School of Environmental Studies

Queen's University

Master's of Environmental Studies Completion: Course-Based Master's

It is highly recommended that all MES students inform themselves about the formatting procedures that apply either to their project or thesis prior to embarking on the writing process. For information on this subject, please also consult the MES PROGRAM GUIDE.
Please discuss specific project formatting issues and citation styles with your advisor/supervisor.

For a detailed discussion on committee composition and such, please refer to the School of Environmental Studies PROGRAM GUIDE on Supervisory and Advisory Committees.
Committees should be formed during the first semester of the student's term of graduate studies. Committee members are chosen by the student in consultation with the supervisor or advisor.

After you have discussed a possible degree completion date with your advisor, go to the School of Graduate Studies website to check for the deadline to which you must adhere if you wish to be placed on the degree list for a particular term. These deadlines are firm, and no exceptions are made.
When working toward your degree completion date, please consider that you must ensure that your committee members have a minimum of 10 working days (excluding weekends and holidays) to read and comment on the draft stages of your work. Other internal timelines may apply if a committee member is away for a conference, for example.
Date and Time of your Closure Meeting (if applicable) must be confirmed by your readers.

The Chair of Graduate Studies for the School of Environmental Studies establishes the examination committee in consultation with the advisor and the student. A reader from outside the Department is required. The outside reader may or may not be part of the advisory committee and does not need to be a faculty member.
The outside reader is given two weeks to read the report and is asked to submit a brief memo to the advisor indicating the outcome of the report (PASS/FAIL) and indicating whether major revisions are requested.
If revisions are required, a memo noting that revisions have been completed will be submitted to the Graduate Chair of the School by the advisor.
All members of the examination committee are required to sign the Completion Form which is returned to the Graduate Assistant for submission to Graduate School. If members of the committee are not available to sign the form, email communication about the outcome is acceptable for submission purposes.

A closure meeting, approximately one hour in duration, including the student, the advisor and the outside reader, may be held in order to discuss the report and any required or recommended revisions.

Please print out the Pattern II and Pattern III Completion Form available on the SGS website. Once completed by your committee members, submit this form to the Graduate Assistant for further processing.
Copyright Form (PDF 28KB)

Please see the Graduate Assistant about information on copyright issues and binding procedures for your master's project. Unlike a thesis, the master's project is not submitted to the School of Graduate Studies for inclusion in the thesis repository on Qspace. The School of Environmental Studies would like permission from MES students to include a pdf copy of their project report on Qspace. The Copyright symbol, name and date must be indicated on the report and the author must file a copyright form with the Department to allow submission of the report.
The Graduate Assistant can advise about the Copyright Form (PDF 28KB).

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