Conflict of Interest + Graduate Studies

Conflicts of Interest (“COI”) occur when two or more duties, responsibilities, or interests of an individual (or institution) are in conflict – in that one cannot be fulfilled without compromising the other. Personal commitments, relationships, or investments, for example, might potentially interfere with the independent judgement required to make fair decisions in matters related to the admission, enrollment, evaluation, and supervision of graduate students.

These conflicts can be real, potential, or perceived; anticipating the perception of COI is critical to its effective management. COI must be brought out into the open in order to be addressed. Whether the perception reflects a real conflict or not, disclosure of the issue and implementation of a management plan is always necessary to ensure fairness and the appearance of fairness. It may turn out that the matter is manageable through, for example, a change in process or a clear declaration. It may also turn out that the two activities are not compatible, and one must cease. This determination must be made by a third party because, by definition, the person making the disclosure has a biased point of view.

COI can take place among any individuals. Within Graduate Studies, the following are most frequently involved in COI:

• students
• (co-)supervisors
• committee members
• examiners
• Graduate Program Chairs
• chairs of examinations
• members of admission, scholarship, or awards committees

Conflicts of Commitment (“COC”) focuses on a person’s external professional, business, or personal activities and time commitments that may affect their ability to meet commitments or obligations to the University. COC are managed in a similar manner to COI.

SFU has a policy for disclosing and managing COI and COC. If you are in a situation where a COI or COC exists, even if it only appears so, you must follow the process detailed in University Policy GP 37. 

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list. For additional examples of COI, please refer to Appendix B of University Policy GP 37.

Admissions, scholarships, and awards

A COI exists when a member of the Graduate Program Committee or other adjudication body has a financial or close personal relationship (e.g., romantic, sexual, marital, or familial) with an applicant. Similarly, a COI exists if a scholarship or awards adjudicator is in a position to make a decision involving their own supervisees. In some cases, it may be necessary to select alternate awards adjudicators.

Evaluation

Graduate students in the same academic unit are not considered to be at arm’s length. As such, a COI exists if a graduate student is in a position to evaluate a fellow graduate student in the same academic unit.

Supervision

A COI exists if a supervisor, co-supervisor, and/or committee member has a financial or close personal relationship (e.g., romantic, sexual, marital, or familial) with a student over whom they have a supervisory or evaluative role. 

Should such a relationship between a supervisor and student develop, the supervisory relationship may be required to immediately terminate, and the Graduate Program Chair may act as supervisor for the student until a new supervisor can be determined. The former supervisor, co-supervisor and/or the academic unit may remain responsible for the maintenance of any existing or promised financial support until appropriate supervision can be found in consultation with the Vice-Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies or their designate.

Likewise, a COI exists if supervisors, co-supervisors, and committee members have a financial or close personal relationship (e.g., romantic, sexual, marital or familial) with one another. Should such a relationship develop, one or more of the individuals involved may be required to resign from the committee so that only one person involved in the relationship remains a member of the committee.

In the case that a Graduate Program Chair is also a student’s supervisor, another Graduate Program Chair (e.g., Department Chair) may be named for that student throughout the supervisor’s tenure in that role. 

Examination

A COI exists if an internal or external examiner has a close a financial or close personal relationship (e.g., romantic, sexual, marital or familial) with a student, supervisor, co-supervisor, committee member or another examiner. In addition, a COI exists if a member of an examination committee (i.e., thesis, project, or essay) has an existing supervisory relationship with any other member of the examination committee. For example, a supervisor’s postdoctoral fellow cannot serve as the examiner or reader of that same supervisor’s Master’s or PhD student’s thesis, project, or essay.

While it is understood that co-supervisors and committee members may collaborate on research, a COI exists if external examiners have collaborated (e.g., served on a research team, co-authored a paper) with any (co-)supervisor, committee member or other examiner in the past six years. 

One individual in the Academic Program, normally the supervisor, may reach out to an individual and ascertain availability and willingness to participate in a thesis defence as an external examiner. Any other defence-related communication with a prospective external examiner by anyone in the unit may create a COI. Graduate Studies invites an external examiner and is the only body who has communication with the external examiner regarding the distribution of the thesis and its assessment (e.g., the report) prior to the defence.