The rules stated here have precedence over the ones that appear in our earlier guidelines (e.g., the "Supervision and Timely Graduation Guidelines" and the "Student Financial Support"). These earlier documents provide additional useful information. These documents will eventually be merged into one.
The new rules are effective from May 1998, and will be made available to both students and graduate faculty.
The programme is a 20 month programme, covering two academic years, consisting of two fall terms (F1 and F2), two winter terms (W1 and W2) and one summer term (S1). The summer term is between May 1st and August 31st.
Students are expected to complete all their degree requirements, including thesis defense (thesis option) or project report (project option), by the end of term W2.
Financial support for up to 20 months is available to all full-time students making satisfactory progress in the programme. See the discussion of satisfactory progress below.
Financial support will not extend beyond the second academic year.
Satisfactory progress is defined by the following criteria:
To determine satisfactory progress, two progress reports must be submitted. It is the student's responsibility to obtain the form and to ensure that the completed form is returned to the Graduate Assistant before the deadline.
It must be submitted before April 15 of the student's first academic year. The student should demonstrate progress in their coursework and should have identified a faculty member as their thesis supervisor and a second one to be on their Thesis Supervsory Committee. If the student does not have a thesis supervisor by April 15, he/she will not get any financial support during the summer term. This progress report will be signed by both the academic advisor and the thesis supervisor.
It must be submitted before August 15 of the student's first summer (S1), together with a draft of the thesis proposal. If the student's progress in research over the summer is not satisfactory, the student will not get any financial support during the following fall and winter term (F2 and W2). This progress report will be signed by the thesis supervisor.
Students are assigned an academic advisor before entry to the programme, who will advise them in their first two terms of study, and help them select a thesis supervisor (who does not have to coincide with the academic advisor). If the student selects a thesis supervisor other than their academic advisor, the academic advisor remains available as an additional resource throughout the student's course of study. Although it is possible for a student to change thesis supervisors, students are expected to remain with the thesis supervisor that they select during their first year.
Students are expected to work full time on their courses and thesis while they receive financial support from the programme. Students should be aware that they are limited to working a maximum total of 270 hours per academic year and a maximum of 10 hours per week. Students who exceed these limits without the explicit written permission of both the Graduate Director and their thesis supervisor will have their financial support terminated. In addition, students are expected to remain in residence with the programme while they are funded. Students who plan to take extended leaves (longer than 2 weeks) must seek permission from their thesis supervisor.
Faculty wishing to hire graduate students to work on grants/contracts must approach the Graduate Director before advertising the position to students. Positions must be open to all qualified students. Faculty must be aware that full time students have a limited number of hours available for extra employment.
Revised: February 18, 2008