Thesis Preparation
Your thesis must comply with McGill’s policies on Research Ethics and Intellectual Property.
Please refer to the Thesis Submission Guide for information regarding thesis submission procedures.
Learn more about the expected components and the required length and format of a thesis in the Preparation of a Thesis manual.
Initial Thesis Submission
You must be registered in the appropriate degree program at the time of the Initial Thesis Submission.
An Initial Thesis Submission will prompt the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Thesis Unit to automatically add your name to the graduation list for either the current or following term.
Students who are no longer registered at McGill must be Re-admitted to be eligible for the thesis examination.
Please read the Initial Thesis Submission instructions for details on submitting your thesis and any required supporting documents.
Thesis Examination
Once the Initial Thesis Submission is completed, the thesis will be evaluated over a 4-week examination period commencing from the time it is received by the examiner(s).
A Master’s thesis must be evaluated by a single examiner.
A Doctoral thesis must be evaluated by two examiners, one internal and one external. Following the successful (written) examination, there will be a Doctoral Oral Defense.
Supervisors may not serve as examiners of their own Master’s or Doctoral students.
Visit the Thesis Examination page on the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies website for details regarding the nomination of thesis examiners, the evaluation of a written thesis and options for thesis examination failures.
Final e-Thesis Submission
The Final e-Thesis Submission constitutes the final, corrected version of your thesis and is mandatory via MINERVA.
A final e-thesis will not be considered submitted to the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies office until it has been approved online by the supervisor(s).
Students are strongly encouraged to upload their final e-theses for online supervisor approval well in advance of the Thesis Deadlines (see below); otherwise the final e-thesis may be approved too late for the intended date of graduation.
Please see Final e-Thesis for students for regulations and step-by-step instructions regarding the final e-thesis submission.
Thesis Deadlines
You may submit your thesis at any time during the year. However, for each of the three annual dates for conferring degrees/convocation, there are corresponding deadlines for the Initial Thesis Submission and for the Final Thesis Submission. Please see Thesis Deadlines.