Neuroscience, Ph.D

Course Requirements

A minimum of 1 one-term course beyond the Master’s degree requirements (all students must take Neuroscience 700). The course must be from the list of Neuroscience courses and at the 700-level. The supervisory committee, in consultation with the student, may require additional course work. The list of Neuroscience courses covers the five areas represented in the graduate program: Clinical & Health Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Computational Neuroscience, Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience, Systems & Behavioural Neuroscience; as well as Statistics and Quantitative Methods for research.

Students will complete an original research project and this will form the basis of the Ph.D. thesis that will be presented following the School of Graduate Studies regulations.

Ph.D. Comprehensive Requirement

The Ph.D. comprehensive requirement must be completed within two years of entering the Ph.D. program and is designed to examine the student’s ability to define a major question in Neuroscience research, to evaluate the research literature critically, to design experiments to address the research question, and to become familiar with a broad range of approaches across several of the five areas of Neuroscience research. The student, in consultation with their committee, will select an area of concentration that is relevant to, but distinct from, their thesis research. The comprehensive will take the form of a grant-style research report focused on the student s area of concentration and will address the four goals stated above. The student will submit the written proposal and be examined orally on the proposal as well as knowledge of the area of concentration. The committee will include the student’s thesis supervisor (non-voting member), one member from the Supervisory committee, and two additional members from the Neuroscience faculty. The student’s performance will be judge as Pass with Distinction, Pass, or Fail. Students who fail will have a second opportunity to take the comprehensive exam.

Progress Reports

Each year all students enrolled in the Neuroscience program will be required to submit a progress report to their supervisory committee detailing their achievements for the current year and objectives for the next year.

Supervisory Committee

Each student enrolled in the Neuroscience program will be required to have a supervisory committee that will help to direct the student’s research. The committee will consist of the student’s research Supervisor and 2-3 additional faculty members from the Neuroscience program. The committee will meet at least once a year to review the student’s progress and objectives for the next year.

Thesis Evaluation Procedure

Theses will be evaluated following the School of Graduate Studies regulations.