In some fields of study, the diploma program can also be considered a qualifying year for entry to the masters degrees. Students who receive credit level grades or above in all of their diploma subjects are eligible to apply for admission into the relevant masters program. It should be noted that such transfers are not automatic as applicants are competing for a place with students seeking direct entry into the masters programs.
Applicants should consult staff in the Graduate School of Environmental Science prior to lodging an application.
The Committee for Graduate Studies at its meeting 1/94 recommended that departments and centres adopt the following procedure for students upgrading for research Masters to PhD candidature.
Students contemplating an upgrade must take the responsibility for allowing roughly two months for the upgrading process, a point to be noted especially by students approaching the time limit for masters candidature. Students should discuss a potential upgrade with their supervisor in the first instance. Then the graduate coordinator or the head of the department/director of centre should be consulted to make the necessary arrangements.
The decision to recommend an upgrade or not (or to postpone a decision) is made by a panel which includes the head of the department or director of centre, the supervisor as well as other relevant department members such as the graduate coordinator.
The panel will base its decision on an oral presentation and a written submission by the candidate, plus any other information deemed relevant by the panel.
The candidate's written case for upgrading will provide details on the proposed research, report progress to date and provide a timetable for completion of each phase of the research program. Copies are to be submitted to each panel member. If the case is approved, it will be forwarded to the university's PhD and Scholarships Committee. Accordingly, this submission should be a substantial document, worthy of the time already devoted to the work. The candidate is expected precisely to define the focus, methods and limits of the research and to place it in the context of related scholarly literature. Also the candidate should explain how the masters work will be altered to reflect its new status as doctoral research. The submission may be supported by any written works, such as working papers or chapter drafts, which would reinforce the case. A bibliography of works consulted should be supplied. Due attention should be paid to matters of clarity, readability and presentation. The document need not be lengthy (5000-10,000 words would be sufficient in most cases), and, indeed, conciseness is a requirement.
The oral presentation will usually be in the form of a departmental seminar, open to the public, but the panel may accept an alternative format such as an in-depth interview if circumstances warrant.
After the candidate has made an oral presentation and submitted the written statement the panel will meet to consider its decision. In normal cases, the panel's decision should be made known to the candidate within one month.
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