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Master's Students
Students in a master's program are expected to spend the equivalent of at least one year in full-time study. Some programs may be of longer minimum duration. Students must maintain continuous registration throughout all years until graduation.
All thesis-based master’s programs at UBC Okanagan include course requirements that imply a physical presence on campus. There are, consequently, no explicit residency requirements for master’s programs. Master’s students are encouraged to focus their attention on their degree program in the proximity of other students, scholars, and scientists, thereby enabling them to acquire the “habits, attitudes, skills, and insights” (CGS, 2005) that are necessary for making the high-quality contributions to scholarship and other professional endeavours that are expected of such students.
If a degree is not awarded within a period of five years from initial registration, the student's eligibility for the degree will be terminated and the student will be required to withdraw from the program. Under exceptional circumstances, extensions may be granted by the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies. This restriction applies equally to full- and part-time students.
Students who must interrupt their studies for health or personal reasons, including childbirth and having primary responsibility for the care of a child, should apply for a leave in writing through the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies. The period of leave is not counted toward time to completion.
Doctoral Students
The residency requirement for all Ph.D. students registered in programs on the UBC Okanagan campus is a minimum of 24 months of accumulated full-time study at the University from the point of beginning a Ph.D. to its conclusion. Programs have the option to increase the length of this requirement as they may desire as part of their program requirements (upon Senate approval). Full-time study, for the purpose of this requirement, may include activities such as participation in laboratory work, class-work, comprehensive examination preparation, practicums, dissertation research and writing, or other like scientific and scholarly activities that are undertaken on or in the proximate vicinity of the UBC Okanagan campus, and under the direct supervision of UBC Okanagan faculty as part of the program.
Programs may choose to allow individual students to fulfill an Engagement Requirement, replacing the requirement for residency. The intention of this flexibility in requirements is:
(i) to remove inequitable barriers to participation for students who would be barred from doctoral studies due to life circumstances, and
(ii) to better enable participation in community-engaged scholarship, and in forms of research that are better performed outside the university campus.
In considering non-resident enrolment in a doctoral program, the program/supervisor should design and provide supports that may be needed by the student in order to gain the benefits of a UBC doctoral education while participating in relevant communities of scholars in non-traditional ways. A detailed plan for engagement should be developed in consultation with the student to establish expectations of the relationship between student, supervisor, and program, and this plan should be reviewed as part of the Annual Progress Report process.
The choice to waive the residency requirement in favour of engagement requires approval of the supervisor and the graduate program. However, waiver of the residency requirement can be granted only by the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies. Successful applications for such waivers will require a program plan that articulates how the student will satisfy the spirit of the residency requirement in the absence of full-time presence on the UBC Okanagan campus.
The purpose of graduate student funding is to help offset the cost of fulltime graduate enrolment. Prior to commencing non-resident studies, a written agreement detailing funding arrangements should be reached between the student, supervisor, and graduate program. The funding agreement will be submitted to the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies for approval along with the detailed plan for engagement. Applicable funding sources for the funding package are provided on the College of Graduate Studies website: https://gradstudies.ok.ubc.ca/tuition-awards-and-finance/minimum-fundin…
There is no formal residency requirement for the Ed.D.; given the online nature of the program, students in the Ed.D. program are expected to spend the equivalent of at least three years in full-time study.
Students must maintain continuous registration throughout all years until graduation.
If the degree is not awarded within a period of six years from initial registration, the student's eligibility for the degree will be terminated and the student will be required to withdraw from the program. Under exceptional circumstances, extensions may be granted by the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies.
Students who must interrupt their studies for health or personal reasons, including childbirth and having primary responsibility for the care of a child, should apply for a leave in writing through the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies. The period of leave is not counted toward time to completion.