Public Health Policies
Substitutions for HS Specialization courses
If a student has a course that is not a direct equivalency, but it contains the same content, the student may petition to substitute the course. This is true regardless of where it is taken or whether it is upper or lower division. HOWEVER, if it is a lower division course (and we accept that the content requirement has been met), the student must take ANOTHER upper division HS course to replace the Specialization hours. In other words, we accept the fact that they have content knowledge in that area and do not need to repeat the "same" course, but we require another course to "substitute" for that course in the Specialization. The substituted course must be at the upper division level and must be clearly related to public health.
Residential Students Requesting to Take HS Online Courses
Access to HS web courses is restricted to students who have been accepted into one of the eight Online Health Sciences degree programs. (Note: Formal acceptance into these programs is required. The fact that a student is geographically located outside Flagstaff for a semester or more does NOT qualify the student as an Online student.) Exceptions to this policy are rare and will be considered on a case by case basis. Exceptions are generally considered only if there is space available in the course—this policy is not to be used to request a capacity override. To petition for an exception, the student must be able to demonstrate evidence of a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Process:
- The advisor receives a written request and documentation (as noted above) from the student.
- If the student meets the criteria, the advisor will contact the course instructor to request approval on behalf of the student and forward the student’s documentation.
- Instructors can approve this advisor request, or they can choose to continue to restrict the course to Health Sciences’ Online program students only.
Students Requesting to Change from Residential to Online Program
Due to changes in life circumstances, students enrolled in the residential HS program sometimes want to change to the Online program. Not all residential HS students meet the criteria for making this change. The criteria for acceptance into the HS-Online program (as posted on the HS website) are as follows:
The requirements for admission to the Online Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences: Public Health degree program are that you must meet at least one of the following criteria:
- A minimum of three years of work experience as a health professional, or
- A minimum of 30 credits of college course work with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above, or
- A 3.0 GPA in the most recent 30 college credit hours.
If you meet one of the criteria above, please fill out an application for admission to the Online Health Sciences: Public Health program.