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Candidacy Exam

Candidacy Examination Guidelines

  • the candidacy examination is normally held within two years of a student's commencement of the program when most, if not all, of the course work is completed and the research project is started or well defined
  • the candidacy examination must be passed no less than six months prior to taking the final oral examination
  • once the candidacy is passed (or conditions of a conditional pass are satisfied) departments must complete the candidacy exam section of the required form and submit to the FGSR

At least six weeks prior to the candidacy examination:

Supervisors are responsible for:

  • arranging a formal supervisory committee meeting for the student so that the student and committee are clear at about the exam process
  • ensuring proper arrangements are made for the student's examination, and the exam is scheduled and held in accordance with Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research regulations
  • recommending examining committee members to the FGSR
  • notifying the examiners and student of the examination date and location

Students are responsible for:

  • making arrangements to meet with each member of the examination committee. The purpose of this meeting is to:
    • discuss an outline for the examination
    • receive suggestions of areas that will be addressed in the exam (may be in the form of a reading list)
      • The student should be made aware what areas he/she is expected to be knowledgeable in, including but not limited to the students’ thesis topic. Suggested areas may also include the committee member’s area of expertise.
      • Any reading suggestions should be made available without financial cost to the student

The student may request additional meetings with any examining committee member or another faculty member to help in preparation, including but not limited to practice sessions.

Examining committee members may request additional meetings with the student throughout the preparation period to assess progress.

It is accepted and expected that the student be allowed to take adequate time away from regular graduate duties, including but not limited to lab work, data analysis, manuscript or paper preparation, or project details, in order to prepare for the candidacy exam. The preparation period (time studying) is to last a minimum of 4 weeks and no longer than 8 weeks.

The examining committee and student must receive copies of the FGSR and Department of Psychiatry Candidacy Guidelines.

At least three weeks prior to the examination

  • supervisors are responsible for properly arranging the examining committee and date for the student's candidacy examination, and the exam is scheduled and held in accordance with Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research regulations
  • forward the date and examining committee to the Graduate Program Contact (Tara Checknita), arrangements for a room will be made, forms completed and sent to FGSR

 

Candidacy Examining Committee (Minimum five faculty members)

  • The supervisory committee and normally the addition of two other faculty members
  • Normally all members are full-time faculty
  • At least one member must be from outside the department
  • Must have a minimum of two arm's length members at the examination who come new to the examination
  • Must be chaired by a faculty member who is not the supervisor (or co-supervisor) but is a member of the student's home department. If the chair is not a member of the examining committee (FGSR encourages this arrangement), the chair does not vote.
  • All members must attend the examination.
  • The basic element is to have a minimum of five voting members. Roles of members (except the chair) can be in any combination. For example, co-supervisors, a co-supervisor from outside the department, supervisor from outside the department, arm's length member from inside or outside the department, etc.

Candidacy Examination Protocol

  • After everyone is in the room, the chair of the meeting explains to the candidate that he/she will be asked shortly to leave the room for a few minutes so that the committee can go over his/her academic record and that he/she will then be asked back in to give a talk of about 20 minutes. The chair tells him/her that after the talk there will be a first round of questions of normally 15 minutes or less per committee member, and candidate is told the order of questioning when he/she returns to the room. There is usually a second round of questions if the committee so desires, with each member being asked to normally not take longer than 5 minutes. The Chair will then ask if there are any further questions, and if there are not, the candidate will be asked to leave the room while the committee makes a decision.  The presentation plus examination period will not normally last longer than 3 hours. The decisions are Pass (which may include some suggestions for further reading in some areas), Conditional pass (in which the candidate will be given a certain period of time to meet certain conditions, usually major upgrades in knowledge in several areas) or Fail (with one of three recommendations, which must be approved by the FGSR: Repeat the candidacy, change to an MSc program, or termination of the student's program).
  • With the order of questioning, it is usually from most external first to most internal last. In cases where one or more of the external committee members are new to the process, they may wish not to go first.
  • At the end of the question period, the Chair should ask the candidate if he/she has any questions for the committee or any comments about the process.
 
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