Supervisory Committee

All RSI students in consultation with their supervisor(s) are required to submit the proposed membership of their Supervisory Committee to the RSI office using the Supervisory Committee Membership Approval Form by the end of their first term in the program. This form must also be re-submitted if supervisory committee membership changes during the student’s program. Students will be notified by email of approval. The Supervisory Committee must approve the student proposal within six months of the start of their program. Please review the RSI Supervisory Committee Policy.

For an MSc student, the Supervisory Committee has a minimum of 3 members including a supervisor who must be an RSI member with an SGS Graduate Faculty Membership (GFM). The other members need not be members of RSI but must have an SGS GFM. Please review the RSI Graduate Appointment Policy for details. If you are uncertain whether a prospective committee member meets the requirements, please contact the rsi.admin@utoronto.ca. Only approved Supervisory Committee members are eligible to participate in Supervisory Committee meetings.

The Supervisory Committee members provide expertise in the areas relevant to the thesis topic and should complement the supervisor’s own research interests. The committee members assess, encourage, motivate the student and provide guidance and mentoring. The committee composition could change depending on student needs (e.g., change in focus of research).

The meetings are documented meetings of the student, supervisor and other members of the Supervisory Committee using the Supervisory Committee Form. The purpose of the meeting is to review the student’s research proposal and graduate program progress. All graduate students must submit a Supervisory Committee Form to the RSI office every 6 months.