For information on coursework and other program requirements, please see the SGS Calendar.

For full course descriptions, please see the Registrar's Office and course listings page.

The full-time DPE PhD is a 4-year program.

Recommended Course of Study:

Degree requirements for the flexible-time PhD are the same as for the full-time PhD program.

Flexible-time PhD students register full-time during the first four years and part-time during subsequent years of the program. This is a 6-year program.

Recommended Course of Study (Flexible-Time):

Note: Usually, all course work is completed in Year 1.

Academic Monitoring

*The School of Graduate Studies requires that academic progress of all doctoral is monitored. Beginning in the second year for full-time PhD students (the third year for flexible-time PhD students), the thesis committee meet yearly to complete the Doctoral Monitoring Form (link to this document is available at top of this page). 

Minimum requirements for adequate progress

• By April 30 of Year One: Complete at least four half courses.
   
• By April 30 of Year Two: Complete any remaining courses.
   
• By April 30 of Year Three: Select a thesis topic (a tentative thesis title and an abstract of between 250 and 350 words); form a tentative thesis committee (supervisor and at least one additional member).
   
• By April 30 of Year Four: Form a full thesis committee (supervisor and at least two additional members); prepare a formal thesis proposal (drafts of the introductory, literature review, and methods chapters of the thesis); obtain approval of the formal thesis proposal from the full committee.
   
• By April 30 of Year Five: Complete the comprehensive examination.
   
• All additional requirements, including the completion and defence of the thesis, should be completed by the end of Year Six and must be completed by the end of Year Eight.

Achieving Candidacy: Requirements and Time Limit​

Candidacy must be achieved by the end of Year 4 for the flexible-time PhD DPE Program.

Note: The foregoing time limits do not apply to courses that run continuously throughout the program.

More details on the Achieving Candidacy and Maintaining Good Academic Standing are available on The School of Graduate Studies website.

Overview

The purposes of the comprehensive examination are threefold:

(a) to demonstrate the student’s ability to work independently within an area of concern in the field of human development;

(b) to gain knowledge of a new area, a new technique or method in a specified area in the field of human development; and

(c) to demonstrate the ability to integrate information at the accepted standard for a PhD student.

Students have two options when fulfilling their PhD comprehensive requirement:
 

Option 1: Empirical Research Paper

The comprehensive requirement may be met by an empirical research paper.

The topic and written research plan must be approved in advance by a committee of two faculty members:

• One the of the faculty has to be from APHD (usually the student’s advisor)
   
• The committee member who will actually supervise the comprehensive study cannot be the student’s faculty advisor. 
   
• It is the student’s responsibility to recruit and convene this committee. 
   

Before commencing the comprehensive:
 

1. Identify the committee for your comprehensive paper.

2. Prepare a 1-2 page description of your proposed plan of study and of how it will enhance your training.

3. Obtain approval from the DPE chair for your comprehensive committee (attach project description and the DPE committee approval comprehensive form).

• If the main supervisor of your committee does not have SGS approval, contact Stephen Krencil, the assistant to the Chair of the Department, to obtain approval.

4. Submit all approval forms to the DPE Program Liaison.

To meet the requirements of comprehensiveness, the research should be mainly conducted outside the student’s supervisor’s lab to enable the student to gain new knowledge significantly different from the student’s thesis research. This process will normally commence during the first year of the PhD program and will normally be completed in the second year.

Academic Standard

The standard for passing is the level of research papers presented at conventions of major professional organizations (e.g. American Educational Research Association, Canadian Psychological Association, Cognitive Science Society). Essentially, this means that the paper should meet the quality standards of journals of these organizations.

• Actual acceptance at a conference and submission for publication in a peer-reviewed journal are strongly encouraged.
   
• In all cases, judgment of acceptability is the responsibility of the established committee.

The paper submitted in fulfillment of the comprehensive requirement should be a full report, in form and length appropriate to a research journal. This means, in the case of a conference presentation, that it should not be the abstract submitted as a proposal but rather the full paper that is commonly required after acceptance.

Additional Notes

• It is permissible for several students to plan related studies with the intention of later combining them to make a joint publication, or for a student’s study to be similarly related to research being carried out by a faculty member. In all such cases, however, the paper submitted to fulfill the comprehensive requirement must have been completely written by the student.
   
• The comprehensive study cannot be used as part of a student’s dissertation thesis.
   
• Once the comprehensive paper is approved by the committee, the faculty supervisor must sign the PhD Comprehensive Completion Form and forward to the department chair for approval.

Option 2: Internship
 

Students may choose to do a 200-300 hour internship (approximately six weeks full-time) in a field-based setting relevant to human development.

• The internship should be undertaken in an area and setting in which the student has not previously worked. 
   
• Appropriate settings include school boards (administration, research units or classrooms), government departments, child-focused agencies dealing with social policy, community organizations operating  prevention  or  intervention  projects,  and  settings  with technological innovation geared to human development.
  • Other settings will be acceptable as long as the student can demonstrate the relevance of the setting to a theoretical or empirical problem in human development. Such internships must be discussed with the student’s faculty advisor before being arranged.

Before commencing the comprehensive

1. Complete the DPE PhD  Comprehensive  (Option  2)  Approval  form, submit it for approval to the DPE chair  and  then to  the  DPE  Program Liaison. The DPE program chair grants final approval for the proposed internship.

On completion of the internship

1. Submit a report of the internship no longer than 2000 words to your faculty advisor. 
 

• Construct your report around  an  aspect  of  the  work  in  that  setting  that  you  found  particularly interesting or challenging. 
   
• In analyzing this issue, draw on theoretical and empirical work in human development. 
   

​2. Ensure that your internship supervisor indicate in a letter written to the DPE program chair whether their work was satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Grading

Students will be graded pass or fail on the basis of their work in the setting as well as their submitted report (to be reviewed by the student’s faculty advisor).

Once the comprehensive paper is approved by the committee, the faculty supervisor must sign the PhD Comprehensive Completion Form and forward to the department chair for approval.

The PhD Oral Examination Nomination Form and timetables are available from the Registrar’s Office. The specific procedures for establishing a final oral examination are quite detailed. Planning for the final oral exam must be undertaken at least two months in advance of the actual examination.

When preparing a thesis, a student works in consultation with his/her thesis supervisor until a committee is formed and, after that, with his/her thesis committee.

Process

1. Review of OISE/UT Guidelines for Theses and Orals
 

2. Establishment of a thesis topic
 

3. Selection of a thesis supervisor (normally the student’s Faculty Advisor)
 

4. Formation of a thesis committee (form to be completed)

• The thesis supervisor must hold a Full appointment to the School of Graduate Studies
• The other two committee members must hold at least Associate appointments
• At least one member must be from APHD
   

5. Ethical review, if required (forms to be completed)
 

6. Thesis proposal approval (form to be completed)
 

7. Thesis work
 

8. Final thesis approval and submission (form to be completed)

The student and the thesis committee members must complete a thesis approval form and an ethical review approval before any data collection commences.

Evaluation

• PhD program theses are evaluated at an oral examination by the students’ thesis committee, which includes the student’s supervisor, plus a minimum of two faculty members, both holding either Full or Associate School of Graduate Studies appointments. At least one thesis committee member must be from APHD.
   
• Once a student’s thesis is in its final form and has been approved by the thesis committee, the final oral examination is scheduled
  • A student defends his/her thesis at an examination conducted by a Final Oral Examination Committee.
     
  • It is this exam that will determine whether or not a student may be recommended for his/her degree.
     
  • PhD Oral Examination Nomination Form and timetables are available from the Registrar’s Office