(Approved by SoCS Council online poll that ended September 9, 2015; Amendment approved by SoCS Council online poll that ended April 1, 2016)

Download PHD.CSCI Regulation on Advisory Committee

Each PhD candidate conducts thesis research by working closely with two thesis Advisors, a School of Computer Science (SoCS) Advisor and an Application Discipline (AD) Advisor, who share equal responsibility in advising the student. The SoCS Advisor is a tenure track, or contractually limited (CL) member of SoCS, while the AD Advisor is from a different discipline. At least one of the Co-Advisors must be Regular Graduate Faculty at the University of Guelph.

The AD Advisor can be any tenure-track faculty member in another academic department/school at the University, or someone from outside the University who is approved by the SoCS Graduate Committee. Such approval will be granted for individuals who have significant expertise in a discipline other than Computer Science (as judged by the SoCS Graduate Committee) and are appointed as Associated Graduate Faculty within the University.

Faculty in SoCS cannot normally serve as AD Advisor, unless they have an academic background in another discipline (as judged by the SoCS Graduate Committee) and hold an Adjunct Faculty appointment in an academic department in that discipline in a recognized university in Canada.

The SoCS Advisor is normally designated as the “Advisor” on University forms, while the AD Advisor is designated “Co-Advisor”. With approval of the SoCS Graduate Committee this order can be reversed.

The student is required to have an Advisory Committee consisting of the two Advisors and at least two additional Graduate Faculty members approved by the SoCS Graduate Committee (and normally selected with the participation of the student). At least one of the additional committee members must be a tenure track or CL faculty member in SoCS, while it is encouraged that the other be selected from the Application Discipline. At least one member of the Advisory Committee must have advised a PhD student to completion as Advisor.

One of the student's Advisors chairs the committee.

The two Advisors must be appointed when the student is admitted. The Advisory Committee must be established and the Advisory Committee Appointment form submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies no later than the mid-point of the student's second registered semester.