Diploma Courses

Course Deadlines

Please go to the Calendar of Events for all graduate course deadline information.

Important Notes for Graduate Students About On-line Self Enrollment Through your Student Centre

Your course registration for all graduate courses MUST be done on-line through your Student Centre.

For SGPS general course regulations, click here.

For SGPS forms regarding enrollment in graduate courses and graduate enrollment in undergraduate courses,  click here.

It is the responsibility of all Pathology and Laboratory Medicine students to be aware of the information provided on the above links and to adhere to all deadlines associated with the information posted on these links.

ALL students who enroll in a Fall full course (September to December) MUST also enroll on-line through their Student Centre for the second term (Winter) in order to receive academic credit (i.e. final grade on transcript).

Please Note

All courses with the suffix 'A' are half courses offered in Fall Term.
All course with the suffix 'B' are half courses offered in Winter Term.
All courses with the suffix 'Y' are half courses which may be offered over two academic terms.
All courses with the suffix 'L' are half courses offered in Summer Term.
Half courses have an academic credit of 0.5.
Full courses have an academic credit of 1.0.

Exemption from required courses

A student may submit a request, in writing, to the Graduate Education Committee for exemption from any of the Department’s course requirements. The request form is  available here. The request must be accompanied by documentation that details the equivalent course. The course documentation may include the course outline or course notes/exams/evaluation scheme. The equivalent course must have been taken within the last five years and the student must have received 80% or above.

GDip, Required Courses

PATHOL 9586 - Introduction to Research Methods

Pathology 9586 will provide graduate students an opportunity to develop or advance their research skills.  This will be achieved through learning basic research language, and understanding research ethics and appropriate research design.  In-class discussions will focus on research ethics and integrity, use of statistics to understand research data, and theoretical exploration of experimental models of human diseases. Students will also critically review and evaluate primary literature relevant to their research fields.

PATHOL 9587L - Emerging concepts in Health and Disease

Pathology 9587L is a multidisciplinary course exploring advanced concepts in the pathogenesis of human diseases. Students will learn to critically evaluate scientific literature and emerging themes in select topics and present these concepts to peers. Students will emphasize new developments and will give an overall view of general mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis.

There are two main objectives of this course. The first objective is to provide students with an overview of the fundamental principles that underlie select human diseases. This will be accomplished through an in-depth examination of original research articles on the selected topic. The second objective is to provide students with critical thinking skills and the tools for communicating scientific ideas. The course is designed to encourage students to learn how to research, discuss and evaluate current information, and form cogent arguments and opinions about scientific topics. Students may also use this course to round out their education in areas not covered in depth by graduate courses offered by Pathology and Laboratory Medicine or by other graduate programs at Western University.

PATHOL 9588 - Graduate Seminar and Research Project

This course will provide an opportunity for participants to establish or advance their understanding of research through critical exploration of research language, ethics, and approaches. The course introduces the language of research, ethical principles and challenges, and the elements of the research process within quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches. Participants will use these theoretical underpinnings to begin to critically review literature relevant to their field or interests and determine how research findings are useful in forming their understanding of their work, social, local and global environment.