PhD Committee and Examination Board

The Department encourages a close working relationship between students and their Thesis Supervision Committee. There are advantages to having a Thesis Supervision Committee member also serve on Thesis Examination Board. The supervisor does NOT examine the thesis, but a Supervision Committee member may examine it (see note on "significant involvement" below). The Supervision Committee and Examination Board are initiated by the candidate, in collaboration with the supervisor.

PhD Thesis Supervision Committee (n=3)
Supervisor
Faculty Member 2 ^*
Faculty Member 3 ^*

^*Faculty members (2,3) typically come from UWO Geography, but other faculty may serve if eligible. Up to 5 faculty members may serve on the Thesis Supervisory Committee but having more than 3 is unusual.

PhD Comprehensive Examination Committee (n=5)
Supervisor
Faculty Member 2 ^*
Faculty Member 3 ^*
Faculty Member 4 ^*
Oral Chair

^*Faculty members (2-4) typically come from UWO Geography, but other faculty may serve if eligible.
^{^}A non-voting Oral Chair is required for the oral exam stage and is arranged by the Graduate Administrator after the remainder of the Committee is set. Typically the Comprehensives Oral Chair is from within the Department, but from a field that is different from the candidate's.

PhD Thesis Examination Board (n=5)
Supervisor (present, but does not examine)
Program Examiner #1 (Faculty Member 2 ^*#)
Program Examiner #2(can be second reader) (Faculty Member 3 ^*#)
University Examiner (outside of home program)
External Examiner (external to UWO)
Oral Chair ^{^}

^*#Faculty members 2 and 3 must come from UWO Geography.
No more than one Thesis Examiner from Geography ("Program Examiner") may be from the candidate's Thesis Supervisory Committee. All thesis examiners must not have had "significant" involvement in the development of the thesis. This is why the supervisor does not examine the thesis. Examples of "significant involvement" are if: a) the Thesis Supervision Committee member has read/edited more than 50% of the thesis; b) the Thesis Supervision Committee member is a co-author on a manuscript that will be published from the thesis. The program examiner #2 who is replaced at the Thesis Examination Board stage could have served as the Departmental "second reader".
^{^}The oral defence is chaired by a non-voting, non-Geography Thesis Defence Chair arranged by SGPS.