Policies and Procedures

Our policies and procedures are designed to keep our graduate programs safe, stimulating and fair for all. Within all Departments at the University of Waterloo, we strive to create a culture of academic integrity where all members of the community promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.

Review the procedures below, which are relevant to your life as a graduate student within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

You can also review a more comprehensive list of university-wide policies relevant to graduate students, including vacations and vacation pay, pets on campus, conflict of interest and more.

Degree requirements

A list of current degree requirements can be found in the Graduate Studies Academic Calendar. An archive of past Graduate Studies Academic Calendars can be found here.

Courses

Visit the links below to learn more about the following items:

Courses outside of the Faculty of Engineering

Starting Spring 2019, graduate courses outside of the Faculty of Engineering must be approved prior to enrolment using the course approval form.

Courses acceptable for graduate credit by the department must have a minimum contact time of 36 hours; and the syllabus and detailed marking scheme of the course must be submitted with the course approval form. The course approval form must be signed by both the student and the supervisor prior to being submitted for approval.

Courses that are being audited or taken as extra to the degree do not require approval Associate Chair approval via the course approval form. However, as all course selections should be made in consultation with supervisors, students taking courses as audit or extra to degree are encouraged to gain approval from their supervisor.

Audit policy

For a student to receive an "AUD" credit for a graduate course within the Department of Civil of Environmental Engineering, the following criteria must be met:

The student must attend at least 10 weeks of class
The student must complete the equivalent of at least 30% of the graded items with a grade of at least 70%

Program guidelines

Visit the program guidelines on the Engineering Graduate Studies Office website to learn more about the following items:

program changes (eg. changing from a MASc to a PhD)
program extensions
program withdrawal procedures

PhD comprehensive exams

The Engineering Graduate Studies Office has a detailed webpage on comprehensive exams, including details on timing, how to schedule the comprehensive exam, and comprehensive exam evaluation.

If you are unable to complete your comprehensive exam within the expected timeline, you will be required to complete a PhD comprehensive examination time limit extension.

Degree completion

MASc students should carefully review the Steps to completion and How to submit a MASc thesis.
- Please note that prior to completing step three on the Steps to completion webpage, you will need to have your supervisor determine a second reader, as well as e-mail the Administrator Coordinator, Graduate Studies at civegrad@uwaterloo.ca, and request that she find you a third reader.
- Students admitted in Spring 2017 onwards have the milestone requirement of "MASc Defense". You will need to submit your "MASc Defense Form (PDF)" to the Administrative Coordinator, Graduate Studies at the same time that you submit your "Thesis Acceptance Form". The MASc Defense should take place at the end of your EGSO display period.
PhD students should carefully review the Steps to completion and How to schedule and submit a PhD defense.
The Graduate Studies Office maintains a comprehensive web site that relates to various Thesis regulations, including information on how to prepare and submit your final thesis.