Dec 22, 2024

2019-2020 Graduate Academic Calendar

2019-2020 Graduate Academic Calendar [ARCHIVED CALENDAR]

Computer Science, PhD

Degree requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Computer Science are listed below. For general program information, admission requirements, graduate faculty lists and/or details on part-time options, see Computer Science .

Degree requirements

All PhD students are expected to complete at least four graduate courses, two of which must be at the advanced 6000 level. Students who are directly admitted to the PhD program from an undergraduate degree must complete nine courses. CSCI 5010G - Survey of Computer Science Research Topics and Methods and CSCI 5020G - Collaborative Design and Research must be taken in the first year, if they have not been previously taken at the master’s level.

All PhD students must demonstrate a broad knowledge of computer science. This is normally demonstrated through the completion of an appropriate set of courses at the graduate level. To satisfy the breadth requirement, the student must successfully complete courses from the following four fields:

One course in Digital Media
One course in Information Science
One course in Networks and IT Security
One course in Software Design

When a student is admitted to the PhD program, the graduate committee of the faculty evaluates the courses from their previous degrees to determine which courses count towards the breadth requirement and identify the areas in which an additional course is required. The list of graduate courses offered each year indicates the area covered by each course so students can easily plan to cover the breadth requirement.

Within 18 months of their initial registration in the program, a PhD student must present and defend their thesis proposal. The defence takes the form of an oral examination.

Each PhD student must present two public seminars during the course of their studies. The first must be held just before the proposal defence and cover the proposed research program. The second seminar must be held just before the thesis defence and cover the results of the research program.

Course listing

General courses

Software Design courses

Networks and IT Security courses

Digital Media courses

Information Science courses

Non-CSCI graduate courses

MSc students are allowed to take up to two graduate-level courses from other graduate programs at the university, subject to written approval of their supervisor, the Computer Science graduate program director and the graduate program director of the host faculty for the course.

PhD students are normally expected to take 50 per cent or more of their course load from Computer Science graduate courses. Any exemption in special cases must be approved by the student’s supervisory committee and the graduate program director.

A list of graduate course options outside of Computer Science is available on the faculty’s website.