COURSE CURRICULUM

The Master of Science (M.Sc.) program at St. Francis Xavier University is designed to be completed in two years of full-time study. Each student is guided by a Supervisory Committee composed of the student's supervisor and two additional members, one of whom must be a faculty member at StFX. This committee should be established shortly after the student begins the program. Its primary role is to ensure that the student selects appropriate courses and that the thesis proposal is academically sound. The committee must meet at least once each year to monitor the student's progress toward completing the thesis.Within the first eight months of the program, students are required to submit a detailed thesis proposal to their Supervisory Committee. This proposal, not exceeding 20 pages, must include an abstract, a literature review, a statement of research hypotheses, proposed methods, and relevant references. In addition to the written document, students must deliver a 20-minute oral presentation of the proposal and defend it before the committee.Over the course of the program, students must earn a total of 36 credits. In the first year, this includes two elective BIOL5XX courses, BIOL596 (Research Methods in Biology), BIOL594 (Thesis Proposal), and BIOL598 (Research). In the second year, students complete BIOL599 (Thesis). To pass individual courses, a minimum grade of 60 percent is required, but students must maintain an overall average of 70 percent to graduate.The thesis must follow formatting guidelines established by the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI). Final submission includes one unbound paper copy and a digital PDF version for the Angus L. MacDonald Library, as well as an additional unbound paper copy for the Department of Biology.