Students, Supervisor & Supervisory Committees

Student Declaration

Upon registering, a student has initiated a contract with the University and is bound by the following declaration:

"I hereby accept and submit myself to the statutes, rules and regulations, and ordinances (including bylaws, codes, and policies) of The University of British Columbia, and of the faculty or faculties in which I am registered, and to any amendments thereto which may be made while I am a student of the University, and I promise to observe the same."

The student declaration is important. It imposes obligations on students and affects rights and privileges including property rights. You must not enrol as a student at the University if you do not agree to become bound by the declaration above. By agreeing to become a student, you make the declaration above and agree to be bound by it.

Graduate Student Responsibilities

As a graduate student, you must accept the rules, procedures, and standards in place in the program and at the university and should check the University Calendar for regulations regarding academic and non-academic matters. You are expected to:

• Show dedicated efforts to gain the background knowledge and skills needed to pursue your research project successfully.
• With your supervisor, develop a plan and timetable for completion of all stages of your thesis or dissertation project, adhere to the schedule and meet appropriate deadlines.
• Meet with your supervisor regularly and report fully on progress and results.
• Maintain continuous registration throughout the program and (for international students) ensure that study permits and (where applicable) employment authorization documents are kept up to date.
• Keep your supervisor, Graduate Program Officer and Enrolment Services informed about your contact information.
• Give serious consideration to the advice and criticisms received from your supervisor and other members of your supervisory committee.
• Keep your work space tidy, safe, and healthy; show tolerance and respect for the rights of others.
• Be thoughtful and reasonably frugal in using resources provided by your supervisor and the University, and assist in obtaining additional resources for your research or for other group members where applicable.
• Conform to University, Faculty and graduate program requirements, including those related to deadlines, dissertation or thesis style, conflict of interest.
• When your degree program requirements have been met, terminate your work and clean up your work space.
• Return borrowed materials to your supervisor, graduate program, library or reading room, etc. when your project has been finished or when return is requested.

The following suggestions can make your life a lot easier:

• Review the literature regularly and keep your literature survey up-to-date
• Maintain exemplary records of your experimental/theoretical work (so that others can replicate your results)
• While your supervisor is required to be reasonably available for consultation, it is your responsibility to keep in touch with your supervisor
• Make yourself available to your supervisor for regular meetings at mutually acceptable times
• Follow the university's policy regarding ownership of intellectual property

Academic Honesty and Standards

All work submitted by students (including, without limitation, essays, dissertations, theses, examinations, tests, reports, presentations, problem sets, and tutorial assignments) may be subjected to review by the University for authenticity and originality.

The University may use software tools and third party services including Internet-based services such as Turnitin . By submitting work, you consent to your work undergoing such review and being retained in a database for comparison with other work submitted by students. Please see the Policies and Procedures section of the G+PS website for details.

Your supervisor is the key person in your graduate degree program. Supervisors are there to help their graduate students at every stage, from formulation of their research projects, through establishing methodologies and discussing results, to presentation and possible publication of dissertations. Graduate supervisors also ensure that their students’ work meets the standards of the University.

Some specific responsibilities of a graduate supervisor

Research

• assists the student with the selection and planning of a suitable, and manageable, research topic.
• is sufficiently familiar with the field of research to provide guidance and/or has a willingness to gain that familiarity before agreeing to act as a supervisor.
• acknowledges appropriately the contributions of the student in presentations and in published material, in many cases via joint authorship.

Consultation

• is accessible to the student for consultation and discussion of the student’s academic progress and research. The frequency of meetings varies depending on the discipline, stage of work, nature of the project, independence of the student, full- or part-time status, etc. For many, weekly meetings are essential; for others, monthly meetings are satisfactory. In no case should interaction be less frequent than once per term.
• establishes (with input from the student and colleagues where appropriate) a supervisory committee, and convenes a meeting, at least annually, to evaluate the student’s progress.
• responds in a timely and thorough manner to written work submitted by the student, with constructive suggestions for improvement and continuation. The turnaround time for comments on written work should not normally exceed three weeks.
• makes arrangements to ensure continuity of supervision when the supervisor will be absent for extended periods, e.g. a month or longer, when necessary, assists the student in gaining access to facilities or research materials.

Administration

• assists the student in being aware of current graduate program requirements, deadlines, sources of funding, etc.
• encourages the student to make presentations of research results within the University and to outside scholarly or professional bodies as appropriate.
• encourages the student to finish up when it would not be in the student’s best interests to extend the program of studies
• ensures that recommendations for external examiners of doctoral dissertations are made to the Graduate Program Officer and forwarded to G+PS in a timely manner.
• assists the student to comply with any changes that need to be made to the thesis or dissertation after the thesis or dissertation defence.

Well-being

• ensures that the research environment is safe, healthy and free from harassment, discrimination and conflict. When there is a conflict in advice or when there are different expectations on the part of co-supervisors or members of the supervisory committee, the supervisor is expected to endeavour to achieve consensus and resolve the differences.

The G+PS Handbook of Graduate Supervision has more information on the roles and responsibilities of supervisors .

Who can be a supervisor

Any faculty member who is a member of G+PS is eligible to serve as a graduate student supervisor.

• For complete information, see Policies and Procedures / Supervision .
• The UBC Calendar has the full Senate policy on membership in G+PS .

Co-Supervision

Supervision of a student can be shared by two co-supervisors. At least one co-supervisor must meet the criteria above. Other appropriately qualified individuals may be approved to serve as co-supervisors.

In all cases where G+PS must approve a Supervisory role for a non-member, the request must be made when the Committee is formed.

All graduate students are required to have a Supervisory Committee. Supervisory committees must conform to the policies listed in this section and should be formed within the first academic term. Students should consult with their supervisor regarding faculty members suitable to act as members of their committee. Choice of members of the supervisory committee is a joint decision between the student and supervisor. Supervisory committees are to be composed primarily of research faculty members from the IOF who hold research, tenure stream professorial board appointments. These special permissions allow for Supervisory Committees to include people such as senior instructors, honorary faculty, adjunct faculty, Indigenous elders, as well as off-campus professionals and/or faculty members from other universities.

Adding any committee member who does not have a research, tenure stream professorial board appointment at UBC (i.e., people that are not members of the Faculty of Graduate Studies at UBC, subsequently referred as non-G+PS) requires:

• for MSc students: the approval of an OCF Graduate Advisor
• for PhD students: the approval of an OCF Graduate Advisor and the additional approval of G+PS, and must fill in the form: Recommendation for Non-G+PS member to join supervisory committee found on the G+PS website.
• for both MSc students and PhD students nominating a Non-G+PS member to join their supervisory committee, the student must provide to the Graduate Program Officer 1) a memo by their supervisor that justifies that the nominated committee member has the qualifications to supervise graduate research at the standard of excellence at UBC, 2) a copy of the nominee's curriculum vitae, and 3) a statement from the nominee assenting to serve on the Supervisor Committee and accepting responsibilities outlined by UBC .
• A minimum of 50% of the Supervisory Committee Members must be members of the Faculty of Graduate studies at UBC.
• OCF Master’s students in the 18-credit stream must have a minimum of three members on their Supervisory Committee (including the supervisor).
• OCF Master’s student in the 12-credit stream must have a minimum of two members on their Supervisory committee (including the supervisor).
• OCF Doctoral students must have a minimum of four faculty members on their committee (including the supervisor), two of which must be IOF faculty members. While Non-G+PS members (see above) or non-IOF members of G+PS can be added, the Supervisory Committee is usually primarily composed of UBC faculty members of the IOF holding the rank of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor.

In addition, students can consider adding Honorary Members to their Supervisory Committee. These Honorary Members play a different, more flexible, support role for the students, and are not counted towards the minimum number of members required to form the Supervisory Committee. Please see the Honorary Membership form for details.

If there are changes to the composition or distribution of roles on a student's Supervisory Committee after it is officially approved in the Student Information Service Centre (SISC), G+PS must be notified so that the Committee can be re-confirmed. Changes to the Supervisory Committee must be submitted via G+PS’ Change to Supervisory Committee form. Requested changes to supervision should follow the policies laid out by G+PS .

There is a distinction between a student’s Supervisory Committee, which is the committee that supports the student during their degree, and a student’s Examining Committees,

M.Sc. Committees

MSc Supervisory Committee (18-credit thesis stream)

MSc students from the 18-credit stream must have a minimum of three faculty members on their committee (including the supervisor). Two Supervisory Committee members can be non-IOF UBC research faculty with a tenure stream professorial board appointment. Including non-members of G+PS as Supervisory Committee members requires the approval of one of the Graduate Advisors.

MSc Supervisory Committee (12-credit thesis stream)

MSc students from the 12-credit stream must have a minimum of two faculty members on their committee (including the supervisor). One Supervisory Committee member can be a non-IOF UBC research faculty with a tenure stream professorial board appointment. Including non-members of G+PS as Supervisory Committee members requires the approval of one of the Graduate Advisors.

MSc Thesis Defense Examining Committee (both streams)

The MSc Defense Examining Committee will be comprised at the minimum of the Research Supervisor, one Supervisory Committee member, a university examiner, and the Chairperson. An additional member of the Supervisory Committee can be added to the examining committee (e.g., a co-supervisor). The chair must be an IOF faculty member who has not been involved in the MSc candidate’s thesis research. The role of the chair is to act as the moderator of the exam; they do not participate in the questioning of the candidate. Previously approved members of the Supervisory Committee that are non-G+PS members can serve on the Examining Committee, but at least two members of the Examination Committee must be IOF faculty members (one of these can be the chair).

Ph.D. Committees

PhD Supervisory Committee

OCF Doctoral students must have a minimum of four faculty members on their Supervisory Committee (including the supervisor). Two Supervisory Committee Members must be IOF faculty members. Other Supervisory Committee members can be a non-IOF UBC research faculty with a tenure stream professorial board appointment. Including non-members of G+PS as Supervisory Committee members requires the approval of one of the Graduate Advisors (see above for details) as well as approval by G+PS.

The Supervisory Committee must be officially accepted, and entered by the GPO in the Student Information Service Centre (SISC), prior to the proposal defense. Students must therefore submit the Supervisory Committee Form no later than two months before scheduling their proposal defense with their Supervisory Committee (see PhD Timeline Checklist). If the student requests to have a committee member who does not have a research, tenure stream professorial board appointment at UBC, they must start the approval process for these members no later than four months before scheduling their proposal defense.

PhD Comprehensive Examining Committees

The Examination Committee will consist of 4-5 members of the Supervisory Committee plus the Chair. If a Supervisory Committee has more than five members, then the membership of the Examination Committee must be limited to five. If less than four members of the Supervisory Committee are available because of leave, substitution may be made upon the advice of one of the Graduate Advisors or arrangements made for teleconferencing. Although the Examining Committee can include previously approved Supervisory Committee members who do not hold a professorial board appointment in the research stream (see above), pass or fail decisions will be made by UBC research faculty (i.e., G+PS) members only. The Chair must be an IOF faculty member. The Chair acts as a moderator, and does not participate in the questioning. More detail on the Comprehensive exam is found in the section Comprehensive Exam below.

PhD Dissertation Defense Examining Committees

The composition of the PhD Dissertation Examination Committee is dictated by G+PS. It is the supervisor’s responsibility to find the appropriate External and University examiners. See https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/final-doctoral-exam/examination-committee for details.

Annual Committee meetings

The G+PS requires that graduate students meet with their full Committee at least once per year. Students who have not had a Supervisory Committee meeting within the previous 12 months are not eligible for awards, and their supervisors who have not attempted to schedule a Supervisory Committee meeting once every 12 months are not eligible to accept new graduate students. All new students are encouraged to meet with their Supervisory Committee within the first six months of starting the program. Generally, it is the student’s responsibility to organize the Committee meetings.

Prior to a Supervisory Committee meeting, students will provide the members of the Committee with a brief progress report of 1-2 pages. If the first meeting of the Supervisory Committee occurs within six months of the program state date, the student can provide a brief introduction and training history with a general plan for research. For PhD Supervisory Committee meetings that also serve as the proposal defense, the student will provide the full dissertation proposal in advance instead of the brief progress report.

For all other Supervisory Committee meetings, the short progress report should include the following content:

1. date the student started in the program,
2. list of course taken as part of the program and grades,
3. summary of research conducted so far,
4. research plan for completion of program,
5. outreach and conference activities,
6. papers published or in preparation, and
7. sources of funding.

Supervisory Committee meetings should normally last one hour. Students should prepare a brief presentation on research progress and future planning. At least half of the meeting time should be for open discussion. Committee meetings can be organized via teleconferencing.

After each Supervisory Committee meeting, the Committee Meeting Form and the Student Progress Report must be submitted to the GPO by the Supervisor.

The G+PS Handbook of Graduate Supervision has more information about working effectively with your Supervisory Committee .

There are several reasons why a change of supervisors may be the best option for both the graduate student and supervisor; from the supervisor leaving the university to incompatibility to funding. In such situations, either the student or the supervisor can initiate a meeting with one of the Graduate Advisors, who will attempt to help resolve the situation. The Graduate Advisors will keep the IOF Director informed of the situation and if needed, the IOF Director will step in to help with the situation.

If a change is necessary, and the student has not already found a new supervisor, the original supervisor should provide assistance in this process. The new supervisor will take over the guidance of the graduate student’s academic program, and in situations where issues of financial support arise, they should be resolved among the parties in reasonable ways to best support the student.

If no resolution can be achieved, the problem may ultimately be taken to the Dean of G+PS. The Dean of G+PS will check to ensure that each previous level of problem resolution has been explored to the fullest extent before proceeding further.

G+Ps has guidelines on ending a student/supervisor relationship .

When there is a conflict in advice or when there are different expectations on the part of co-supervisors or members of the Supervisory Committee, the primary supervisor is expected to help resolve the differences.

If there continues to be difficulty within the Committee, the student should bring the issues to the GPO.