Supervisory Committee
All students in a thesis-based program at Dalhousie must have a supervisor (or two co-supervisors) and a supervisory committee. Applications to the IDPhD will not be considered by the Admissions Committee until the applicant has a complete supervisory committee, confirmed by proposed members.
When contacting potential supervisors and committee members, it is important to note the following:
- A thesis supervisor or co-supervisor must be a member of the Faculty of Graduate Studies- (FGS). This membership must be kept up-to-date as part of your program requirements in GSIS. Most faculty at Dalhousie University will have this membership, but you may request confirmation from idphd@dal.ca. Additionally, as part of your application you may wish to propose a committee member who is not a member of the FGS. In that case, please consult with idphd@dal.ca.
- The committee must include at least one member who has experience supervising a PhD student to completion at Dalhousie.
- FGS regulations require that doctoral students be supervised by a faculty member with a PhD or its equivalent. In the case of co-supervisors, at least one of the supervisors must have a PhD or its equivalent.
A supervisory committee should complement the expertise available to the student in completing their research program and should include members who represent at least two of the disciplines represented in the student’s research. The membership of all supervisory committees must be recorded in GSIS, and changes to membership must be submitted on the student’s Program Update Form [PDF - 217kb].
It is equally very important to student success to ensure that the student and all members of the committee are able to work smoothly together and work out conflicts amicably. A number of resources are available to you to help you with this, see:
See more: Managing Supervisory Committees