Defense and Graduation
Determine Graduation Target – June or November
For June graduation
Apply to graduate between Dec. 15 – Feb. 28 on the Student Service Centre
Students will defend their thesis any time after aAugust and before April. The final thesis must be approved by graduate studies and upload to cIRcle no later than April 15th -
For November graduation
Apply to graduate between June 15 – August 31 on the Student Service Centre
Stduents will defend their thesis any time after April but before August. The final thesis must be approved by graduate studies and uploaded to cIRcle no later than August 31st
Defence Intitiaion
Once the student and supervisor feel the dissertation is complete it is sent to the advisory committee members for their comments. Once the supevisor and committee members feel the dissertation is ready it is hten sent to the College of Graduate Studies to initiate the dissertation defence process.
1. The dissertation will be sent to the external examiner, who will have 4-6 weeks to examine it. They will send a report to grauate studies concluding whether the dissertation is suitable for defence.
2. If the dissertation is deemed suitable the defence will be scheduled and hte dissertation will be sent to the University examiners.
The Doctoral Examination Committee
The Doctoral Examination Committee includes:
the Chair appointed by the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies.
the supervisor.
one or two additional members from the advisory Committee.
two UBC examiners from either campus, at least one of which must be from a department/program not affiliated with the Student/Research supervisor.
an external examiner appointed by the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies from outside of UBC.
The examination will not proceed without all members of the Examination Committee. External members of the committee may participate by distance (videoconferencing or teleconferencing) or submit a written report only.
Doctoral Examination Procedure
Thesis defenses shall include a public presentation of the candidate's dissertation or thesis, a question period for examiners, and, if time permits, questions from the audience. The examination lasts approximately two to three hours, and concludes with an in-camera discussion by the Examining Committee.
The following procedures should be followed by the Chair:
1. Announce the public examination of (Candidate) for the PhD degree.
2. Invite the candidate to present a synopsis of the thesis/dissertation. The candidate may speak from notes, and may use audio-visual equipment, but must not read the synopsis. The presentation should be 20 to 30 minutes in length, but no longer, and should not be interrupted by questions.
3. Call upon members of the Examination Committee to question the candidate. The University Examiner begins the questioning and the supervisor should be the last to question the candidate. The Chair should announce the order of questioning before the start of the examination. The Chair should exercise discretion in managing the question period and may, for example, curb hostile questioning or interventions by the supervisor.
4. Ensure that all substantive questions raised in the External Examiner's report are put to the candidate. This role is assigned to the student's supervisor. (Only when the External Examiner will not be attending in person.)
5. Call for further questioning by the Committee and ask the candidate to address and/or clarify any points that may not have been adequately covered in previous rounds of questioning.
6. Call for questions from the audience (for a brief period of time) if time permits.
7. Request that the candidate and all persons not on the Examination Committee leave the room prior to the in-camera discussion. A maximum of three members of the Supervisory Committee may participate and vote during the discussion.
8. Call for an in-camera discussion for the Examination Committee to make recommendations with respect to: (a) the performance of the Candidate at the Oral Examination and (b) the thesis/dissertation.
9. Recall the candidate and, in the presence of the Examination Committee, inform the candidate of the recommendations that are to be made to the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies.
More detailed information can be found on the College of Graduate Studies examination guidelines web site.
Submission of the Final Dissertation to the College of Graduate Studies
Once the student and supervisor are agreed that all of hte required changes have been made the final version of the dissertation is submitted to the College of Graduate Studies. The College of Graduate Studies is responsible for accepting and processing every doctoral dissertation. Specific instructions on the preparation of the final version of the dissertation are available at http://www.grad.ubc.ca/students/thesis/index.asp?menu=000,000,000,000.
Please follow these instructions carefully when preparing dissertations for submission. We strongly recommend consulting the College of Graduate Studies for assistance with questions before starting the final draft.
Degree Recommendation
When all conditions for the degree have been met, the Dean will inform the Secretary of the Senate of the successful completion of the program. On approval of the College, the candidate will be nominated for the awarding of the degree. Nominations for the awarding of degrees are considered at the May and November meetings of the Senate. For a candidate to be considered for a degree, all procedures must have been completed by the dates specified in the University Calendar.
Last reviewed 
8/21/2011 9:58:10 PM
