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Clinical research monitor education requirements

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read

There are several educational requirements to become a clinical research monitor. Clinical research monitors usually study nursing, biology, or medicine. 62% of clinical research monitors hold a bachelor's degree, and 17% hold an master's degree. We analyzed 225 real clinical research monitor resumes to see exactly what clinical research monitor education sections show.

The most common colleges for clinical research monitors are the University of Memphis and the University of Memphis.

There are also many online clinical research monitor courses to help get the education required to be a clinical research monitor.

What education do you need to become a clinical research monitor?

What degree do you need to be a clinical research monitor?

The most common degree for clinical research monitors is bachelor's degree, with 62% of clinical research monitors earning that degree. The second and third most common degree levels are master's degree degree at 17% and master's degree degree at 8%.
  • Bachelor's, 62%
  • Master's, 17%
  • Doctorate, 8%
  • Associate, 7%
  • Other Degrees, 6%

What should I major in to become a clinical research monitor?

You should major in nursing to become a clinical research monitor. 19% of clinical research monitors major in nursing. Other common majors for a clinical research monitor include biology and medicine.

Most common colleges for clinical research monitors

Clinical research monitors often get their degrees at University of Memphis, University of California - Davis, and Marquette University. Here are the most common colleges for clinical research monitors in the US based on their resumes.
Clinical research monitor common collegePercentages
University of Memphis8.57%
University of California - Davis8.57%
Marquette University5.71%
University of Illinois at Chicago5.71%
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler5.71%

Best majors for clinical research monitors

RankMajorPercentages
1Nursing18.5%
2Biology14.8%
3Medicine8.3%
4Health Care Administration8.3%
5Psychology8.3%

Best colleges for clinical research monitors

The best colleges for clinical research monitors are University of Rochester, University of Tulsa, and Vanderbilt University.

A clinical research monitor with advanced education typically earns a higher salary and has access to better jobs. That's why Zippia looked into the best colleges for clinical research monitors. We based this list on several metrics: admissions rate, retention rate, mean earnings of graduates, the ratio of working vs. non-working students ten years after admission, the average cost of attendance, and median debt for graduates who become clinical research monitors.

1. Duke University

Durham, NC • Private

In-state tuition

$55,695

Enrollment

6,596

2. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-state tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

3. Yale University

New Haven, CT • Private

In-state tuition

$53,430

Enrollment

5,963

4. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, MI • Private

In-state tuition

$15,262

Enrollment

30,079

5. Georgetown University

Washington, DC • Private

In-state tuition

$54,104

Enrollment

7,089

6. University of California - Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-state tuition

$13,226

Enrollment

31,568

7. University of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA • Private

In-state tuition

$17,653

Enrollment

16,405

8. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC • Private

In-state tuition

$8,987

Enrollment

18,946

9. Columbia University in the City of New York

New York, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$59,430

Enrollment

8,216

10. Chamberlain College of Nursing - Arlington

Arlington, VA • Private

In-state tuition

$19,375

Enrollment

506

20 best online courses for clinical research monitors

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1. Clinical Trials Analysis, Monitoring, and Presentation

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In this course, you’ll learn more advanced operational skills that you and your team need to run a successful clinical trial. You’ll learn about the computation of sample size and how to develop a sample size calculation that’s suitable for your trial design and outcome measures. You’ll also learn to use statistical methods to monitor your trial for safety, integrity, and efficacy. Next, you’ll learn how to report the results from your clinical trials through both journal articles and data...

2. Clinical Trials Operations

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This specialization is designed for individuals and teams that will be running or interacting with clinical trials. In four courses, learners will develop insights and build the skills they need to design, manage, and monitor clinical trials as well as analyze, document, and communicate the results. Learners will also learn best practices regarding ethics, safety, participant recruitment, regulatory compliance, and reporting standards. The core principles and skills of the specialization will...

3. Good Clinical Practice ICH GCP for Clinical Research

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Certification on ICH GCP E6 R2 Good Clinical Practice for Clinical Research The Only Complete Course You Can Find Online...

4. Good Clinical Practice for Clinical Research Professionals

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The Complete, Certified ICH GCP (R2 & R3) Course for Investigators, Study Coordinators, Sponsors, Monitors and Study staff...

5. Understanding Clinical Research: Behind the Statistics

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If you’ve ever skipped over the results section of a medical paper because terms like “confidence interval” or “p-value” go over your head, then you’re in the right place. You may be a clinical practitioner reading research articles to keep up-to-date with developments in your field or a medical student wondering how to approach your own research. Greater confidence in understanding statistical analysis and the results can benefit both working professionals and those undertaking research...

6. Clinical Trials Data Management and Quality Assurance

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In this course, you’ll learn to collect and care for the data gathered during your trial and how to prevent mistakes and errors through quality assurance practices. Clinical trials generate an enormous amount of data, so you and your team must plan carefully by choosing the right collection instruments, systems, and measures to protect the integrity of your trial data. You’ll learn how to assemble, clean, and de-identify your datasets. Finally, you’ll learn to find and correct deficiencies...

7. The Beginners Course for Clinical Research

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The Essentials of Clinical Trials - Clinical Research for Beginners...

8. Certificate Course in Clinical Research (CCCR)

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4
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A Clinical Research Course-ICH-GCP E6(R2), Clinical Trials, Essential Documents, Sponsor, Investigator, Pharmaceuticals...

9. Design and Conduct of Clinical Trials

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In this course, you’ll learn how to design and carry out clinical trials. Each design choice has implications for the quality and validity of your results. This course provides you and your team with essential skills to evaluate options, make good design choices, and implement them within your trial. You’ll learn to control for bias, randomize participants, mask treatments and outcomes, identify errors, develop and test hypotheses, and define appropriate outcomes. Finally, a trial without...

10. Making Data Science Work for Clinical Reporting

coursera

This course is aimed to demonstate how principles and methods from data science can be applied in clinical reporting. By the end of the course, learners will understand what requirements there are in reporting clinical trials, and how they impact on how data science is used. The learner will see how they can work efficiently and effectively while still ensuring that they meet the needed standards...

11. Basic of Clinical Data Management

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4.5
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Clinical Data Management...

12. The Simplest Guide to Clinical Trials Data Analysis with SAS

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Step into the world of Pharmaceutical industry Clinical Trials Clinical Research Biostatistics Clinical SAS SAS...

13. Clinical Data Science

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Are you interested in how to use data generated by doctors, nurses, and the healthcare system to improve the care of future patients? If so, you may be a future clinical data scientist!\n\nThis specialization provides learners with hands on experience in use of electronic health records and informatics tools to perform clinical data science. This series of six courses is designed to augment learner’s existing skills in statistics and programming to provide examples of specific challenges,...

14. Introduction to Clinical Data Science

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This course will prepare you to complete all parts of the Clinical Data Science Specialization. In this course you will learn how clinical data are generated, the format of these data, and the ethical and legal restrictions on these data. You will also learn enough SQL and R programming skills to be able to complete the entire Specialization - even if you are a beginner programmer. While you are taking this course you will have access to an actual clinical data set and a free, online...

15. Clinical Research for beginners

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The Art of Publishing - Master Pub Med, Study design, Biostatistics, Journal choice, Manuscript writing & Referencing...

16. Good Clinical Practice (GCP)

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Key features of the GCP guideline, roles and responsibilities involved and the requirements of essential documentation...

17. Predictive Modeling and Transforming Clinical Practice

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This course teaches you the fundamentals of transforming clinical practice using predictive models. This course examines specific challenges and methods of clinical implementation, that clinical data scientists must be aware of when developing their predictive models...

18. Clinical Natural Language Processing

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This course teaches you the fundamentals of clinical natural language processing (NLP). In this course you will learn the basic linguistic principals underlying NLP, as well as how to write regular expressions and handle text data in R. You will also learn practical techniques for text processing to be able to extract information from clinical notes. Finally, you will have a chance to put your skills to the test with a real-world practical application where you develop text processing...

19. Constructing a Website With Google Sites

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4.4
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For Teachers and Students...

20. Research Methodology: Complete Research Project Blueprint

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4.6
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Research Methodology From A-Z. A Step-by-Step Guide Through Research Design, Data Collection, Analysis, & Interpretation...

Top 10 most affordable universities for clinical research monitors

The most affordable schools for clinical research monitors are SUNY Farmingdale, brigham young university, and hunter college of the city university of new york.

If the best universities for clinical research monitors are out of your price range, check out these affordable schools. After factoring in in-state tuition and fees, the average cost of attendance, admissions rate, average net price, and mean earnings after six years, we found that these are the most affordable schools for clinical research monitors.

1. SUNY Farmingdale

Farmingdale, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$8,306

Cost of attendance

16,091

2. Brigham Young University

Provo, UT • Private

In-state tuition

$5,620

Cost of attendance

18,136

3. Hunter College of the City University of New York

New York, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$7,182

Cost of attendance

13,998

4. Clayton State University

Morrow, GA • Private

In-state tuition

$5,419

Cost of attendance

17,697

5. Purdue University

West Lafayette, IN • Private

In-state tuition

$9,992

Cost of attendance

22,430

6. Minot State University

Minot, ND • Private

In-state tuition

$7,064

Cost of attendance

15,576

7. Florida International University

Miami, FL • Private

In-state tuition

$6,556

Cost of attendance

19,434

8. University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez

Mayaguez, PR • Private

In-state tuition

$4,094

Cost of attendance

14,302

9. SUNY Polytechnic Institute

Utica, NY • Private

In-state tuition

$8,238

Cost of attendance

21,567

10. Florida State University

Tallahassee, FL • Private

In-state tuition

$5,656

Cost of attendance

21,623

Top 10 hardest universities to get into for clinical research monitors

The hardest universities for clinical research monitors to get into are University of Rochester, University of Tulsa, and Vanderbilt University.

Some great schools for clinical research monitors are hard to get into, but they also set your career up for greater success. The list below shows the most challenging universities to get into for clinical research monitors based on an institution's admissions rates, average SAT scores accepted, median ACT scores accepted, and mean earnings of students six years after admission.

1. University of Rochester

Rochester, NY • Private

Admissions rate

29%

SAT average

1,422

2. University of Tulsa

Tulsa, OK • Private

Admissions rate

41%

SAT average

1,321

3. Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN • Private

Admissions rate

10%

SAT average

1,514

4. SUNY at Binghamton

Vestal, NY • Private

Admissions rate

40%

SAT average

1,376

5. Clemson University

Clemson, SC • Private

Admissions rate

47%

SAT average

1,337

6. Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD • Private

Admissions rate

11%

SAT average

1,513

7. Boston College

Chestnut Hill, MA • Private

Admissions rate

28%

SAT average

1,429

8. Purdue University

West Lafayette, IN • Private

Admissions rate

58%

SAT average

1,309

9. Saint Louis University

Saint Louis, MO • Private

Admissions rate

58%

SAT average

1,304

10. SUNY Stony Brook

Stony Brook, NY • Private

Admissions rate

42%

SAT average

1,326

Top 10 easy-to-apply-to universities for clinical research monitors

The easiest schools for clinical research monitors to get into are AdventHealth University, nyack college, and d'youville college.

Some schools are much easier to get into. If you want to start your career as a clinical research monitor without much hassle, check out the list of schools where you will be accepted in no time. We compiled admissions rates, average SAT scores, average ACT scores, and average salary of students six years after graduation to uncover which were the easiest schools to get into for clinical research monitors.

1. AdventHealth University

Orlando, FL • Private

Admissions rate

87%

SAT average

1,016

2. Nyack College

New York, NY • Private

Admissions rate

98%

SAT average

999

3. D'Youville College

Buffalo, NY • Private

Admissions rate

100%

SAT average

1,072

4. La Roche College

Pittsburgh, PA • Private

Admissions rate

99%

SAT average

1,008

5. Saint Joseph's College of Maine

Standish, ME • Private

Admissions rate

84%

SAT average

1,069

6. Oklahoma Wesleyan University

Bartlesville, OK • Private

Admissions rate

68%

SAT average

964

7. Gwynedd Mercy University

Gwynedd Valley, PA • Private

Admissions rate

92%

SAT average

1,031

8. Aultman College of Nursing and Health Sciences

Canton, OH • Private

Admissions rate

75%

SAT average

1,085

9. Saint Martin's University

Lacey, WA • Private

Admissions rate

96%

SAT average

1,111

10. Mount Saint Mary's University

Los Angeles, CA • Private

Admissions rate

84%

SAT average

1,031

Average clinical research monitor salary by education level

Clinical research monitors with a Doctorate degree earn more than those without, at $100,111 annually. With a Master's degree, clinical research monitors earn a median annual income of $92,911 compared to $81,850 for clinical research monitors with an Bachelor's degree.
Clinical research monitor education levelClinical research monitor salary
Master's Degree$92,911
High School Diploma or Less$63,266
Bachelor's Degree$81,850
Doctorate Degree$100,111
Some College/ Associate Degree$67,024

Clinical research monitor education FAQs

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Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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