12 Credit MSc Thesis (Thesis Master's)
The 12 credit MSc thesis is equivalent in credits to four three-credit graduate courses.
Program Requirements under This Option
- 18 credits of approved courses of which a maximum of six credits may be 300 or 400 level undergraduate courses. All courses must be approved by the student’s advisor or supervisor, and in the case of undergraduate courses, by the Graduate Advisor as well. If you want to take 300 or 400 level undergraduate courses or transfer credits, please refer to 'Undergraduate Course registration' or 'Transfer Credit' for more information.
The course work in this option comprises six 3-credit graduate courses, typically taken three per term in the first year of MSc studies. However, students have flexibility in scheduling their course work. For those new to the Canadian educational system the transition can be eased by scheduling two courses in the first term. The additional course can be taken in the second year. Another typical pattern involves taking only two courses in the second term of the first year, allowing the student to explore their intended research area. Additionally, course availability may argue for deferring the final course until the second year. It is of course possible to defer several courses to the second year of studies, but courses may either be unavailable or scheduled in the same term, which may interfere with research progress.
- The 12-credit MSc thesis (CPSC 549B) must satisfy one or more of the following criteria:
- It involves some original research results;
- It involves novel implementation techniques
- It involves the implementation of a piece of nontrivial software whose availability could have some impact on the computer science user community.
- Master’s supervisory committees must have at least two members, and should have at least three members if the student has two supervisors (including the supervisors). They may have either
- one supervisor and at least one committee member, or
- one primary supervisor and one co-supervisor and one committee member,
- or two co-supervisors and one committee member.
- They may not have three co-supervisors (or one supervisor and two co-supervisors). Please refer to Faculty of Graduate and Post Doctoral Studies for details.
- The thesis must be approved by a committee of at least two (the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies highly recommends three) faculty including the supervisor(s). An external reader (i.e., someone outside of the supervisory committee who was not involved with the student’s thesis) is not required.
- Thesis/Essay Presentation: The student is required to present the thesis at a departmental seminar. This is not necessary if material related to the thesis has been presented at conference or other public research meeting (workshop, symposium etc.). If the thesis is presented at a department seminar, the student must send the information (date, time, location, supervisor's name, title of the thesis, and abstract) to grad-info@cs.ubc.ca at least 7 days in advance, so that an announcement can be sent to the department.