Students who wish to transfer from the M.Sc. program to the Ph.D. program without completion of an M.Sc. degree must have the approval by their supervisor and supervisory committee members. The decision to schedule a Transfer Exam is made in consultation with the committee at the second committee meeting. This meeting occurs 14-16 months after the start of the program.

The student can obtain a Request for a Transfer Exam Form from the Graduate Program Administrator in the graduate office. This form must be filled out and signed by the student and his/her supervisor and then returned to the graduate office before the Graduate Program Administrator can begin scheduling the Transfer Exam.

Note that the student must allow four weeks to schedule a Transfer Exam.

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Date of the Exam

The Transfer Exam is to be held approximately 18 months (but not later than 21 months) after the date of first registration in the M.Sc. program.

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The Transfer Document

The student must distribute a written report not to exceed 15 pages of text (12-point, double-spaced; not including references, figures, and figure legends) to all members of the examining committee at least 10 days in advance of the exam. Page limits will be strictly enforced. Proposals that contain more than 15 pages of text will be returned to the student and as a result may lead to a postponement of the exam.

Editorial input from the supervisor is considered to be part of the process and the student may seek the input of others, including supervisory committee members.

Students may find it helpful to peruse other transfer proposals before writing their own (they may contact the Graduate Program Administrator for copies).

Required Format

Summary (1 page only): This page must include a summary of the objective, background results, research plan and the significance of the proposed research.

Introduction (~3 pages): The introduction should familiarize the reader with the field and provide a context for both the student’s work-to-date and his/her proposed work.

Results-to-Date (~4-5 pages): A description of the research that the student has done, to date, including the rationale and conclusion for each experiment. Note that in some cases the student may have too much data to summarize in which case he/she will only be able to present those experiments that are most relevant to the proposed work.

Proposed Work (~5-6 pages): This section should begin with a statement of the rationale and goals of the proposed research. A description of the experimental approach to be followed should then be given. Specifically, the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, the possible outcomes, as well as alternative approaches should be discussed

NB. References, figures and figure legends are not part of the page count.

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The Examining Committee

The examining committee will normally consist of at least six faculty members and have the following composition:

• the supervisor;
• the co-supervisor, if relevant;
• all members of the supervisory committee;
• at least one other Biochemistry faculty member;
• one additional extra-departmental faculty member;
• and a Chair drawn from the members of the Graduate Committee.

A quorum is four examiners.

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The Oral Exam

At the beginning of the exam the student will give an oral presentation of 20 minutes length summarizing the work that has been done and describing the experiments that the student proposes to do.

This will be followed by questions from the committee members. The questions will usually cover material drawn from all three aspects of the written document (Introduction, Research Completed and Research Proposed); given the purpose of the examination, the committee tends to focus on the Research Proposed.

Additionally, candidates will be expected to demonstrate knowledge of the general principles of biochemistry. In judging the performance of the candidate, the exam committee is, in general, looking for evidence of: i) a solid knowledge base, ii) insight into the aims and significance of the proposed work, iii) creativity in her/his approach to research, and iv) data interpretation skills, that would collectively indicate an aptitude for independent research.

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The Vote

At the end of the examination, all members of the examination committee, including the Chair, will vote. A student who is successful in his/her Transfer Exam (no more than one negative vote) will be transferred into the Ph.D. program.

Courses already taken (or in progress) during the period of M.Sc. registration will be credited towards the Ph.D. course requirements.

Once the transfer procedure is successfully completed, the student obtains only the Ph.D. degree from the department at the conclusion of his/her graduate program. All positive reclassification decisions are subject to the approval by the School of Graduate Studies.

A student whose performance on the Transfer Exam is deemed to be unsatisfactory (more than one negative vote) will either be asked to repeat the exam or to write a Master's thesis. In the case of the latter, the supervisor, in consultation with the supervisory committee, will advise the student as to what should be the "end point" of experimental work for the M.Sc. degree (obviously less than that proposed for the Ph.D. degree and in keeping with the traditional expectation levels for M.Sc. degrees in the department; see sections on M.Sc. Course Requirements and M.Sc. Thesis and Oral Defense).

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