Thesis submission process

Master’s initial submission

• Submit an electronic copy of your thesis to your Graduate Program Assistant for distribution to the examination committee by the deadlines indicated below. Please check with your department, they may have different regulations.

• The defence is commonly scheduled within 2 to 5 weeks from your initial submission of your thesis. An oral defence of a master's thesis is not required by the School of Graduate Studies. Programs may elect to have an oral defence as a degree requirement (please see individual program entries in the Graduate Calendar).

• The only submission that the Thesis Office reviews is your finalized thesis to Spectrum. Deposit of a  thesis in Spectrum entails agreement to the terms of the Thesis Non-Exclusive Licence. Further information on this topic can be found at the Copyright Guide for Thesis preparation.

Doctoral initial submission

In consultation with your supervisor, you complete and submit the Doctoral thesis examining committee form and your External Examiner’s curriculum vitae to your Graduate Program Director.

Once approved, you must send the following documents listed below to the thesis office:

• Electronic copy of your thesis in PDF/A (archival PDF format)
• Abstract (Word document)
• Curriculum Vitae
• Signed Doctoral Thesis Examining Committee Form

Paper copies are no longer required.

A checklist will be emailed to you from the Thesis Office confirming your submission. At this time, you will be notified on any formatting issues. Corrections must be made before your thesis submission on Spectrum.