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ON THIS PAGE:
Applying for IPN Supervisory Privilege
Mentorship Program
Finding Applicants for your Lab
The IPN Letter of Understanding (LoU) between Supervisor and Student
Taking on Rotation Program Students
Funding Opportunities for Your Students
Recruiting Students to Your Lab
Resources
Applying for IPN Supervisory Privilege
To request supervisory privilege in the IPN, you must e-mail the following documents to administrator.ipn [at] mcgill.ca :
- A brief (1 page) summary of your research interests
- Must include your supervision philosophy, your approach to training and mentoring graduate students, relevant training on supervision and EDI, etc.
- CV
- Must include your research funding history
- Proof of current academic status at McGill
- i.e., Are you tenure track, CAS, etc.? If CAS, there must be specifics on the duration of the contract, whether it is renewable, etc. Applicants normally forward a copy of the letter of employment that McGill provides when hiring new staff. You may edit the letter to retain confidential information, but the letter must indicate your status, and the term, if there is one.
As a supervisor in the Integrated Program in Neuroscience (IPN), you are expected to mentor other supervisors' students in our program. The IPN Graduate Program Committee has instituted an 'IPN Mentorship Program,' by which each graduate student is matched with a member of the IPN faculty that is not involved in the student's project and is not part of the student's committee. The responsibility of the IPN mentor is to ensure that the student meets the program requirements in a timely manner. The IPN student body is vast, and our faculty researchers are based in laboratories and research sites across the city. Therefore, we take the necessary initiatives to ensure that all our students feel included, are kept informed, and are focused on meeting their program milestones throughout the course of their degree.
Mentor Responsibilities:
For an MSc student this involves:
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Meeting the student near the beginning of their training to introduce yourself and let them know who you are. Sign the initial mentorship form (study plan milestone)
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Acting as Chair of the MSc Thesis Seminar (organizing the zoom link if on zoom and overseeing the decision by the committee of whether the student can write their thesis)
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Serving as an additional resource person who can provide information on administrative matters, answer the mentee's questions, and assist with any specific needs
For a PhD student this involves:
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Meeting the student near the beginning of their training to introduce yourself and let them know who you are. Sign the initial mentorship form (study plan milestone)
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Acting as Chair of the PhD Candidacy Exam
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Acting as program representative at the PhD Oral Defence
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Serving as an additional resource person who can provide information on administrative matters, answer the mentee's questions, and assisting with any specific needs
Scheduling Meetings:
Being a mentor in the IPN is an important obligation to the smooth functioning of our program and an expected contribution from all researchers with supervisory rights. As a mentor, the researcher assumes the commitment of performing the mentor role to the best of their capacity, accommodating scheduling of milestones and, exceptionally, assuming the responsibility of finding a replacement mentor if you are unable to attend a student's meeting.
Students Experiencing Challenges:
Please contact administrator.ipn [at] mcgill.ca for more information on how to advise and direct students to find appropriate support.
Finding Applicants for your Lab
Slate
Student applications which have met IPN requirements can be browsed through the SLATE Application System.
If you are a new supervisor in IPN, please follow these instructions on how to Access Slate (Academic/professor Reviewer).
1) submit the SIS-security web form available here: https://www.mcgill.ca/es/sis-authorization-form.
- Sign into the form with your McGill Credentials
- Select Instructor/Advisor or Slate Academic Reviewer
2) Fill out the form and submit.
3) Once the SIS form is sent and the access is granted, sign in to Slate.
If you require more information on how to use SLATE, please view the Slate Admissions Knowledge Base.
IPN Admissions Database
Once you have identified a student you would like to recruit into your lab, please notify the IPN office (ipn.admissions [at] mcgill.ca) and we will transfer the student’s file into our IPN admissions database where you can generate a Letter of Understanding (LOU) to accept the student.
Please note that you will need to log into our admissions database with username and password to gain access to sign up our student, which would have been sent to you when you became an approved supervisor in the program. If you need your login information to be re-sent to you, contact ipn.admissions [at] mcgill.ca.
The IPN Letter of Understanding between Supervisor and Student
IPN has implemented a Letter of Understanding (LoU) that must be accepted by student and supervisor, before the supervisor may take on the student. Once filled out by the supervisor, the letter should detail what is expected of the student, e.g. the number of hours to work in the lab, conference attendance policy, lab policy on publications etc. The LoU was introduced to protect both student and supervisor in case of conflict, and also to clarify the nature of how each lab is run. Students MUST read this carefully. If a student thinks some of the expectations are unreasonable, they should be negotiated with the supervisor before the student agrees to the letter.
A blank copy of the Letter of Understanding can be found here. Please note that this blank copy is provided only as a reference copy for viewing purposes. In order to access and complete an official LOU, you must access the online student database and click the 'supervise' button.
Taking on Rotation Program Students
In September 2010, the IPN started the Ph.D. Rotation Program. A few, hand-picked, talented students will be doing 3 three-month rotations during the first year of their studies. At the end of this year, during which their stipend is paid by IPN, they will pick a supervisor with whom to complete their Ph.D.
The rotation program has two goals. One is to expose students to a wide range of research going on at McGill and help them establish lasting acquaintanceships that they can draw on for collaborations in the future, regardless of which lab they end up choosing for their Ph.D. in year 2. The other goal is to help place students as well as possible in a matched doctoral research lab.
As a supervisor who wishes to take on Rotation students, here is what we require of you:
- Physical space in your lab for the student;
- A meaningful short-term project, OR, an ongoing project in which the student can be actively engaged, and thus can gain experience.
Additionally:
- If you can take on a student for a rotation, but cannot commit to having the student for a full Ph.D., do let the students know and they can choose whether or not to use up a rotation slot in your lab.
- IPN strongly recommends that you take on no more than two first-year rotation students in any academic year.
- If you decide to take on a Ph.D. Rotation student during their year 1, their stipend will be covered by IPN's Rotation program. Should you take on a Rotation student for their Ph.D. in year 2, you will be responsible for the stipend, just as you would be for a regular IPN student.
- If you wish to be added or removed form the list of supervisors who wish to take on rotation students, please contact projects.ipn [at] mcgill.ca.
Recruiting Students to Your Lab
If you would like to be listed on our website as a supervisor who is actively recruiting students, please fill out this form.
Award Committees
We ask that new supervisors participate as members on our Award Selection Committees as part of service in the IPN
Funding Opportunities for Your Students
Graduate Studies Funding Opportunities for Students
For more funding opportunities, please visit our 'Tuition & Funding' web page.
Resources
Being a Supervisor - Strategies for effective graduate student supervision