Information for Current Students
This section of the website is for current and accepted students wanting to know more information about where to find that form they need, funding and scholarships, what you need to be doing at which point in your degree to graduate on time, thesis-related information, and various deadlines.
In almost all cases, the form you are looking for will be found on the Grad Studies website:
See the ‘What funding do you offer for domestic and international students?’ section of our website for details, as well as the ‘Funding section of the Graduate Studies website.
As an M.A. student, you will be registered as a student from September 1 – August 31 every year, so the requirement is that you will be doing work towards your degree throughout the calendar year.
In your first year, you will complete all of your coursework in the Fall & Winter semesters by taking three classes per semester. During this time you should also be considering and discussing with your supervisor ideas for your thesis topic.
You will be working with your supervisor to develop your thesis proposal in the Spring/Summer semester after you are done classes. Before starting to work on your proposal, your supervisor must approve your intended topic. You do not want to begin writing a proposal only to find out your topic is not acceptable.
You should not underestimate the time it will take you to do your proposal – it is a time-intensive process and will require significant efforts over Spring/Summer to develop.
Thesis Proposal Deadlines:
- June 1 - You must have a first draft of your proposal to your supervisor by June 1. If you do not meet this benchmark, you may be required to move to the course-based stream to ensure timely degree completion.
- July 15 – In discussion with your supervisor, you must declare if you will be staying in the thesis stream or if you will be moving to the course-based stream.
- September 30 – You must have given your proposal presentation by this date or you will be required to move to the course-based stream to ensure timely degree completion.
In your second year, you will be working on – and completing – your thesis. As projects vary in their nature, you should discuss with your supervisor what ‘on time’ looks like for your individual project.
Also see the Thesis-Based Student Preparation/Examination Timeline and Deadlines [PDF] chart from Graduate studies showing you all the timelines and deadlines with respect to scheduling your thesis exam. These deadlines are the same whether you are a full- or part-time student:
If you are a full-time course/project student, in your first year, you will take 3 classes in the Fall semester and 3 classes in the winter semester. You will begin working on your major paper over the summer semester.
In your second year, you will take two classes in the Fall semester, with the remainder of your time spent working on your major paper.
You should discuss with your supervisor what progression is needed for timely completion based on the nature of your proposed research project, but you will be working on your research project during the Spring/Summer semesters.
Part-time students will take 4 years to complete their degrees. With respect to coursework, part-time students must take at least one course in each of the Fall and Winter semesters until they are finished their coursework, and you would normally take your four required core courses before taking any electives.
If you would like to take more than one course in the Fall and Winter semesters, you are able to do so, but please note that finishing in fewer than 4 years will unfortunately not decrease the amount of tuition Graduate Studies will require you to pay.
We generally do not offer any graduate classes in the Spring/Summer semester. It is possible that you could take courses in the Spring/Summer semester in other programs at UWinnipeg, or at other institutions through the Western Deans agreement if you wish to get your coursework completed sooner. Speak to the Graduate Chair if you have a course you are interested in taking.
If you are a part-time thesis student, you would need to have a first draft of your thesis proposal to your supervisor by June 1 of your second year, and do your proposal presentation by September 30 of your second year. This would leave you the last two years of your degree to work on the thesis itself.
Also see the Thesis-Based Student Preparation/Examination Timeline and Deadlines [PDF] fromGraduate studies showing you all the timelines and deadlines with respect to scheduling your thesis exam. These deadlines are the same whether you are a full- or part-time student.
If you are a part-time course/project student, you should discuss with your supervisor what timeline you should follow for timely completion based on the nature of your proposed project, but will be required to be working on it during Spring/Summer semesters.
Graduate studies has a helpful chart showing you all the timelines and deadlines. It also outlines what you are responsible for doing and what your supervisor is responsible for doing:
Thesis-Based Student Preparation/Examination Timeline and Deadlines
If you want to have your thesis exam scheduled in time for an October convocation, you will need to have the final, exam-ready copy of your thesis and all associated forms submitted to Graduate Studies no later than July 1.
Generally speaking, this means that you will need a first draft of your thesis to your supervisor in early March as you will need to go through several rounds of revisions before having an exam-ready copy of your thesis in time for July 1 submission.
Around the time you have a completed first draft of your thesis, you should also discuss with your supervisor who would be a good fit as an external examiner as they may need to submit paperwork to get the external approved. If the proposed external is not from the University of Winnipeg, your supervisor will need to submit an application for them to be the external examiner. This should be done at least 12 weeks before your anticipated thesis exam date, so you should be thinking about this early!
For all full-time students, normal time to completion is 2 years. For all part-time students, normal time to completion is 4 years.
Students in the thesis stream are eligible for a Thesis Writing Term the first term after their normal time to completion. This is a ‘free’ term for which you would not pay any tuition.
Thesis students who need additional time beyond the Thesis Writing Term to complete and/or defend their thesis would apply for a Continuance Term. There are tuition and fees associated with the Continuance Term.
If you are a Course/project student and do not finish in the normal time to completion, you are not eligible for a Thesis Writing Term and would need to apply for a Continuance Term.
You must have program support in order to receive continuance, so it is important that you are in regular contact with your supervisor and working to make progress on your thesis. There are fees associated with the Continuance Term.
It varies, but you can check the Graduate Studies Academic Calendar to confirm.
However, if you do not have a thesis exam date confirmed by mid-July, you will definitely need a Writing Term and should apply as soon as you know if this is the case.
You will need to apply for continuance for each term in which you need continuance. The deadlines are as follows:
August 17 for Fall Semester
December 17 for Winter Semester
April 17 for Spring/Summer
Note that as the Graduate Chair’s signature is required on all the forms, you should not wait till the deadline to get the form submitted.
The cost for Continuance fees can be found on the Graduate Studies Website fees page.
The forms to apply for either a Thesis Writing Term or Continuance are found on the Graduate Studies website forms page.
For students who will be doing coursework in an upcoming semester, we recommend that you discuss with your supervisor and/or the Graduate Program Chair which electives would be best-suited for you to take based on your research interests. You can then request to add classes within WebAdvisor. The Graduate Program Chair will review the courses you have requested to ensure you are fulfilling the program requirements. Assuming so, they will indicate their approval within WebAdvisor, following which you will be able to formally register for your classes.
If you wish to take classes through the Western Deans agreement (see ‘How many electives are offered each year?’ in this section for more information), note that you must apply to do so and applications need to be made in July in order to be processed in time.
For students who have completed all coursework and have only their thesis or research project remaining, registration will be via a form submitted to Graduate Studies that requires the signature of the Graduate Program Chair. Since you have no further classes to take, this is a ‘fee trigger’ form.
See more information on registration and ‘fee trigger’ forms on the Graduate Studies website
If your research involves speaking to, or collecting information directly from, people (e.g., interviews, surveys, focus groups, experiments), you will need to submit an ethics application. In order to do so, you will need to complete the Tri-Council Policy Statement Course on Research Ethics (TCPS-CORE) training if you have not already done so: https://tcps2core.ca/welcome
The Research Office has details on how to apply for Ethics
However, if your research is relying on publicly available information or, per SSHRC, “is in the public domain and the individuals to whom the information refers have no reasonable expectation of privacy,” then you do not require an ethics review. If you are unsure, you should discuss with your supervisor whether your intended project will require an ethics application and when to begin developing the application.
For more details, you can read SSHRC’s policies regarding which types of research do and do not require ethics review.
After your supervisor has reviewed a draft of your ethics application and given their approval to proceed, you will submit a completed draft of your ethics application to the Departmental Ethics Committee for review and feedback before submitting it to the University Human Research Ethics Board. Note that per the instructions from the Research Office there is a form you will have to get your supervisor to sign and you will submit this as part of your application.
Your first step should always be to discuss with your supervisor whether it seems feasible to do research with your desired population.
If so, your supervisor may know whether there is a contact at the organization with whom you can inquire, or if the organization has a standard application procedure for academics looking to conduct research with them. For example, the Winnipeg Police Service has a standard application form for academics wishing to conduct research with their officers, you can find it on their Public Research web page.
You should be aware that organizations are not obligated to facilitate your research with their employees and/or clients and may ultimately decline your request. And even if they do facilitate your research, the employees and/or clients may decline to participate in your research.
Because of this, we strongly advise that in conjunction with your supervisor, you have a secondary ‘Plan B’ research approach that is ready to go in the event you cannot engage in your ideally proposed research.
Even if organizations are amenable to facilitating your research, gaining access may take a long time and/or require extra layers of approval. For example, in addition to completing the University’s ethics review process, you may need to go through a separate internal review process at the organization and they may request changes to your research plans in order to grant their approval.
This information is not meant to dissuade you from doing research of this nature, but to make you aware that, regardless of whether an organization ultimately facilitates or declines your request, these processes often take longer than expected and you may have to adjust the plans for your proposed research to varying degrees depending on the organization’s response.
If you are a full-time student, we recommend that you work no more than 20 hours per week as it will be very difficult to keep on top of your degree-related responsibilities if you work more than this.
This recommendation also applies during the Spring/Summer semester! Remember that you are a student from September 1 to August 31 and during the Spring/Summer semester of your first year, you will be working on developing and writing your thesis proposal. You will need to devote significant time to your proposal.
If you hold a major scholarship (e.g., SSHRC, MGS, UWGSS, etc.), a general condition of accepting the award will be a limit on the number of hours per week that you work.
If you are a part-time student, many of you will already have full-time employment (which is likely the reason you wanted to do a part-time degree in the first place). There are no recommendations on hours of work for a part-time student.
We will have at least one elective per semester that students can take. The electives can vary from year to year so you should consult the course calendar for current offerings.
If there is another course in a different M.A. program at the University of Winnipeg, or at another university (e.g., in person at UManitoba or online), it is possible that you could take these courses for your electives. Graduate Studies policy is that students can take a maximum of 6 credit hours of courses at other institutions. However, they must be CJ-related and you have to get permission from the Graduate Chair to take these courses.
If you want to take a course at another institution, you must fill out an application through the Western Deans Agreement and this must be done in early- to mid-July in order to be processed in time. If this is something you are interested in, you should discuss with the Graduate Program Chair.
If you are considering switching streams, you should first discuss this with your supervisor and the Graduate Program Chair.
Be aware that depending of the timing on when you make the switch, you may not be able to complete your degree within the normal time to completion if the switch means you need to take additional courses.
If you do switch streams, per Graduate Studies regulations, you are only allowed to do so once during your degree.
If you are experiencing difficulties preventing you from working on your degree (e.g., personal, medical, financial), it is possible to apply for a leave of absence to allow you time to address your difficulties before continuing with your degree.
If you are considering applying for a leave of absence, you should talk to your supervisor and the Graduate Program Chair.
A leave of absence normally cannot be applied for retroactively, so it is important to reach out if you are experiencing difficulties that seem like they will be ongoing and of such a nature that they will hinder your ability to engage in your graduate work.
If you are granted a leave of absence, the requirement is that you will not be working on your degree or with your supervisor in any way during the leave.