Ph.D. Supervisory Committee
During the first year of your program, you should be meeting with your thesis supervisor and creating a Supervisory Committee who will be offering you support as you begin and continue throughout your prospectus, research and defense. Once you have established your Supervisory Committee, fill out the Ph.D. Supervisory Committee Approval Form and return to the Graduate Administrator during your fourth term in the program.
Doctoral Prospectus – 1st Steps
Before beginning work on your prospectus, please read the Policies regarding the Doctoral Dissertation. Click here for Policy 1 , Policy 2 and Policy 3. As well, you should be familiar with the Thesis Policy on the FGPA website and the new Electronic Thesis Deposit System for formatting requirements for both your prospectus and your thesis.
Doctoral Prospectus Defense
Review the following document – Prospectus Defense – The Steps, which outlines the responsibilities of the student and supervisor when scheduling your Prospectus Defense. The Ph.D. Prospectus Defense Approval Form, should be submitted 4 weeks prior to the date of your prospectus to the Graduate Administrator, to ensure that we can locate a chair for your defense.
Doctoral Defense
Pre-Defense
Before beginning the thesis planning process, you should review the E-Thesis Submission information and the Thesis Policy. Please note: Students must now upload their examination copy of their thesis.
8 weeks in advance of your Doctoral Defense Date, your supervisor should submit to the Director, the CV and contact info for your External Examiner. You, the student, cannot know or have contact with the External Examiner.
6 weeks in advance of your Doctoral Defense Date, you have to submit the Ph.D. Thesis Defense Approval Form. This form should only be submitted, after there has been confirmation from your Thesis Supervisor, that all the members of your committee including the External Examiner and the Internal Examiner have confirmed their availability for this date and time. This form gives us information about the details of your defense and the committee members who will be attending.
Once the information about your defense is entered into the system, you will get an email, prompting you to upload your examination copy.
4-6 weeks in advance of your Doctoral Defense Date, you will upload your examination copy.
Please ensure you also drop off a hard copy of your thesis to the Graduate Administrator at this time. The Graduate Administrator will submit it to FGPA with the External Examiner contact information.
Your Thesis Supervisor and Director will sign off on your examination copy.
As soon as this happens, this will allow your committee members to view your thesis through the E-Thesis System. It is the student’s responsibility to provide hard copies to your committee, should they request one. If so, they will request hard copies through the Graduate Administrator and she will contact you, if hard copies are required.
1 week in advance of your Doctoral Defense Date, you and your Thesis Supervisor(s) will be notified as to whether are not your defense can proceed. This occurs once we receive word from FGPA that your External Examiner has submitted their External Examiners Report, as well as when we have received your Committee’s Recommendations.
After your Doctoral Defense
The Chair of the Defense will sign off in the E-Thesis System that the defense has concluded.
If there are revisions to your thesis, once we have received word from your Thesis Supervisor that your thesis has been revised, the system will allow you to upload your final copy.
Once your final copy has been uploaded, your Thesis Supervisor has to approve it.
Once your Thesis Supervisor has approved it, this will mean that you have completed your Program Requirements for the Ph.D. in Cognitive Science.
You will be required to submit a PDF-A version of your thesis to the Institute for binding purposes.