Requirements and Recommendations
 

Requirements

• You are required to submit 1 signed and 1 unsigned Approval Page as a part of your thesis submission.
• The signed and unsigned Approval Pages should be identical with the following exceptions.
  • Signed page - Committee member signatures are required (blue ink please). See Signatures Required for details.
  • Unsigned page - All signature lines are blank and the date defended/approved is typed on the Date Defended/Approved line. See further details below.
     
• Complete the Approval page in your Word document--see your graduate assistant for the correct committee information (professor's name, committee member designation, position in department, etc.)

Recommendations

• We recommend having committee signatures on (at least) 6 Approval Pages.
  • 1 Approval Page for the thesis Archival copy (must include original signatures). This copy is bound and placed in the SFU Archives.
  • 2 Approval Pages (one for the Senior Supervisor's copy and one for the Department copy of the thesis).
  • 1 (or more) Approval Pages for the student's bound copies of the thesis
  • 2  Approval Pages for the Department (1 for student's file and 1 accompanies Recommendation for Award of Degree to Dean of Graduate Studies office--some departments use copies for these)

Note. If you do not have a signed approval page for your personal bound copy of your thesis, please make a copy of the original before submitting your thesis to the library. 

Content and Details

Specifications

Both Approval Pages must be:

• numbered page ii
• single-sided

Both Approval Pages must not be:

• stapled
• hole-punched

Signatures and text must remain inside the margins. 

Approval Page Elements: Title, Degree, Committee Type, Committee Membership, Committee Membership details, Date.

• Titles may be italicized. Avoid using quotations marks around the title and including a period at the end of the title. Quotation marks within a title are permitted.
   
• Degree should fit on 1 line and read as below. Note. The discipline is optional. The terms "Masters" and "Doctorate" are not permitted. Examples:
  
  Master of Arts (Discipline)
  Master of Science (Discipline)
  Master of Public Policy
  Master of Resource Management
  Master of Urban Studies
  Doctor of Education
  Doctor of Philosophy (Discipline)

• Committee Types - If you have defended your thesis, your committee is referred to as an Examining Committee. If no defence takes place, the committee type is a Supervisory Committee.
  
  1. an Examining Committee (chair plus 2 to 6 members)
  2. a Supervisory Committee (2 members and chair)
   
• Committee Membership (for masters and doctoral degrees) must include:
  
  1. Name
  2. Committee membership (as per bullets below)
  3. Position in the university (Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor; University Professor, Professor Emeritus, Professor Emerita, Adjunct Professor, Senior Lecturer)
  4. Department or School appears only when member is from a department other than the one from which the degree is being awarded
   
• Committee Membership Details There is no designation "Committee Member" or "Member." Use the following designations:
   
  ♦ In department--there is always a Chair which appears on the form differently than the committee members
     (provide name, position in department, but no signature line)
  ♦ In department--there is always a Senior Supervisor (give name, membership, position in department)
  ♦ In department--there may be a Co-Supervisor (give name, membership, position in department)
  ♦ In department--the remaining members are Supervisors (give name, membership, position in department) 
  ♦ In department--there may be an Internal (give name, membership, position in department)
  ♦ There may be an Internal/External Examiner (give name, membership, position in department, department--only if another department)
  ♦ There may be an External Examiner (give name, position, department, institution) 

• Date Defended / Approved:
  For defended theses, only use the defence date.  For undefended theses, use the approved date.  

Signatures Required
 

 More than 50% of committee signatures are required. See table below:
 

 When Unable to Obtain a Committee Member's Signature:

If a committee member is absent, include a statement on the absent committee member's signature line and obtain an alternate signature or initials.

 1. In the case of a Senior Supervisor's absence an authorized signature is required. 

• by video conference (location) [signature of one of following: department chair, graduate program chair, or Dean of Graduate Studies]

 2. Other Committee Members

• by teleconference (location) [initials of defence chair or senior]
• by video conference (location) [initials of defence chair or senior] (do not use a company name such as Skype)
• by email consultation (location) [initials of defence chair or senior]
• by written consultation (location) [initials of defence chair or senior]
  (For the above bullets: if not the defence chair or senior, the department chair, graduate program chair, or Dean of Graduate Studies)
   
• on study leave, by teleconference (location) [initials of defence chair or senior]
• on sabbatical, by teleconference (location) [initials of defence chair or senior]
  (For the above two bullets, if not the defence chair, the department chair, graduate program chair, or Dean of Graduate Studies).

In all committee member cases, if not the defence chair or senior supervisor, the signature of the department chair, graduate program chair, or Dean of Graduate Studies is acceptable.

Emails from absent member(s) giving revision requirements or approval should be kept in the student's department file.

Errors on a Signed Approval Page

If there are errors on the signed Approval Page, a new corrected Approval Page must be signed by all committee members. If however a committee member who attended the defence is now away, every effort must be made to obtain original signatures on the new Approval Page.

• 1. Send via email a 1-page PDF of the Approval Page (AP) to the person who is out-of-town:
      (a) ask for a confirmation that they received the email,
      (b) explain the situation;
      (c) request he/she print the (# of pages of) attached AP, sign, and send them back to the Department via courier.
  2. When the new Approval Page with the absentee committee member's signature arrives, obtain off-campus signatures, then SFU signatures. 
  3. Please also inform theses@sfu.ca with an estimated date of arrival at the Thesis Office. 

• If after 3 weeks the absent committee member has not confirmed receipt of the email, "attended in person" may be printed (preferably typed) on the signature line and, to the right of these words include an authorized signature (i.e., the department chair, graduate program chair, or Dean of Graduate Studies).

Sample Approval Pages

• Extended Essays (with a 2-member supervisory committee)
• Project (with a 2-member examining committee)
• Project (with a 2-member supervisory committee)
• Master's Thesis (with a 3-member examining committee)
• Ph.D. Thesis (with a 4-member examining committee)
• Ph.D. Thesis (with a 5-member examining committee)