Ehsan Mostafavi - Epidemiologist, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology Department , Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
Aliakbar Haghdoost - Professor of Epidemiology, Physiology Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
Mohammad Reza Siavashi - Parasitologist, Department of Parasitology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
Hadi Ranjbar - MSc in Nursing, Department of Nursing, Center for Health Research in Modeling, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
Majid Fasihi Harandi - Parasitologist, Associate Professor, Department of Parasitology, School of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

Background & Objective: PhD by research is one of the highest postgraduate education degrees in Iran There are educational and researchbased courses in this program There was a need for revision in these courses because of some controversies in running the program This study aimed to determine the required courses their credit and objective of each course in the program Methods: The study was done by the Delphi approach in two rounds In the first round the current program was evaluated by an internet survey and an expert panel The expert panel consisted of professors and PhD by research students of medical sciences universities in Iran At the end of the first round the curriculum of the program was prepared The curriculum consisted of course titles credits objective and core or noncore curriculums In the second round the curriculum was sent to PhD by research supervisors and students and their feedbacks were collected via email Results: At the end of the study the list of current courses (per credit) was confirmed Advanced statistics (۳) advanced research (۲) ethics in research (۱) and documentation (۲) were considered as core courses This was suggested to change project management (۲) and research projects (۴) to noncore courses The electronic data management (۲) knowledge transfer (۲) laboratory techniques (۲) and course thesis were suggested to consider as noncore courses Conclusion: The essential courses that students need for their research were considered as core and the courses which require the educational center point of view were considered as noncore courses

Delphi approach, PhD by research, Revision, Curriculum