3.3 Graduation Requirements:

Please direct comments to Janis McKenna.

The present Graduate program requirements are:

M.Sc./M.A.Sc., Physics or Astronomy: 18 credits M.Sc./M.A.Sc. Each student must make at least one public oral presentation of his/her thesis work. This may be at a conference or at a seminar at UBC.

Ph.D. Physics: 12 credits of course work required after Masters degree. Each student must have an annual committee meeting, which serves also as an Oral Comprehensive Exam.

Ph.D. Astronomy: no additional course requirements. Each student must have an annual committee meeting, which serves also as an Oral Comprehensive Exam.

We also have a requirement that all students take the core of two graduate courses Quantum Mechanics, except for medical physics students, who must only take the one of these two. Astronomers didn't have any requirements before joining our Department, but currently must take at least one of the two Quantum courses.

3.3.1 Written Standardized Comprehensive Exam - or Standardized Core of Courses?

Once a graduate student is accepted into our program, there is no standardized minimal level of achievement. Our admissions standards are sufficiently high that this is normally not a problem, however it has been noticed that a few students do not perform as well as their admissions references and transcripts would lead us to expect. We are investigating setting up a mandatory written Graduate Comprehensive Examination or having a mandatory set of graduate course requirements that ensure that each student is not only an expert in his/her own area of research, but is a general well rounded scientist that we are proud to put forth to the world as a UBC graduate.