S.06-37
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
DEAN OF GRADUATE STUDIES
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Senate
FROM:
Jonathan Driver, Dean of Graduate Studies
Chair, Senate Graduate Studies Committee
SUBJECT:
Frequency of Awarding Graduate Degrees (GS ),96.9J
DATE:
February 10, 2006
-/^
At its meeting of
16th
January 2006 Senate Graduate Stuies ommittee approved in principle a
policy and procedural change in the awarding of graduate egrees, provided that logistics can be
resolved, and recommends the following motion to Senate for approval.
MOTION:
"that Senate approve in principle a changeto the schedule for the awarding of graduate degrees
so that graduate degrees may be awarded at any Senate meeting"
.
Rationale:
Most graduate degrees are completed when the thesis is submitted to the Library, and this can be
at any time in the semester. The current policy is that graduate degree awards are submitted to
Senate for approval at the beginning of Spring, Summer, and Fall semesters, many months after
some students have completed all degree requirements. The new procedure would affect the date
of degree completion recorded on student transcripts. This addresses some graduate students'
wishes to have their completion recorded with minimal delay, for purposes such as career
advancement and scholarship entitlement. The new process also facilitates registration
procedures for students entering a doctoral program directly after completing a master's degree.
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TO:
Jonathan Driver
FROM:
Valerie Ackroyd, Director of Graduate Admissions & Records --
SUBJECT:
GS2005.40 - rolling conferral of degrees
DATE:
December 15, 2005
The following is my response to your memo of November
16th
regarding the rolling conferral of
degrees and the SGSC committee's questions regarding the proposal.
Faculties will still check that students have completed the degree requirements and sign
the recommendation for award of degree forms.
2.
Students can still delay convocation. This new option of early conferral would be
available to the student at their choice; it would not be mandatory.
3.
I don't know the answer regarding TSSU but my opinion is that as the contract is
awarded before the semester begins and is for the entire seriester, the student's
completing early shouldn't affect the TSSU contract.
4.
I contacted the University of'Regina re their experience with visa students. Their
response is as follows: "According to Immigration laws, the date the degree is awarded
or the date of convocation are not the dates of completion of the program. The date of
completion is when the student has completed all degree requirements and students
have 90 days after completion of the degree requirements. If the student asks for the
notation lo be on the tanscript that they completed in, say, September of 2006, then
they have 90 days to remain in Canada before making further application to remain.
5.
Student loans will be affected in that Financial Aid will have to report that the student
completed early whereas, currently, they only report at the end of the semester.
University of Regina said, however, that most students who apply for early completion
want to minimize their indebtedness anyway ?nd feel it more important to have their
transcript updated.
6.
Yes, students still apply to graduate.
[-lope that helps and I. will be at the next SGSC meeting to answer any further questions.
I.
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
DEAN OF GRADUATE STUDIES
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Valerie Ackroyd
FROM:
Jonathan Driver, Dean of Graduate Studies
SUBJECT:
GS2005.40 - rolling conferral of degrees
DATE:
16th November 2005
cc:
SGSC discussed this proposal at its meeting of November
14th•
In general the committee
thinks this is a good idea. There were a number of questions raised that the committee
would like answered before recommending this process to Senate:
1.
Will faculties still get to check that students have completed the degree requirements,
and sign the "recommendation for award of degree" form?
2.
can students still delay convocation?
-
3.
does this affect TSSU appointments, i.e. if a student is awarded the degree by Senate
halfway through the semester, has their status as a student changed?
4.
does this affect a student's visa status?
5.
does this affect student loans?
6.
do students still have to apply to graduate?
If you could provide answers to these questions, I will bring your original document and
your responses to the next SGSC meeting.
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GS2005 .40
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
OFFICE OF THE DEAN OF
GRADE \TE SfUDIES
SSSS UNIVERSITY DRiVE
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TO:
Jon Driver, Dean, Graduate Studies
FROM:
Valerie Ackroyd. Director of Graduate Admissions & Records
SUBJECT:
Policy change to Calendar: Rolling Conferral of Degrees
DATE:
October 24, 2005
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Email
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As you know, Simon Fraser currently awards degrees at the beginning of Spring, Summer and Fall semesters. As
well, the candidate's name is only submitted to Senate for award if the candidate specifically applies to graduate.
This has the following effects:
I. If a student completes all of the requirements for their degree early in the semester, their transcript does not
reflect the fact until the following semester. This is problematic for students who need to demonstrate
completion of degree for their advancement to a higher level degree or for scholarships.
2.
If a student forgets to apply to graduate, their degree is not awarded. This means that a student may not have
their completion row posted on their transcript until two or more semesters have passed.
3.
As long as a student's program is not completed by awarding the degree, their program remains active.
.
Therefore, if they apply at SFU for a higher level degree, for example, a PhD from a Masters and are
matriculated into the next degree, their record may still show them as in their Masters program, thereby
causing fee and enrolment problems.
Other universities have encountered similar problems and some have solved this problem by conferring graduate
degrees each time that their Senate meets. This is not a difficult process to change administratively. Our office
would follow the same procedures they currently do at the start of each semester, except that we would now do it at
the beginning of each month that Senate meets. We would:
1.
Collate all of the Recommendations of Award that we have received that month.
2.
Check the library thesis submission list to ensure that the student's thesis was approved by the library.
Alternately, for those programs that do not require a thesis submission, we would simply go to step 3.
3.
Mark the thesis course as 'CO' and verify that the student did not have any other courses outstanding.
4. Set the student's degree status to 'approved'.
5.
Submit the list of students in 'approved' status to Senate for awarding.
This proposal of course requires SGSC approval and Senate approval. Could you please discuss this at the next
SGSC meeting?
Thank you!
S
3.
