Doctoral Program

Original research supervised by a faculty member constitutes the major component of work toward the PhD degree.  A Doctoral degree is expected to take five years.

PhD students are not required to complete course work unless it is recommended by the thesis committee or unless the student has been admitted without a Master's degree (see point 4). 

All PhD students are required to present a research proposal and pass a comprehensive examination on their research area within 18 months of their program start date. Each PhD student is expected to deliver a one-hour lecture on their completed doctoral research in one of the departmental lecture series before their doctoral dissertation examination (for details, please see information below).

First term

  • Meet with supervisor to discuss expectations of student and supervisor, degree requirements, policies and timelines
  • Begin to develop project ideas
  • Begin any coursework the committee has recommended or required for students without Master's degrees. Courses must be completed with a passing grade of at least 68%.
  • Apply for scholarship funding, if necessary. NSERC and Affiliated Fellowships have the same application process, with usually mid-September

Second term

Second year

  • Continue conducting research
  • Complete research proposal committee meeting
  • Obtain reading list for comprehensive exam from each committee member. Begin preparations
  • Complete comprehensive exam and advance to candidacy
  • Extensions beyond 24 months to advance to candidacy require the written approval of the Graduate Advisor

Third and fourth year

  • Convene annual committee meetings to discuss research results, further research plans, coursework and timeline to thesis completion
  • Aim to complete research by end of fourth year

Dissertation submission

Please keep in mind that your program will not be closed until the final submission instructions have been completed. If you're aiming for a particular completion date/graduation, give yourself at least a month between the oral examination and your target deadline. After the defence, students are generally given a month to make revisions if needed, and G+PS will close your program about 1-2 weeks after the final submission paperwork and dissertation have been submitted and accepted.

And 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).

The Doctoral Dissertation exam is administered through the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

Dissertation & Thesis Preparation

Thesis template (LaTex)

Thesis template/formatting (Word)

Final Dissertation & Thesis Submission

You are encouraged to use the planning tool and checklist on the G+PS website.

Note that the deadlines for scheduling these exams are sometimes quite early in the term. You can find defense, graduation, and thesis submission deadlines by consulting the G+PS Deadline Centre.