Evaluation steps

Once you have completed research training leading to a master’s degree or Doctor of Philosophy, the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies will constitute a committee of experts in the field to evaluate your Master's or Doctoral thesis. Evaluation is the sole responsibility of the appointed examiners, in accordance with the rules of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and with input from the program director, where appropriate.

Authorization of initial submission

After initially submitting your Master's thesis or Doctoral thesis to FESP, you will need permission to submit the manuscript to your evaluation committee:

FESP will ensure that the initial submission is complete and follows applicable rules of presentation and publication. You will be notified if any documents or forms are missing or if any corrections need to be made to bring your Master's thesis or Doctoral thesis into compliance.
Your program director will ensure that your student file is in order.
Your research supervisor will validate the content and form of the Master's thesis or Doctoral thesis.

Composition of the evaluation committee

Your research director will send their suggestions for the evaluation committee to the program director at your faculty using the appropriate form 2 months before you open your file at the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies:

The program director will conduct the usual checks before having program’s academic administration at the faculty enter the recommendation on evaluation committee makeup in the advising management system.

Important: In cases where the research supervisor is the program director, the vice-dean of their faculty assumes responsibility for vetting examiners.

For more information on evaluation committee makeup, see the evaluation rules for Master's thesis or Doctoral thesis.

Evaluation by the evaluation committee

The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies will send a digital file with the authorized version of your manuscript in to the members of the evaluation committee (examiners), along with the report to be completed. You will receive an email confirming that this stage of the evaluation has begun.

The committee members cannot disclose data and research findings contained in the manuscript.
Committee members evaluate the Master's thesis or Doctoral thesis individually and are not allowed to communicate with each other to compare notes.

Once the committee has completed its evaluation, you will receive the result and all the examiners’ reports.

Depending on the degree you are seeking, the committee will subsequently invite you to:

Proceed with final submission of your Master's thesis or Doctoral thesis
Defend your Doctoral thesis

Important! During the evaluation,neither you nor your supervisor are allowed to contact the committee members.

Invitation to proceed with final submission

Once your Master's thesis evaluation or Doctoral thesis defence is complete, you will be invited, subject to a successful outcome, to proceed with final submission of your manuscript. Final submission is the last step in the evaluation process. You must submit the final version of your manuscript for approval incorporating the corrections required by your evaluation committee.

You will be asked to submit the final version of your Master's thesis or Doctoral thesis (PDF and original Word/ODT/LaTeX files, along with all source files and appendices) to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at evaluation@fesp.ulaval.ca.

The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies will check the formatting of this version.

Approval by your supervisor

Your supervisor must approve the final version submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. This final version is the one that will be archived and made available through the Library, and will not be editable afterwards.

Once final submission is approved by your supervisor, the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies will initiate your graduation.

Awarding of diplomas

If your final submission is made 10 working days before the end of month and approved by your research supervisor, your diploma will be issued that same month.

In the event of a discrepancy between the French and English texts, the French version prevails.