Candidacy

You must successfully complete your candidacy requirements within 28 months from the start of your program.

Before you can complete a thesis you must be admitted to candidacy.

Graduate Calendar: Candidacy

Take required courses

You must complete all required courses: five core courses and four elective courses relevant to your area of specialization and research focus.

You are expected to complete your courses within 24 months from the start of your program.

Get curriculum plan

Get your proposal approved

Your research proposal must be approved by your supervisory committee before your Field of Study (FoS) exams and applying for ethics certification.

You must obtain approval 3 months before your FoS exams (in the 25th month of your program).

Approval form

Create your portfolio

Submit your portfolio to your supervisory committee for approval.

You must obtain approval 3 months before your FoS exams (in the 25th month of your program).

Learn more about this requirement below >>

FoS Exam

You will complete both oral and written FoS exams. Review the regulations for complete details.

FoS Regulations

The intent is to provide your supervisory committee with a solid overview of your area of focus to create penetrating and generative FoS examination questions.

Your portfolio will include:

  • a list of the coursework you completed
  • papers written or other scholarly products created for these courses
  • conference or workshop presentations, publications created during your program
  • approved thesis proposal
  • brief statement of academic priorities and goals, and
  • a preliminary reading list

  1. 3 months before

    Get your research proposal and portfolio approved. You must obtain approval 3 months before your FoS exam.

  2. 6 weeks before

    Your external examiner must be approved by FGS, and your exam details must be submitted to Student Services to process and submit for approval.

  3. 5 weeks before

    You will receive the written FoS questions. You have 3 weeks to write your written exam papers.

  4. 2 weeks before

    You must submit your written FoS exam papers to Student Services. They will distribute these to your examination committee for evaluation that same day.

Preparing for your candidacy exam

Review the Faculty of Graduate Studies step-by-step guide on what to do before, during and after building your thesis.

Interested in a Manuscript-based Thesis? Learn more

Thesis defence

The thesis is the focus of your program. With your supervisor, you will formulate a thesis topic early in your program. Your topic may impact your choice and number of required courses.

You must defend your thesis to the satisfaction of your examining committee, within 6 years of admission to the program.

Thesis examination regulations