Now Available – New Resources for Graduate Students and Graduate Units (PDAD&C #31)

The School of Graduate Studies is excited to announce the release of new resources designed for students in research-stream programs and for graduate units across the University. All resources are available online and are part of a larger — and evolving — Innovations in Graduate Education portal that showcases new initiatives developed across faculties, units, and divisions to improve the graduate student experience and assist supervisors and graduate units in supporting student success.

The first set of resources offers research-stream students positive strategies to achieve timely completion of their program requirements. The research-informed and data-driven best practices — Top 10 Best Practices for Graduate Units & Best Practices for Graduate Students — also address challenges to program completion, including financial stress and conflicts with supervisors. In creating these resources, the School of Graduate Studies consulted with the Graduate Students’ Union and graduate units across the University.

The unique relationship between research-stream students and their supervisors is the focus of the second resource, a newly designed set of Graduate Supervision Guidelines for students, developed in consultation with faculty members and students from various divisions and representatives from the School of Graduate Studies, the Graduate Students’ Union, and the Conflict Resolution Centre. Highlights include the chapters Choosing a Supervisor, If You Need Academic Accommodations, and Scenarios, as well as a useful checklist that students are encouraged to complete with their supervisors. An updated faculty version of the Graduate Supervision Guidelines is currently in development and will be released in early 2017.

A limited quantity of hard copies of the TTC Best Practices booklets will be distributed to graduate units and Deans in mid-November along with pamphlets that introduce the Graduate Supervision Guidelines to research-stream students. Additional resources will be posted to the Innovations in Graduate Education portal, available online at uoft.me/innovations.

For more information, please contact:

Alison Kenzie
Communications Officer, School of Graduate Studies
alison.kenzie@utoronto.ca