Completing your Degree

A student is ready to graduate when they have completed all required courses with a minimum GPA of 3.0, successfully defended the research project or thesis, and after final corrections are complete, submitted to the library for publication. The library submission triggers an email which "stops the clock" on the program. This must happen before the library deadline or the student must enroll for the next term. This is a firm deadline; there is no flexibility. Submit or enroll.

Program Requirements
Students are responsible for ensuring all requirements of their program are met before they apply to defend. This is checked using the Academic Progress Report (APR) in goSFU and ensure it is correct and showing complete. Cross-check specifics with your Senior Supervisor or the Graduate Program Assistant if you have questions and get any errors in your APR corrected before you apply to graduate.

Submitting your draft
Be prepared to spend at least one full term, possibly two, working with your supervisor on your final written product. Once you have a draft ready to give your supervisor, you can anticipate several rounds of edits where you will be expected to bring your writing and the presentation of your ideas up to the standard required for publication or defense. Students are often taken aback by the challenges of this phase of their program and underestimate the number of weeks or months to work through drafts and circulate to committee members for feedback and edits. Be sure to talk to other students about this part of the process, so that you are psychologically and emotionally prepared for this stage of completing your degree.

Liaising with the Library
The SFU Library provides resources to prepare your project or thesis for submission. Be sure to contact the Thesis Librarian for a pre-submission review appointment; you can have more than one appointment as you work through your written material. The Library website provides templates and timelines for preparing your thesis for defence and eventual publication. You should refer to this website early and start connecting with the library staff who are there to assist. It is important for you to work with the thesis librarian as you prepare for defense and ultimately submission of your final, approved work.

Getting ready for your defense
Students wanting to defend and complete must be enrolled in their capstone course (REM 697, 699, 899) for that term. Ensure your writing is well underway with a first draft of your project or thesis in to your supervisor before you start to prepare for defense. You will work with your supervisor and the GPA to identify a defense chair, a second reader or external examiner, and prepare your project or thesis for defense. You should attend other student defenses well in advance of your own defense so that you understand how they proceed.

You will need to submit your examination committee to GPS for review and approval. The GPA must prepare this form, so work with them to fill in the necessary information for review and approval. Remember that full names, credentials and a CV is required for external examiners.

Timelines
Once you and your supervisor are starting to develop your written project/thesis and you are dealing with edits, notify the GPA that you are getting close to defense.
PhD students need to be providing details, including intended date, name and CV of external, final title of thesis and any ethics documents seven weeks prior to intended defense date. Masters thesis students must have the thesis ready to circulate to the committee four weeks prior to preferred defense date. Masters project and planning need to have a second reader and provide details to the GPA three weeks prior to defense date.

Once the GPA has all the necessary information, they will circulate the correct forms for signature and submit to the Graduate Studies. This step must happen by the correct deadline (6 weeks before a PhD, 4 weeks before an MRM thesis, 2 weeks before an MRM Project) or you risk having your request denied. Do not miss this deadline.

The Graduate Studies provides comprehensive resources on preparing for your defence and best practices to follow.

Examining Committee
Thesis and PhD students should already have their supervising committee on record. They will form the core of your examining committee and then your supervisor will recommend internal and external examiners as required by the Graduate General Regulations (GGR). The GPA will assign a Chair from the members of REM faculty. MRM Course Work (Project) students will be working primarily with a senior supervisor and will require a second reader for their defense. They will also need to recruit a chair from their fellow students.

When you are ready to schedule your defense, the GPA will complete the correct form, but you will need to provide the names, SFU ID and contact information for everyone participating in the exam (candidate, committee and chair) and a short bio or CV for any members of the examining committee who do not have an SFU ID number. Please contact the GPA for a checklist.

Graduation
You must also apply to graduate when you are preparing to defend. It is much easier to remove students from the list of graduands if necessary than it is to add people in late, so always apply even before your thesis is complete. If there are delays with your edits, your graduation can be withdrawn. Please note that if you need to withdraw your application to graduate, you need to do this before you will be allowed to enroll for the next term.

Letters confirming credential completion for the purposes of employment or immigration are self-service from the Forms page of the GPS website.

The Graduate Studies provides information about confirming your Convocation attendance and reserving your regalia. It’s a special experience, so make time to attend if you can.