Admissions FAQs

Application to the MHA program is highly competitive as we receive more applications than we have spots for. We accept up to 35-40 students per year and receive around 100 applications.  We welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds in healthcare.

Typically, applicants are working professionals in the health care sector who wish to extend their field knowledge and expand their understanding of health policy, business and management, and leadership. Many of our applicants have Baccalaureate degrees and work experience in the healthcare field including medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, nutrition, pharmacy, kinesiology, biology, psychology, public health and business administration. We are also looking for evidence of leadership and initiative in working with people, either in a healthcare setting or other private and public sector environments and with at minimum 3- years of professional experience in the Canadian healthcare context.

No. The MHA program is a prescribed cohort-based program with all required courses for the degree.

No. The MHA is a full-time program only. It follows a condensed format that requires students to attend classes approximately one weekend per month. Attendance in each class is mandatory.

The MHA courses are offered as a blend of in-person, hyflex (in person attendance with an online zoom attendance option), or online. We balance the modes of delivery with respect to the learning outcomes for each course and consider the compliment of courses in each MHA weekend according to synergies in content and relevancy.  Students attend classes in a compressed schedule format from September to June, from Friday to Sunday, approximately one weekend per month.

All 300 & 400 level courses are used towards the calculation of your admission average, irrespective of the year the courses were completed. If you have completed a previous graduate degree, the cumulative grade point average for your graduate courses will be taking into consideration.

All undergraduate courses are used to calculate your GPA. As an international student, there are specific requirements for each country, which can be found online at the UBC Graduate Studies Web site. Applicants must meet the minimum requirements for their particular country and university.

Generally speaking, if applicants don’t meet the minimum academic requirements, they are not eligible for admission to any UBC graduate program. The MHA program is competitive and the number of applicants exceeds the number of spaces for the program. However, the MHA admissions committee will consider applicants whose GPA falls below the minimum and also presents strong supporting documents including:
• additional undergraduate or graduate courses with a B+ or higher to demonstrate academic ability
• high test scores from the GRE or GMAT (above the minimum required scores for the program)
• an extensive track record of working in the healthcare sector or related field, particularly in a leadership capacity
• excellent reference letters and a focused letter of intent

We will use all eligible degrees to calculate GPA for admission. For example, if an applicant has two degrees (at any level), and only one degree meets the minimum academic requirement set out by Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, the applicant is eligible for admission. If both (or all) degrees meet the minimum requirement, then the applicant is eligible for admission. If neither or none of the degrees meet the minimum academic requirement, the applicant is not eligible for admission.

The program receives a high volume of applications and supporting documents and the deadline (February 1 for International applicants; March 1 for domestic applicants) ensures we can make timely offers of admission. Please refer to our steps to apply for more information.

*Please note: We encourage students to apply well before the deadline. The sooner we receive your documents, the sooner we can review your application and communicate with you regarding your application status.

Transcripts from courses taken at UBC are not required. Please include your complete academic history in the online application.

All applicants must meet the quantitative requirement to ensure adequate preparation for the statistics components in the MHA curriculum including epidemiology and biostatistics courses.

Students with Canadian or US academic credentials have two ways to meet this requirement: a final grade of B+ (76%) on an approved undergraduate university-level mathematics or statistics course taken within 10 years of the date of application, or, a minimum score in the 50th percentile or above in both the verbal and quantitative components taken within the last 5 years.

Students with International credentials must write the GRE and submit a minimum score in the 50th percentile or above in both the verbal and quantitative components taken within the last 5 years.

*Domestic applicants with math or statistics courses exceeding the ten-year timeline or applicants are strongly recommended to successfully complete the online MHA Statistics and Quantitative Analysis course HERE. Upon completion, the Certificate of Completion could be uploaded to the online application to meet the quantitative requirement by the March 01st deadline.

*For International applicants, a recent (within 2-years) and official GRE or GMAT score should be submitted with your application by the Februay 01st application deadline date.

Applicants with International credentials must write the GRE and attain a minimum score in the 50th percentile or above in both the verbal and quantitative components taken within the last 5 years.

Applicants with Canadian or US academic credentials will only need to take the GRE if they have not taken an approved undergraduate math or statistics course with a min. of 76% (B+) as a final grade. The course must have been taken within 10 years of the date of application.

More information on the GRE and other standardized exams can be found on the Graduate and Postdoctoral studies website. GMAT results may be considered in place of the GRE.

Generally speaking, university-level math (calculus, linear algebra) or statistics courses are accepted with a min. final grade of 76% (B+) or higher. Key topics from acceptable courses include descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing and confidence intervals, bivariate analysis, two-sample t-test, analysis of variance, chi-square test, correlation and regression, and parametric and nonparametric statistics.

For courses in other programs such as psychology, nursing, biology, etc, these will be reviewed on a case by case basis. Research Methods courses that do not include these topics or focus mostly on concepts and appraisal of statistical methods are generally not acceptable. Please submit course information including the course title and name and a copy of the syllabus to the program.

For a general list of approved and not approved courses, applicants can also refer to the Master of Public Health (MPH) list.

GRE scores are received electronically using the following codes: Institution Code 0965, Department Code 0616.

Applicants can apply to the MHA program if they are registered to take the GRE but the program cannot guarantee the application will be reviewed with missing documents and requirements, but please indicate the date of your exam in the Comments box of the application, or write to the program to let us know: mha.program@ubc.ca  It is strongly recommended that applicants write the GRE exam before January to ensure that results are received by the program by the stated deadlines.

Applicants can check their document status by using the online application ‘checklist’, which is updated very often during the admissions season. Due to the high volume of applications, we are unable to respond to individual phone or email requests regarding the receipt of documents. All applicants will be notified formally via email by early May for your official application status.

The document deadline is February 1 (applicants with International credentials) and March 1 (applicants from Canada or the US). The document deadline is the same date as the application deadline. We strongly recommend students apply before the deadline to ensure the application system can help you keep track of submitting the required documents.

Official offers of admission are made by Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and are communicated by email.

Upon receipt of an offer of admission, students must accept their offer in writing and submit a $1,000 (non-refundable and non-transferable) deposit in Canadian currency. This deposit will be credited towards the program tuition fees. All instuctions would be available on the Offer Letter.

The MHA program maintains a small waitlist each year. If we are unable to offer a qualified applicant a space in the program, they are considered for a waitlist based on their ranking by the admissions committee. Waitlisted applicants are notified right away if you are placed on the list and if we are able to offer you a space in the program. Typically, waitlisted applicants are contacted in late May through early August regarding updates to their application status.

The MHA program is competitive and we receive more qualified applications than we have spaces for each year. Applications are thoroughly evaluated accoding to the UBC Gradate Admissions requirements.  Our applicants are high-calibre individuals with professioal leadership experience in the Canadian healthcare context, and therefore the those who not only meet the minimum admission requirements but also exceed it are ranked higher. Such individuals would have demonstrated evidence of leadership in their field through publications, conference presentations and awards. These, and other outstanding examples are used as a comparison of applicants for admission decisions.