Policies and procedures

Annual progress report

All graduate Psychology students must submit a progress report each year.*

Graduate students in all areas other than Clinical must complete Part A of the Annual Progress Report Form and submit it to their supervisor by June 14, 2021. Please see the attached Instructions for additional information. Note: Because pdf's are often difficult to use, these documents have been saved as .docx using Microsoft Word. 

*Clinical students follow a different set of procedures for their annual reports (end of year letters). The Director of Clinical Training will inform Clinical students what the deadline is for completing and submitting these forms (typically early April). Please see the Clinical SharePoint site for relevant forms. Likewise, DCS MASc students completing their one-year program do not have to complete an annual progress report unless they are continuing into another graduate Psychology program.

Completing and signing fillable forms

When completing a fillable form, you must save your changes as an Adobe Acrobat Document (*.pdf) or lose the information you completed. Use Adobe Acrobat Reader to complete the fillable form. The use of Mac Preview software is strongly discouraged to avoid compatibility issues. All UWaterloo campus work stations have access to Adobe Acrobat Reader. Likewise, Adobe Acrobat Reader is installed on all UWaterloo-owned laptops and machines purchased with research grants. Adobe Acrobat Reader is also a free download that can be installed on home machines and laptops.

1. The student begins by downloading the form and saving it as an Adobe Acrobat Document (*.pdf).
2. Open the saved form in Adobe Acrobat Reader and complete the information in the fields, but do not add a signature. If the student signs the form first, the supervisor won't be able to complete any required fields on the form or add a signature. Instead, save the pdf and e-mail the file to your supervisor (and instructor for a Drop/Add form) as an attachment.
3. The supervisor (and instructor, if required) completes any required fields and adds a signature using the Adobe Acrobat Reader "Fill & Sign" tool. Click on the "Tools" tab at the top left of the page to access the tools. Add the date with a textbox by by using the "Edit" tool. Save the pdf and return it to the student.
4. The student opens the pdf in Adobe Acrobat Reader, signs the form using the "Fill & Sign" tool, and adds the date with a textbox using the "Edit" tool. Save the pdf and forward the form to the appropriate person for processing.

Graduate research and supervision guide

Graduate students play a central role in the Department of Psychology—both in research and in teaching—and the Department is committed to providing all graduate students with an intellectually stimulating, flexible, inclusive, and supportive environment in which to pursue their work. 

The Graduate Research and Supervision Guide (Department of Psychology) communicates what is expected of both the supervisor and student, and what can be done if issues arise in the supervisor-student relationship.

An expanded, university-wide Guide for Graduate Research and Supervision is available on the Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs website.

MA/MASc to Doctoral program application procedures

Current students completing a Psychology MA or MASc I/O program who wish to continue into a Psychology Doctoral program must submit an OUAC application.

• Transcript(s), GRE and ELP test scores will be automatically uploaded from their Master’s application.
• Students have a choice of submitting new references; however, if they wish to use their Master’s application references, they should list Cathy Spencer (cmspencer@uwaterloo.ca), Tammy Neal (tammy.neal@uwaterloo.ca), and their supervisor as their 3 referees on the OUAC application. Please let your supervisor know that you are not requesting a new reference.
• Students are not required to submit a new Supplementary Information Form (SIF) and Letter – Personal Statement unless required by their supervisor.

Program Extensions

The University Senate has defined Program Time Limits (Graduate Studies Academic Calendar) in which students must complete the degree requirements for their graduate programs. The time limits are as follows:

If students reach the time limit for their programs, they may request to continue their studies beyond these limits by submitting a Request for program extension form to their academic department. The Psychology Graduate Administrative Co-ordinator will contact students who are required to submit a request for a program extension, although students are responsible for monitoring their program progression. For information about program extensions, please refer to the university's Program extension website.

Remunerating research participants

There are fairly strict guidelines governing the remuneration of research participants. Please see the following link for details:

Remuneration to Research Participants

Other policies and procedures

In addition to the practices and guidelines established by the Department of Psychology, policies and procedures relevant to graduate student activities are set out by the Graduate Studies Office, the Office of Academic Integrity, the Office of Research, and the UW Secretariat. See the following links for further information:

Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA)

Office of Academic Integrity

Office of Research

University of Waterloo Secretariat