PhD Program Requirements

PhD programs usually take four to six calendar years to complete; the average time to completion as of 2021 is 6.3 years. The School of Graduate Studies (SGS) requires that the thesis be submitted within six years of initial registration in the program; however, extensions beyond six years can be requested.

Time taken to complete the PhD varies depending on the time required to complete the various stages of the program, such as ethics approval, conducting interviews or gaining permission to access archival materials, if research involves extensive fieldwork or lengthy experiments. The timeline below is a guide to facilitate timely completion of the 4-year doctoral program subject to the policies, degree requirements and timelines for major milestones (e.g. candidacy, final oral exam) set by the School of Graduate Studies. 

Students can register beyond 4 years as necessary to continue research and writing activities. 

An Annual Report form must be completed at annual progress meetings and submitted to the graduate office through the PhD Progress Report Online Submission tool. In addition to annual progress meetings, students and their supervisor(s) should remain in regular contact to discuss progress and manage time to completion.

Completion of 6 half-credit courses (or 3.0 FCEs), including: 

• the 0.5 FCE core course (GGR1110H) 
• two (2) half-credit (1.0 FCE) courses in geography  
• two (2) half-credit (1.0 FCE) courses in any subject  
• one (1) half-credit (0.5 FCE) course from outside the Department of Geography 

Students enrolled in a collaborative specialization should view the Collaborative Specializations page for any additional requirements. 

Background

SGS requires that a PhD progress review meeting is held with the PhD committee at least once per academic year (meetings can occur more often if desired).  At the progress review meeting the Supervisory Committee and the student will discuss and assess progress, with a focus primarily on progress toward completion of degree requirements and plans for the following year. The meetings are typically one hour in length unless held in association with a program milestone, in which case they are included in the meeting timeframe for the oral comprehensive exam, proposal defense or PhD internal defense. In certain cases, for example, when a comprehensive or internal dissertation exam is imminent, the progress meeting can be slightly postponed, so that it is undertaken at the same time as that other milestone. However, in no case should the supervisory committee go more than 12 months without holding a meeting.   

It is the responsibility of the student to schedule progress report meetings and prepare a draft progress report in advance, for discussion at the meeting. A student who encounters difficulty arranging a meeting should consult with the Associate Chair Graduate (Geography - acg.geography@utoronto.ca or Planning- acg.planning@utoronto.ca). A student who, through their own neglect, fails to have a meeting in a given year will be considered to have received an unsatisfactory progress report from the committee.  Students can ask their supervisors or the Associate Chair Graduate (Geography or Planning) to provide support if they are having difficulty scheduling the meeting.  

First Progress Meeting  

The first progress meeting is normally held between early April and late June in Year 1.  Attendees should include the student’s proposed dissertation committee membership (although this may change). For this meeting, the student should have prepared a progress report form that details their degree progress to date, as well as:  

2. a draft comprehensive reading list for discussion to the meeting  

3. 2-3 paragraphs on the proposed thesis area or topic.   

The timeline for writing the comprehensive exam should be established at this meeting (note that our Departmental Guidelines suggest completing the Comprehensive exam between June of Year 1 and December of Year 2).  

Subsequent Meetings  

Annual reports for each subsequent year should take place within 12 months of the last meeting. The annual progress meeting can be combined with other meetings (e.g., comprehensive, proposal or thesis exams).  For these meetings to be counted as a progress meeting, a progress report form must be completed and submitted to the graduate office, in addition to any exam documentation).   

A student’s progress report form in Year 2 and higher should include a summary of progress toward candidacy and dissertation requirements such as exams, fieldwork and data collection activities, data analysis, and chapters completed. Progress reports can also be accompanied by materials such as draft questionnaires and interview guides, initial tabulations and analysis of results, and chapter summaries. The student should also construct a timeline for work to be completed and activities to be undertaken in the following year.  

Progress report forms may also include a list of other academic activities undertaken in the past year (e.g. publications, conference presentations, teaching, etc.), if these are seen as contributing to degree progress. However, content should primarily focus on activities/materials related specifically to completion of degree requirements.   

Submission of the Report

The progress report form can be found on the Resources for Students page – please use this current version of the form as we have made some updates. The completed progress report form must then be submitted using the PhD Progress Report Online Submission Tool. Please make sure the form includes both student and supervisor signatures before submitting the form online.  

Meeting Location

Progress meetings can take place remotely or on in person/on campus. For remote meetings, the supervisor or student should create an online meeting link (preferably using university Zoom or MS Teams account) to share with participants. To book a room on campus at St. George, supervisor or student should email mainoffice@geog.utoronto.ca.  

Students will take a written and oral comprehensive exam between June of year one and no later than December of year two. The purpose of the exam is to ascertain whether a student has obtained an adequate knowledge base to continue in the PhD program; to ascertain any knowledge gaps and suggest remedial action; and to provide a student with the opportunity to get a broad perspective on their chosen field of study.  

See the Examinations page for further details about procedures and deadlines. 

Students will defend a research proposal before their supervisory committee between June of year two and no later than September of year three. Ideally, the research proposal should take the form of a paper of about twenty to forty pages in length which includes a statement of the problem, research questions, a discussion and literature review of the research context in which it is set, research objectives or hypotheses, a brief outline of the data sources and methods, a draft survey or guiding questions for interviews (where appropriate) and a suggested timetable for completion. There should be a discussion of methods and methodology that makes reference to the literature on methodology. The proposal should provide a rationale for the choice of methods and discuss any ethical issues stemming from the research (if appropriate). The research proposal should be defended prior to extensive research. It should not constitute a draft of the final thesis. 

See the Examinations page for further details about procedures and deadlines. 

The department requires students to achieve candidacy by the end of year two. A student can achieve PhD Candidacy and receive a notation on their transcript once they have completed three requirements: coursework, comprehensive exam, and proposal exam.

School of Graduate Studies policy requires that candidacy is achieved by the end of year three. Students who have not achieved candidacy by the end of year three will not be permitted to register in future sessions unless an extension has been approved.

The thesis shall constitute a significant contribution to the knowledge of the field and must be based on original research conducted while registered for the PhD program. The topic for the thesis will have been approved at the proposal defense.  

The thesis may take one of two forms. The traditional form is a manuscript thesis. An alternative form is the paper thesis. 

The paper thesis will normally consist of a minimum of three journal articles considered publishable in, or that have been published in, good quality journals. The journal articles must meet four criteria, as determined by the supervisory committee: 

1. The student is listed as the first or sole author of the paper when submitted for publication. 
2. The student has done the following: had a primary or significant role in conceptualizing the paper, designing the methodology, collecting and analyzing data. 
3. The student wrote the first draft, and revised later drafts after feedback from the supervisor, committee members or co-authors. 
4. The paper is truly part of the dissertation project (i.e. it would not have been written if not for the student’s dissertation and cannot count toward anyone else’s dissertation project). 

It is recommended that the student and supervisor discuss these criteria and the expectations for authorship of the papers as early as possible and no later than the proposal examination. 

Both types of theses should be based on a coherent topic with an introduction presenting the general theme of the research and a conclusion summarizing and integrating the major findings. In the paper thesis, it may be appropriate to pull out common elements of the papers (e.g. methodology or literature review) into a separate chapter. Pagination should be continuous for both types of theses; there should be a common table of contents, appendices as need, and the thesis should have an integrated bibliography. 

Information on thesis formatting, copyrighting, etc. is available from the School of Graduate Studies website. 

The completed PhD thesis will be examined in a Departmental Thesis Examination. The thesis (including all references, appendices, etc.) must be formatted using the SGS formatting guidelines and must be approved by the supervisor(s) prior to distribution to the examination committee. The examination committee consists of the supervisory committee. One or more additional members can be from outside the Department of Geography & Planning if required.  

See the Examinations page for further details about procedures and deadlines. 

The Final Oral Examination is the capstone experience of the PhD program. Students will defend their dissertation before a Final Oral Examination Committee. In addition to the supervisor and other members of the supervisory committee, the Examination Committee will include an appraiser (external to the University), at least one graduate faculty member who has not been closely involved in the supervision of the thesis, and a chair designated by the School of Graduate Studies. 

The examination committee may include no more than three members of the Supervisory Committee (including the supervisor/co-supervisor) and at least two examiners who have not been closely involved in the supervision of the thesis. Eligible for inclusion in the latter group are the external appraiser (in person or by audio/video connection), members of the geography graduate faculty who have not read the thesis, and members of the graduate faculty of other departments, centres, or institutes of the University who have not read the thesis. A quorum is four voting members (at least one member of the supervisory committee and two external examiners) are required for the exam to proceed. The departmental recommendation is that the committee include six voting members, including at least three external examiners. The School of Graduate Studies must approve the composition of the FOE committee. 

The School of Graduate Studies, on the recommendation of the Associate Chair, Graduate, appoints the external appraiser. The external appraiser must: 

• Be a recognized expert on the subject of the thesis and should be external to the University of Toronto; 
• Be an Associate or Full Professor at their home institution; 
• Have an arms-length relationship with both the candidate and the supervisor; 
• Receive a copy of the thesis (from the graduate office) at least six weeks prior to the exam. 

See the Examinations page for further details about the department’s procedures and deadlines. More detailed rules can be found in the SGS Guidelines for the PhD Final Oral Examination. 

Once the final thesis has been submitted to the graduate office, the department will submit a recommendation for convocation to SGS for the next convocation date.  

Please refer to the PhD Program of Study page for the program completion requirements.   

Students who require a letter prior to convocation which confirms all degree requirements have been completed can request a Confirmation of Degree letter from SGS.  

Academic fees for doctoral students in the final year of their program are pro-rated based on the 12-month academic year. Incidental fees are charged on a sessional basis. Doctoral students are charged for the full year but at registration they may choose to pay:  

1. The full fee. In the event that the student is not registered for the full year, a refund will be issued for any overpayment after the final thesis is submitted to SGS.  
2. The minimum first payment indicated on the student’s Fee Invoice in ACORN.  
3. The fee based on the expected date of completion. For example, a PhD student in year 5 who plans to complete prior July 15, 2020 pays $6,815.90 according to the 12-month schedule.  

Fees will be adjusted based on the date that the student submitted their final, corrected dissertation to SGS. It may take several weeks for the adjustment to appear on ACORN once the dissertation has been received.  

Please visit the Student Accounts website for fees information.  

 Fees adjustments for students who complete in time to avoid fall or winter fees are usually made within 2-3 weeks after the recommendation for convocation has been submitted to SGS.  

Students who have outstanding fees as of the deadlines above will be permitted to attend convocation. Students who owe fees who attend convocation will receive an empty envelope, which will be identical to other envelopes containing diplomas. However, such students will not receive their diploma and a financial hold is placed on the student’s financial account. Transcripts and confirmation of degree letters will not be issued until fees have been paid.  

Information about convocation will be emailed to the student approximately 3 weeks prior to the convocation date. Please visit  SGS Graduation and Convocation for more information.