Checklist: MSc Defence

☐ Receive approval from supervisor

☐ Approval by all supervisory committee members (committee members should have minimum 2 weeks to review and return comments)

☐ Obtain signatures on the Zoology Master’s Thesis Approval Form. List the department examiner, and exam date and time of your defense. It's best that your supervisor contacts the departmental examiner to see they are available to serve as departmental examiner for your defence.

☐ Submit the Zoology Master’s Thesis Approval Form and a PDF copy of your thesis to the zool.gradprgm@ubc.ca at least 2 weeks before your desired defence date

☐ The Graduate Program Manager will find a Chairperson and book a room (or create Zoom Meeting Room if virtual) for the defence

☐ Pass your defence

☐ After revisions have been approved by your committee, complete the (1) Submission Cover Sheet and (2) Masters Thesis Approval forms and submit them to zool.gradprgm@ubc.ca for review before submission to G+PS

☐ Once the 2 forms above are submitted (you will be cc’d in the email to G+PS), set up your cIRcle account so you can upload your thesis to the cIRcle database. You will be notified when your account has been activated and you are able to submit your thesis, as well as when your thesis has been accepted and your program closed.

Remember to apply for graduation! Graduation happens in May and November of each year. You can apply for graduation even if you haven’t defended yet (but you won’t be approved to graduate without having completed all your requirements so check the Deadlines page for when your program requirements should be completed for a specific graduate ceremony).

Timeline before Defense

Action

Tasks

 

 

 

About A Month Before

 

 

 

Pre-Meeting: Thesis Approval
  1. Email your thesis to your committee for any revision requests
  2. Send an email request to your potential departmental examiner to get commitment to serve in this role, and provide general availability for the defence
  3. Send an email to your full examination committee (supervisor, committee member, departmental examiner) to schedule your defence date.

 

 

About Two Weeks Before

 

 

Circulate the revised thesis and approval form
  1. Once revisions are made to your thesis, circulate the revised thesis and the approval form via email for signatures from your committee
  2. Send approval form and your revised thesis to zool.gradprgm@ubc.ca
  3. Make sure to inform Mimi of the date and time of your defense.

 

 

 

 

The Week of your Defense

 

 

 

Setting Up the Meeting
  1. Mimi will find an examination chair who is available at your defense time
  2. Mimi will also set up a Zoom meeting and invite all the participants. In the Zoom meeting, the Chair will be designated as Alternative Host. The Chair will act as host for the meeting itself. If in person, a room can be booked online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day of Defense

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Defense

    9. Please be ready to join the meeting 15 minutes before the official start time

  1. You should share your screen and present your research talk of 20- 25 minutes at the beginning of the meeting
  2. From there, the defense will proceed normally, with questions from the committee.
  3. When the questions have been completed, you will be asked to leave the meeting
  4. The committee will deliberate on the result of the exam, and then send you a chat message on Zoom inviting you back into the meeting. Please also monitor your email and phone as a backup to receive the message.
  5. The examination chair will then inform you of the committee’s decision (pass/fail) and whether any revisions are required

 

 

After Defense

 

 

Post-meeting
  1. The chair will then email Mimi a copy of the Chair Report (Mimi will have sent this to them).
  2. Follow G+PS steps for final thesis submission: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/final-dissertation-thesis-submission