General Academic Regulations and Information

The University reserves the right to modify the academic programs and regulations at its discretion. The most current information is available from the School of Graduate Studies website. Each program may have specific regulations in addition to those listed below.

Program Regulations

Program of Studies Approval

The Program of Studies shall meet program requirements as approved by Senate, and includes the required courses (including directed studies), work terms or other practice-based components, any competency exams, scholarly components, or other requirements.

For a Master of Arts and a Master of Science, each student has a Program of Studies prepared by the Graduate Advisor in consultation with the student, and approved by the Dean/Director of Graduate Studies or Designate. In cases of programs with a Major Research Paper / Thesis component, consultation will include the Research Supervisor. The Program of Studies must be approved before the student registers in the program, and must include a detailed schedule for progress and completion.

In the Master of Education program, each admitted student will consult with his or her Graduate Advisor regarding the required courses, elective courses, and their Program of Study. In cases of programs with a Thesis component, consultation will include the Research Supervisor. In the case of the MEd program, which has multiple options for completion (Thesis, MRP and the 9-course plus Research Project and Seminar), timeline requirements for choosing a route are found in the MEd handbook.

Program Requirements

Scholarly Content

All graduate programs at Nipissing have a defined scholarly research component, which may take the form of a Thesis, a MRP, or a Research Project and Seminar.

Where appropriate for the discipline or field, another specified activity designed to test the acquisition of analytical and interpretive skills may be used (such a series of shorter research papers within courses, an exhibit of works, or a creative performance). In such cases, the appropriate scholarly content must be approved by the Dean/Director of Graduate Studies or Designate.

Practice-based Content:

Where appropriate and possible, Master’s programs at Nipissing have a defined practice-based component. This includes a co-op work program, a practicum, a work-term, a professional, community-or industry-based project/paper or Thesis, or some other form of practice-based or service-learning assessment.

Ethics in Research:

The Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS) on Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans establishes the procedures and standards for the ethics review of research involving human subjects. All researchers, including graduate and undergraduate students, collecting data with human subjects should become familiar with this policy.

Article 1.1 of the TCPS guidelines outlines the conditions of Research Project/Papers/ Theses that require review: all research that involves living human subjects requires review and approval by a Research Ethics Board (REB) before the research is started. This includes research funded by grants, scholarships, contracts and contributions, unfunded faculty research, graduate and undergraduate research, and administrative research. This also includes course permission to be submitted by professors if students are to work with human subjects as part of their course requirement. Such permission should be received prior to any assignment being undertaken by students. The REB must review and approve all research conducted on and off campus, by faculty, staff and students.

Grading

With the exception of MRPs or Theses and courses with a Pass/Fail grade, the standardized grading system for graduate courses at Nipissing University is:

A+	90 - 100%
A	85 -< 90%
A-	80 -< 85%
B+	76 -< 80%
B	70 -< 76%
F	< 70%

Graduate students must receive a grade of B or higher to receive credit for a course; however, each program may have further specific degree requirements.

Appeals of Academic Decisions

Appeals are normally heard regarding possible inequities in the process used in grading. Should a student not be satisfied with an awarded grade, he or she may appeal using the appeal process found within the Academic Calendar.

MRP/Thesis Regulations

MRP/Thesis title approval

No later than the end of the first term (or equivalent for part-time students), the students shall register the title of their MRP/Thesis. The application has to be approved by their Research Supervisor and Second Reader (if applicable) before being submitted to the Dean/Director of Graduate Studies or Designate for final approval.

MRP/Thesis Oral Proposals

Individual programs may require the student to do an oral presentation as part of the MRP proposal.

For programs that require students to present their research proposals both the Research Supervisor(s) and Graduate Advisor/Chair will have to give their approval for the student to proceed with the writing of their MRP/Thesis.

Minimum time to review

The External Examiner must be given a minimum of two weeks to review a MRP or Thesis; however individual programs may have specific time-related requirements.

Thesis Supervisory and Examination Committees

The supervision and examination of all graduate theses at Nipissing will be administered by the SGS. Regulations are as follows:

Thesis Supervisory Committee:

Graduate students who have been approved to complete a Thesis will have a Supervisory Committee established with a minimum of two members: the supervisor(s) and an additional graduate faculty member from the program or cognate discipline, or an expert from within the field. Two faculty members on the same Supervisory Committee may chose to act as co-supervisors.

Examination Committee

The Examination Committee for all Master’s Thesis students consists of the Supervisory Committee plus an External Examiner, who shall be external to Nipissing University, and the Dean/Director of Graduate Studies or Designate, who shall be a faculty member of the Senate Graduate Committee. The Dean/Director of Graduate Studies or Designate or the Graduate Chair’s or Graduate Advisor’s designate, shall chair the examination.

All examinations shall consist of, in the following order, an advertised, public, oral presentation by the student, questions from the Examination Committee, and then questions from the public. In special circumstances the external examiner may be participating by videoconference or teleconference. The candidate and public attendees shall be asked to withdraw while the committee decides on the outcome of the examination. The outcome of a Thesis examination may be one of the following:

Unconditional pass
Pass conditional upon specific revisions (deadline set for receipt of revisions)
Fail with a provision to resubmit for another exam
Fail outright

Confidentiality in the examination process is essential when there is a proprietary requirement regarding the Intellectual Property (IP) content of the Thesis and where such an IP agreement has been signed between the relevant parties (student, supervisor, university, external partner) and has been approved by the Dean/Director of Graduate Studies or Designate.

MRP Supervisory and Examination Committee:

The supervision and examination of all graduate students writing a Major Research Paper (MRP) at Nipissing University will be administered by the SGS. No MRP will be accepted for submission to an Examination Committee before it is completed. The regulations are as follows:

MRP Supervisory Committee:

Students who have been approved to complete a major research paper will have a Supervisory Committee established with a minimum of two members: the supervisor and an additional graduate faculty member from the program or cognate discipline, or an expert from within the field.

Master of Arts/Master of Science Examination Committee

The Examination Committee shall consist of the Supervisory Committee plus a third member, who shall be member of the graduate faculty external to the program (but preferably from a cognate discipline or field). The Dean/Director of Graduate Studies or Designate or the Graduate Chair’s or Graduate Advisor’s designate, shall chair the examination.

The results of a MRP examination may be one of the following:

Unconditional pass
Pass conditional upon specific revisions (deadline set for receipt of revisions)
Fail with a provision to resubmit for another exam
Fail outright

Master of Education: Examination Committee

The Examination Committee shall consist of the Supervisory Committee and shall be chaired by the Dean/Director of Graduate Studies or Designate or the Graduate Chair’s or Graduate Advisor’s designate. The examiners will evaluate the paper and the outcome may be one of the following:

Unconditional pass
Pass conditional upon specific revisions (deadline set for receipt of revisions)
Fail with a provision to resubmit for another exam
Fail outright

MRP/Thesis Temporary Restricted Access

At least a month prior to the time of submitting the Thesis/MRP, a student may apply to the Dean/Director of Graduate Studies or Designate requesting that the Thesis/MRP be withheld from deposit in the library for an additional three (3) months.

For any additional period of six (6) months, the student must submit a request for extension one month prior to the termination of the previous period. The student’s supervisor will be required to justify the extension of the restriction.

The period of restriction that a student may apply for will not exceed more than two years from the date of the degree being approved. There is no unlimited period of restriction.

Reasons for exemptions are as follows:

Publication: to refrain from releasing data contained in the research while publications are prepared.
Patent: disclosure of data or research results usually prevent the issuance of a patent. What has become public knowledge could not be patented.
Security and safety: some data or information contained in the research could endanger the security or safety of individuals, including racial, ethnic and /or political persecution.
Actionable breach of confidence: disclosure of information constitute a breach of confidentiality agreement and is actionable by the owner of the information (e.g. intellectual property rights)
Third party liability: due to publication of information third parties mentioned in the text could face legal challenge or liability.

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