum of 4 credit hours of 684 (Professional Internship), 8 credit hours of 685 (Directed Studies), and up to 3 credit hours of 690 (Theory of Research) or 695 (Frontiers in Research) may be used toward the non-thesis option Master of Science degree. In addition, any combination of 684, 685, 690, and 695 may not exceed 25 percent of the total credit hour requirement shown on the individual degree plan. All requirements for the non-thesis option Master of Science degree.

The department head or the chair of an intercollegiate faculty (if appropriate) for the program may approve an exception for a PhD student who changes to a non-thesis option MS degree program after at least one year of PhD studies to use 691 credits toward a non-thesis option Master of Science degree. The department head or chair of an intercollegiate faculty (if appropriate) for the program may approve an exception for a master’s student who changes from a MS thesis option degree to a MS non-thesis option degree program to use 691 credits toward a non-thesis option Master of Science degree. In both cases, the student is allowed to use a maximum of 8 credit hours of 685 and 691 combined. Departments, colleges, and interdisciplinary degree programs may opt to establish higher standards. Further any combination of 684, 685, 690, 691, and 695 may not exceed 25 percent of the total credit hour requirement shown on the individual degree plan. All requirements for the non-thesis option Master of Science degree other than those specified above are the same as for the thesis option degree.

Additional Requirements

• Residence
• Continuous Registration
• Time Limit
• Foreign Languages
• Application for Degree

Residence

Distance Education Degree Program

There is no residence requirement for the Master of Science in Education for Health Care Professionals.

Continuous Registration

Distance Education Degree Program

Coursework on his or her degree plan is required to be in continuous registration until all requirements for the degree have been completed.

See Continuous Registration Requirements.

Time Limit

Distance Education Degree Program

All degree requirements must be completed within a period of seven consecutive years for the degree to be granted. A course will be considered valid until seven years after the end of the semester in which it is taken. Graduate credit for coursework which is more than seven calendar years old at the time of the final examination (oral or written) may not be used to satisfy degree requirements.

Foreign Languages

Distance Education Degree Program

No specific language requirement exists for the Master of Science degree.

Application for Degree

Distance Education Degree Program

For information on applying for your degree, please visit the Graduation section.