Scheduling Committee Meetings

Scheduling Within the First Two Years

The supervisory committee must be selected and approved by the Graduate Coordinator as soon as possible after joining the permanent lab.  The student must contact committee members to set up the first committee meeting, which must take place before the end of March (the end of July for students admitted in January) of the first year in the program. As soon as this meeting is scheduled, the Graduate Coordinator(s) must be informed of the meeting's date, time, and location.

At the end of the first committee meeting, or within one business day after that, the student must schedule a second committee meeting. This meeting MUST occur before the end of October (February for students admitted in January) of the second year in the program. The exact date and time of the second committee meeting must be included on the report from the first committee meeting or must be arranged and communicated to the Graduate Coordinator(s) within one business day of the first meeting. To aid in scheduling committee meetings, committee members should be reminded to bring their calendars to the meeting. If this is not possible, they must be contacted immediately after the meeting to arrange the second meeting.

At the end of the second committee meeting, the pre-reclassification/pre-qualification committee meeting must be arranged in the manner described above. This must occur before the end of March (July for students admitted in January) of the second year in the program. The Department will arrange for a Designated Examiner to attend this meeting once it has been scheduled.

The Department will schedule the reclassification/qualification exam. It will occur within the last three weeks of May (October for students admitted in January) of the second year in the program.

Scheduling For All Students After The First Two Years

After a student has reclassified or qualified, they must have at least one supervisory committee meeting per year (this is an SGS requirement). More frequent meetings will occur if the supervisory committee determines it is necessary. Although the department monitors the timing of committee meetings, it is the student's responsibility to schedule these meetings. The procedure to follow for scheduling these subsequent committee meetings is:

1. Whenever possible, a student receives a reminder e-mail that a committee meeting is necessary within the next two months. If no reminder is sent, the student should still schedule a meeting once a year with their committee.

2. Each year, a student should e-mail the committee members to ask when they can have a committee meeting. You should also cc this message to the Graduate Coordinator(s). Upon obtaining the committee member responses, the student determines a time and place that is mutually agreeable. Once these arrangements have been finalized, the student informs the Graduate Coordinator(s). A copy of the formal notice of the committee meeting is kept in the student's file. The student is responsible for sending a reminder and their report to all committee members one week before the meeting.

3. Professors have been informed that they are expected to respond to the student's e-mails as soon as possible and certainly within a few days. However, we realize that some professors may not respond on time. If a professor does not respond to a student's e-mail within four days, the student should send an e-mail reminder. If no response to the reminder is received within three days, the student must inform the Graduate Administrator and the Graduate Coordinator. The Graduate Coordinator then contacts the professor(s).

Scheduling And Procedure For Students Completing The M.Sc. Degree

M.Sc. students who are not reclassifying must have a third committee meeting before the end of March (July for January starters) of their second year (this might be the fourth committee meeting if there was a pre-reclassification meeting). At this meeting, a clear plan should be agreed upon for the completion of the degree program. In particular, the remaining experiments that must be completed should be explicitly described on the Supervisory Committee Evaluation Report. The remaining experiments should not take more than six months to complete. A terminal committee meeting must be held no more than six months later. All experiments should have been completed by this time. The student will present the outline of their thesis and receives permission to write. The M.Sc. Terminal Committee Meeting Report (available on the Departmental website) is filled out at this time in addition to the regular Supervisory Committee Meeting Evaluation Report. If experiments have not been completed, the Evaluation Report must include a clear explanation for the delay. A concise timeline for completion must also be included. Further failure to meet the deadlines of the committee will warrant intercession by the Graduate Coordinator.

Confirming Your Upcoming Committee Meeting

To reduce e-mails and paper usage, we have transitioned the confirmation of your committee meetings online. Please note you will need to log in with your U of T e-mail/UTORid to access the online form. Please note that this process confirms your committee meeting date once you have contacted committee members to set up your committee meeting. 

You will need to confirm their committee meeting by submitting this questionnaire at least six weeks before your meeting date.

Here is the information you will need to have confirmed before submitting the questionnaire:

1. Supervisor information

2. A list of your completed courses

3. Date/time of your committee meeting

4. Demographic information (e.g., when you started the program, type of meeting, student number)

5. Your most recent/previous committee meeting evaluation (only if it is not your first meeting)

6. Your written report(s)

7. More information regarding your written report can be found in the Graduate Handbook.

Once you have submitted the questionnaire, your supervisor and committee members/meeting chair will receive an e-mail with the information you have entered within 24 hours. The meeting attendees will also receive a calendar invitation of the date and time for your upcoming meeting.