Biology, Ph.D

Requirements

For students entering the Ph.D. program with a M.Sc. degree there is no minimum course requirement but all students must complete a thesis. Students with a B.Sc. degree are required to complete a minimum of two 700-level half courses, plus a thesis. The Department may require students enrolled in the doctoral program to take graduate or undergraduate courses to remove program deficiencies. Candidates are required to plan their course requirements in consultation with their supervisory committee. There is no departmental foreign language requirement for Ph.D. candidates. Candidates for both M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees are expected to participate regularly in departmental programs and activities (e.g. seminars). The candidate for the Doctoral degree must pass a Comprehensive Examination within the time limits required by the University. Graduate students entering the final year of the Ph.D. degree are required to present the results of their research project to the department during a public supervisory committee meeting. At this meeting students will present a comprehensive overview of the field of investigation in the form of a written report submitted to the supervisory committee and a 50-minute oral presentation describing the rationale, experimental approaches, and outcomes of their research project. A question period follows the presentation. In the Final Oral Examination, the candidate will be expected to defend his/her thesis which embodies the results of original research. The general requirements concerning the thesis appear earlier in this Calendar.