Accelerated MN

Outstanding Master of Nursing students who have exceptional academic standing in completion of specified coursework in the program may apply for admission to the PhD program without completing the master of nursing degree requirements.

Adequate faculty resources (i.e., appropriate graduate supervisor) must be available to support the student’s proposed program of study. Additional research experience may be required within the PhD program for students selecting this option.

Full-time coursework is completed in Year 1 by the Master of Nursing candidate in order to be eligible to accelerate through the master’s degree, including NURS 589 (fall)/590 (winter) plus 9 credits of MN coursework in each academic term.

Students must demonstrate strong academic standing throughout the first year of the MN program. 

Application deadline is Jan. 15 for each upcoming academic year (there is a fall-term intake only). 

Before a file can be reviewed for a Change of Category (Master of Nursing accelerated to PhD program), the following is required:

Applications are submitted directly to the Graduate Office at nugrad@ualberta.ca. The application file is evaluated by the admissions committee on the same criteria as other PhD applications.

If the student is approved for admission to the PhD program via the Accelerated Master of Nursing program, the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (FGSR) considers this transfer to be a Change of Category rather than a new admission. Therefore, the student’s PhD time limitation (six years) actually begins at the date of initial admission to FGSR as a Master of Nursing student.

Once a student has been enrolled in the PhD (Nursing) program via the Accelerated Master’s option and completed part of the PhD program requirements, only special circumstances will be considered valid reasons for the student to withdraw from the PhD program and change their category back to Master of Nursing candidate with the intention of completing the master of nursing degree.