Program Requirements - Doctoral Degrees

When admitted to a graduate program, the student is expected to follow the program of study as described in the Graduate Calendar current at the time of their admission. If, in subsequent years, the program requirements for the same degree are altered, the student may change the requirements of their own degree to conform to the then-current calendar. A recommendation from the student’s academic supervisor and graduate adviser must be forwarded to the Dean of Graduate Studies for approval as early as possible after the change to the program.

Minimum Degree Requirements

The minimum requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy is 30 units of work beyond the master's level or 45 units beyond the bachelor's level, and satisfactory completion of the prescribed program.

No more than 3.0 units of work at the senior Bachelor's level may be taken for credit in a doctoral program. Any senior undergraduate courses (numbered 300-499) included in a graduate program must be pertinent to the program. Courses numbered at the 100 and 200 level may be included in the program as prerequisites but will be indicated on the student's record as FNC (For No Credit); as well, courses indicated on the record as FNC will not be included in sessional or cumulative grade point average calculations.

All doctoral programs require that a broad knowledge of the field or fields of study be demonstrated through the candidacy examination. The major portion of the doctoral program will be devoted to a research project culminating in a dissertation which satisfies the requirements and standards of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Doctoral Candidacy Examinations

The candidacy examination is a requirement of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and cannot be waived by any academic unit. However, the precise form, content, and administration of such examinations are determined by individual academic units.

Normally, within thirty six months of registration as a provisional doctoral student and at least six months before the final oral examination, a student must pass a candidacy examination. However, individual academic units may impose shorter time frames. It is the responsibility of the student to be aware of and to satisfy the time limit regulations of their academic unit.

The purpose of the candidacy examination is to test the student's understanding of material considered essential to completion of a PhD and/or the student's competence to do research that will culminate in the PhD dissertation. The candidacy examination may be written, or oral, or both at the discretion of the academic unit.

Individual academic units or supervisory committees may also require other examinations in addition to the candidacy examination. Such examinations may include those to test competence in languages other than English, in statistics, in computing, or in other basic research skills.

While there may be wide variety in the content of candidacy examinations, all such examinations must be consistent within each academic unit. Factors that must be consistent are the manner in which the examinations are constructed, conducted and evaluated. Academic units are responsible for ensuring this consistency.

Academic units are responsible for providing the student with a written statement of procedures, requirements and regulations pertaining to all such examinations. This information must be made available to doctoral students as soon as they enter the program. A copy of these procedures must be on file with the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

The Candidacy Examination course (numbered 693) can be either a pre- or a co-requisite to the Dissertation course (numbered 699) as determined by each individual academic unit. The regulations regarding the ordering of these courses are included under the course listings for each academic unit. All doctoral students must register for and pass the course numbered 693 (Candidacy Examination) in their academic unit in the terms in which they are preparing for or sitting the candidacy examination(s).

Doctoral dissertations

When research is completed, and before the dissertation is written, the student should download a copy of the Thesis/Dissertation Guidelines from the website of the Faculty of Graduate Studies. This publication specifies academic and technical requirements to ensure acceptability of the document to the University and the National Library.

The doctoral dissertation must embody original work and constitute a significant contribution to knowledge in the candidate’s field of study. It should contain evidence of broad knowledge of the relevant literature, and should demonstrate a critical understanding of the works of scholars closely related to the subject of the dissertation. Material embodied in the dissertation should, in the opinion of scholars in the field, merit publication.

The general form and style of dissertations may differ from academic unit to academic unit, but all dissertations shall be presented in a form which constitutes an integrated submission. The dissertation may include materials already published by the candidate, whether alone or in conjunction with others. Previously published materials must be integrated into the dissertation while at the same time distinguishing the student’s own work from the work of other researchers. At the final oral examination, the doctoral candidate is responsible for the entire content of the dissertation. This includes those portions of co-authored papers which comprise part of the dissertation.