Candidates are encouraged to obtain a supervisor from within the School prior to commencing their studies. Any member of the School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs may supervise a student. A candidate may be jointly supervised by more than one person. In cases of co-supervision, one supervisor may be from outside the School.
Candidates must obtain a supervisor during the first month of the PhD program. A research topic is then selected by the candidate and the supervisor.
Ph.D. Supervising Committee
All candidates are under the direction of a supervising committee consisting of:
- two faculty members and
- the supervisor or the co-supervisors.
At most one of the committee members may be from outside the School, but internal to Queen's.
There are two steps to create a supervisory committee:
- The candidate and supervisor agree on possible members of the committee whom they invite to serve.
- When a willing committee has been formed, its make-up is sent to the Ph.D. program committee for approval.
The supervisory committee should be selected and approved within the first two months of the program. It can be changed at any time at the request of the student with the concurrence of the Ph.D. program committee.
The Ph.D. program committee appoints one of its members to act as the liaison between the supervisory committee and the School. This person is available to advise the candidate and supervisory committee on School procedures and to mediate disputes within the supervisory committee.
The supervisor directs the candidate's day-to-day work and acts as primary resource for the candidate. The other members act as a secondary resource.
The supervisory committee must approve the breadth requirements and research topic proposal documents before they are submitted to the PhD committee. The supervisory committee normally meets frequently with the candidate. Three times a year it reports on the candidate's progress to the Ph.D. program committee.