Environmental, Health and Safety Management, MS

Program Planning

Students entering the program will be assigned a graduate academic advisor who will serve as their major professor. The student will work with the major professor to develop an appropriate course of study for the student's interests and educational objectives.

Graduation Requirements

• Students must complete a minimum of 48 quarter credit hours for the master's degree.
  
*With the consent of the Admissions Committee, up to 12 quarter credit hours (8 semester credit hours) of relevant graduate work may be transferred into the program.
• Students must maintain continuous registration for at least one credit per quarter, with the exception of summer quarter.
• Students must maintain a program cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0.
• Students must complete all graduate thesis or graduate project requirements.
• Courses older than 7 years at the time of graduation may not be used to satisfy program requirements.

Graduate Thesis or Graduate Project

Students have the choice of completing either the thesis or project option.  They should work closely with their graduate academic advisor to identify a topic and to determine which option is appropriate.

 

Thesis Option

A graduate thesis will be appropriate for students with interests in conducting original research in topics requiring substantial theoretical analysis. The graduate thesis is a research document that empirically relates theory with practice.  A formal written thesis and oral defense are required. 

 

Students selecting this option will be required to complete a 4 quarter credit hour thesis planning course and then 4-8 quarter credit hours of thesis work depending upon the scope of their thesis.  The planning course prepares students to propose, design and conduct research.  Students must successfully complete the planning course prior to registering for thesis credits.

 

Students choosing the thesis option will be assigned a thesis advisor who will chair the student’s thesis committee.  The thesis committee must have three members including the advisor. 

 

Project Option      

The project option is appropriate for students who are interested in applied research where existing research is applied to real world situations.  Graduate projects are often selected from real problems that face a student’s employer.  Students utilizing graduate cooperative education may conduct their projects concurrent with, or following the completion of a co-op assignment.

 

Students selecting this option are required to prepare a 1-2 page project proposal which must be approved by the student’s graduate academic advisor before enrolling in the four quarter credit hour graduate project. 

 

The student’s graduate academic advisor will typically serve as the student’s graduate project advisor.  There is typically no committee assembled for graduate projects.      

 

Students will document their project work by creating a manuscript suitable for publication in a professional journal and by creating a presentation of their work.  Although the goal is to actually publish the work, students will receive credit as long as the manuscript is suitable for publication.  Students are also required to present their work to their graduate project advisor.