In order to receive a MASc/MArch degree you must complete all of your program's degree requirements. For a complete list of your program's degree requirements you should consult the Graduate Academic Calendar for the term in which you were admitted.
Note: Collaborative programs (i.e. Nano, Water, and Quantum) may have different degree requirements than your Department’s regular MASc program.
If you have any questions regarding the degree completion process, you should contact your Program Coordinator/Advisor.
Degree Completion Deadlines
Minimum completion deadlines as well as information on holidays can be found on the degree completion deadlines page.
Thesis Guidelines on Co-Authored Content
Master's theses can take various forms. It has become common in Engineering for students to publish outcomes from their research prior to completing their degree and subsequently to incorporate some of the published material within their thesis. If you have co-authored content as part of your thesis you will need to follow these guidelines.
Steps to Completion
Note: Effective March 2020, all thesis submission forms and communications will be conducted electronically. The Engineering Graduate Studies Office is no longer accepting paper forms or copies of theses.
MArch students should consult with their Program Coordinator/Advisor and Graduate Student Handbook for procedures specific to the MArch program.
- Approximately one month before you intend to degree complete you will need to apply for graduation through Quest. You will not be able to apply to degree complete in a given term until that term has started.
- Navigate to My Academics > Graduation, and select Apply for Graduation
- Note: You must select the term in which you will complete your degree requirements. If, for example, you will be done by the 100% refund deadline in the Fall, on September 1st you must select Fall term as your graduation term.
- When your thesis is ready to be read, complete the Master's Thesis Submission form and send it to your Program Coordinator/Advisor who will review your committee composition and seek the Associate Chair, Graduate Studies approval of the committee.
- Guidelines for selecting your thesis readers can be found on page 2 of the form. Please note some Departments may have additional requirements so you should contact your Department Graduate Coordinator if you require assistance.
- Note: If you are going to request that your thesis be withheld from the public domain (e.g., due to patent pending issues), you can now request a four-month, one-year, or two-year embargo when submitting to UWSpace. Students are no longer required to submit a Request to Restrict Circulation of Thesis form unless they are requesting an extension to a pre-existing embargo. Embargo discussions should now happen between student and supervisor at the end of the thesis defence and recorded on the examination report. For master’s students without a defence, the decision can be communicated to the Program Coordinator/Advisor at the time of communicating that the thesis has been accepted. Additionally, you should also consider having your supervisor and/or readers review and sign a Confidential Information Thesis Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) prior to distributing your thesis. It is the responsibility of the researcher(s) to collect and keep any NDAs.
- Your Program Coordinator/Advisor will email you to confirm your committee has been aproved. Once you have recieved this email you should distribute electronic copies of your thesis to your committee and they will either need to e-sign your Master's Thesis Submission form to confirm they have received it or send an email confirmation of receipt.
- After your readers all have their copy of the thesis and have confirmed receipt, combine the (1) Master's Thesis Submission form and (2) each committee member’s confirmation of thesis receipt into a single PDF file and send to your Program Coordinator/Advisor along with a seperate PDF copy of your thesis
- Your Program Coordinator/Advisor will submit your completed Master's Thesis Submission form and copy of your thesis to the Engineering Graduate Studies Office (EGSO), where the thesis will be on display electronically, via SharePoint, for 15 business days.
- The 15 business day display period starts the day your thesis is submitted by your Program Coordinator/Advisor to the EGSO.
- It is during this three-week display period that your readers will review your thesis and prepare their feedback.
- If your program has a Seminar requirement which you have not yet completed you will need to make arrangements with your Program Coordinator/Advisor to do so as soon as possible
- Once your thesis is on display, the EGSO will send you a Department Approval of Master's Thesis form (usually within three days).
- After reading your thesis, your readers will provide you with feedback and revisions. Once any revisions requested have been completed to their satisfaction, your Department Approval of Master's Thesis form must be signed by your committee (either electronically of via email confirmation), indicating that they have given you their feedback and the final copy of your thesis is ready for upload to UWSpace.
- Note: Readers must have read your thesis and provided feedback by the end of the 15 business day display period, but time for completion of revisions is in addition to the display period. This means that your readers might not be signing off on your Department Approval of Master's Thesis form until a week or two after your display period has ended.
- After all of your revisions and changes have been made, your supervisor(s) needs to sign off (either electronically of via email confirmation) on your final thesis near the bottom of the Department Approval of Master's Thesis form. Note: If your thesis title has changed update the form in the space provided before your supervisor(s) sign off.
- Once your supervisor(s) have signed off on your revisions, return the Department Approval of Master's Thesis form to your Program Coordinator/Advisor, and they will process it and send it to the EGSO.
- Make sure you update your thesis title on your Department Approval of Master's Thesis form if it has changed from what was originally submitted.
- When the completed Department Approval of Master's Thesis form is received by the EGSO, they will issue a Master's Thesis Acceptance (usually within three days) which will be sent to your UW e-mail.
- You cannot upload to UWSpace until you have obtained this e-mail.
- Once you have received the Thesis Acceptance Notice from the EGSO, you can upload your final thesis to UWSpace (not before).
- If an embargo was requested on your examination report (see step 2 above), you will have to select the thesis restriction pull down option when you are uploading to UW Space as well.
- UWSpace may require you to make revisions to the formatting of your thesis, so check your UW e-mail regularly after you submit for any feedback they might send.
- Formatting guidelines for theses can be found on the GSPA website
- When your thesis has been accepted by UWSpace, you will be notified by e-mail.
- Only when your thesis has been accepted to UWSpace will you be considered done and be able to obtain a Program Completion letter from The Centre.