Program Overview

Our program requires a high level of independent initiative from its students.  Your ID PhD experience is individually tailored with discussions and negotiations between you and your PhD Thesis Committee.  The program is designed to meet your specific interests, research topic, and individual circumstances.  The program requires a residency of two years of full-time study at Dalhousie.  Although the program will vary from student to student, some standard components of the ID PhD program that you must complete to achieve your degree include: 
 
Credit courses - during the first year, 4 to 6 half-credit courses chosen from graduate classes offered by Faculties, of which two may be directed reading classes.  Typically courses include two half-credit classes from each discipline relevant to the thesis research. Students without appropriate research methods in their background may be required to take, in addition to the above, courses in research methods and/or statistics.

Comprehensives - during the second year, or no later than the beginning of the third year of the program, comprehensives must be written in fields appropriate to the topic of research. The exact number and nature of these exams (written, oral, combination of written and oral, or project-based) are decided by your supervisory committee.  You must have at least one and no more than three comprehensives.  More information on comprehensives (including official forms) can be found here.

Thesis Proposal - your research proposal must also be presented to and approved by your supervisory committee.  Generally this is done within 6 months of completing the comprehensives, and includes an oral defence.  More information on the thesis proposal (including official forms) can be found here:.

Thesis Writing  - as per Faculty of Graduate Study guidelines 10.2 

Thesis Defense - as per Faculty of Graduate Study guidelines 10.6 

It is your responsibility to initiate discussion of the format and timing of these components early with your supervisor and thesis committee.  Information on this website will help you engage in a discussion with your committee and design a program that suits your specific needs.  Although each ID PhD program is unique, a mock-up program could include the following sequence: